PM3PY1: Professional Practice 3

Module code: PM3PY1

Module provider: Pharmacy; School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy

Credits: 40

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Mr Rav Savania, email: r.savania@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s): This module is only available to Associated Pharmacy students. (Open)

Co-requisite module(s): IN THE SAME YEAR AS TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE PM3PY2 AND TAKE PM3PY3 (Compulsory)

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: Micro placement

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 21 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module focuses on the clinical and professional skills required by a pharmacist to be able to deliver pharmacy services safely and effectively to benefit patients. Students will learn to apply the principles of therapeutics and pharmacology from other Part 3 modules to develop their clinical reasoning to make safe and logical decisions in medicines optimisation. In this module, practice concepts are developed beyond the level provided in Part 2, with themes including pharmacy law, regulation and ethics, clinical governance (including in relation to prescribing and auditing prescribing practice) and medicines safety, pharmacy services (including the processes involved in setting up formularies and delivering medicines to the patient) and interprofessional working. The module also considers the psychological and behavioural aspects of health and medicines use, including health inequalities, again using examples associated with therapeutic systems encountered thus far in the programme. Professional skills are developed towards OSCE assessments. Students will complete a placement in either GP or hospital or community pharmacy as part of this module, during which they will be required to apply their knowledge and skills to patient care including accurate record keeping. The students will also apply and integrate their law, ethics and clinical knowledge to debate pharmacy-relevant cases. Reflective practice is an important aspect of this module, which includes assessment of the Personal & Academic Development Portfolio. As students start to focus on applications for Foundation training, careers support is provided through this module in taught sessions provided by the University’s Careers, Placement and Experience Centre. 

Aims 

This module aims to further students’ previous learning and apply it to a range of scenarios, drawing upon their knowledge and skills to develop their ability to provide core pharmacy services in a safe and effective manner whilst ensuring shared decisions with patients. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Apply relevant ethical decision making to scenarios including prescribing, poor health affecting performance, inappropriate behaviour by other healthcare professionals and management of risk
2. Explain the laws relevant to pharmacy services and medicines, and work in accordance with these when delivering pharmacy services, including prescribing, assessing and checking prescriptions for medicines for humans
3. Describe the principles of clinical governance and quality assurance in pharmacy services and how NHS policies and pharmacoeconomics can impact on the quality of care and the cost-effective use of medicines
4. Outline the processes for ensuring patient safety including prioritisation of tasks, the handling of patient complaints, medication errors, adverse drug reactions, appropriate safety netting and accurate record keeping
5. Demonstrate effective consultation and diagnostic skills in a range of situations whilst applying the principles of clinical therapeutics, pharmacology and genomics to make effective use of medicines for people including children and the elderly
6. Interpret, critically evaluate and use national guidelines and clinical evidence to support safe prescribing and recognise and use reliable sources for information retrieval

Module content

This module continues to develop the students in their prescription assessment, patient assessment, diagnosis, clinical decision making and prescribing skills whilst considering quality, safety and risk. Communication skills will be developed including assertiveness, negotiation and influencing others whilst working in a multi-disciplinary team, and considering equality and diversity, protecting vulnerable people, maintaining patient dignity and maintaining boundaries. Students will also gain a further understanding of pharmacy services including online services and remote prescribing, NHS/health policy affecting pharmacy and new technologies to improve clinical outcomes and patient safety.Furthermore, students will also proactively maintain a Personal and Academic Development Portfolio (PADP), demonstrating an ability to reflect on experiences, own practice and development needs. Students will Demonstrate additional insight into experiences obtained in Professionals Skills 1 and 2, and describe principles and processes within Performance and Human Resource Management and the concept of culture. Throughout this module students will reflect upon, identify and proactively address their learning needs. 

Placement visit:Students put the skills gained from Part 1, Part 2 and other Part 3 modules into practice through two blocks of placement experience in hospital, GP surgery or community pharmacy. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The course content will be delivered through a range of teaching methods including lectures, directed private study, self-directed learning, placements and workshops. Students will be signposted to additional resources to supplement the lecture material. Attendance to all teaching sessions is required and poor attendance will be recorded in the student’s personal file. Students failing to complete and engage in placements and interprofessional education sessions will not be permitted to complete the programme. Appropriate supplementary information and reading lists will be provided. 

Study hours

At least 104 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve all of the following to pass this module:

1. A mark of 40% in each of the two exams
2. A pass in the portfolio and the OSCE
3. An overall module mark of 40%

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Formative assessment will be undertaken during workshops and on placement and will reinforce several of the learning outcomes of the module. These will be staff, workplace supervisor or peer assessed and will be related to communication, physical assessment and consultation skills. The workplace-based assessments undertaken whilst on placement will provide students with feedback on their achievement of the learning outcomes and there will be a requirement to submit them in their portfolio. It will also help to prepare them for the summative assessments in other modules. 

Reassessment

Additional costs