Jason Hall

How do pharmacy students learn professionalism

Objective  To understand and clarify how professionalism is learnt, cultivated and facilitated in pharmacy education.

Pharmacy students' attitudes and views about portfolio-based learning: A questionnaire survey

The introduction of a prescribing module in the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum at the University of Manchester instigated a search for assessment methods that would appropriately assess the students’ achievements in terms of the learning outcomes. Portfolio assessment has previously been used in other subject areas for this purpose and has been adopted for the summative assessment of students at Manchester. One hundred and fifty four final year undergraduate pharmacy students completed a questionnaire survey (75.5% response rate) that explored their attitudes and views about a reflective portfolio assessment of their knowledge about prescribing. The majority of students felt that the portfolio was not only an effective means of assessing and supporting their learning, but also helped to prepare them for their future continuing professional development (CPD).

Factors influencing nurse and pharmacist willingness to take or not take responsibility for non-medical prescribing

BACKGROUND In the UK, the majority of non-medical prescribers (NMPs) are nurses or pharmacists working in community or primary care. However, little is known about what influences their decisions to prescribe, unlike with medical prescribing. It is also unclear whether the medical findings can be extrapolated, given their very different prescribing training. OBJECTIVES To explore the factors influencing whether nurse and pharmacist NMPs in community and primary care settings take responsibility for prescribing. METHODS Initially, 20 NMPs (15 nurses and 5 pharmacists) were purposively selected and interviewed using the critical incident technique about situations where they felt it was inappropriate for them to take responsibility for prescribing or where they were uneasy about doing so. In addition, more general factors influencing their decision to take or not take prescribing responsibility were discussed. Subsequently, the themes from the interview analysis were validated in three focus groups with a total of 10 nurse NMPs. All data were analyzed using a constant comparison approach. RESULTS Fifty-two critical incidents were recorded--12 from pharmacist NMPs and 40 from nurse NMPs. Participants experienced situations where they were reluctant to accept responsibility for prescribing. Perceptions of competency, role and risk influenced their decision to prescribe. Workarounds such as delaying the prescribing decision or refer the patient to a doctor were used. CONCLUSIONS For NMPs to feel more confident about taking responsibility for prescribing, these issues of competency, role and perceived risk need to be addressed. Roles of NMPs must be clear to colleagues, doctors and patients. Training and support must be provided to enable professional development and increasing competence of NMPs.

Using portfolios to learn about prescribing: Qualitative insights into students’ experiences

In the UK, pharmacists have recently started to take on new roles in relation to the prescribing of medicines. As a result, a reflective portfolio was developed and introduced into the final year of the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum at the University of Manchester to support the students’ learning about prescribing. This study reports on qualitative analysis of the prescribing portfolios, examining specifically the students’ perceptions of what they had learnt by completing the portfolio. In general, the students were in favour of using the portfolio to support their learning about prescribing, acknowledging that this had helped them to broaden their appreciation of all the stages in the prescribing process, and bridge differences between the taught components in the degree course and practice experience. Preparing the portfolio had also encouraged the students to build on their learning from other modules, recognise the inherent uncertainty associated with decision-making and to reflect on their future learning needs in relation to prescribing.

NHS Health Checks: The views of community pharmacists and support staff

Pharmacy education in the UK has been criticised for providing undergraduates with insufficient practical clinical exposure. Funding was provided for an expanded hospital placement programme in the School of Pharmacy involving week-long clinical placements in levels 3 and 4 to be delivered using a variety of methods including workshops, ward-based clinical teaching and experiential learning. This study was undertaken to consider the views of students in levels 3 and 4 regarding timing, content and duration of the clinical placement, and to consider its impact on their future career plans. Students were also asked to consider the potential integration of the pre-registration training year into the MPharm degree, as proposed by the Department of Health White Paper in 2008.

Determining which British pharmacy students register to practise

With pharmacists’ roles being constantly redefined, it is of paramount importance for pharmacists to continue their professional development in order to meet the constantly changing health care requirements. As a result, over recent years, there has been a worldwide expansion in universities providing postgraduate courses for international students. However, despite this increase, there are very few studies that have looked at how international students approach learning. Being the first of its kind, this study set out to identify how pharmacy students enrolled in different professionally-oriented postgraduate programmes approach learning.

Integrating science and practice on placements

Authors: Jason Hall, Paul Buckley*, Joanne Hayes*, Ellen Schafheutle, Ruth Ledder, Gavin Humphries, Victoria Silkstone. Manchester Pharmacy School, The University of Manchester and *Stockport NHS Foundation Trust Background: Providing an entire cohort of students with the opportunity to learn about manufacturing in a real life setting has always been a challenge for pharmacy schools. Helping them to apply this learning to patient care is equalling challenging. This abstract describes an initiative where students visit manufacturing departments in a hospital and meet with patients to discuss how the medicines are used. This initiative aims to support integration by demonstrating the application of science to the preparation and testing of a range of formulations and appreciating the formulations form the patient’s perspective.

Are there geographical variations in uptake of the Scottish Minor Ailments Scheme

Pharmacy education in the UK has been criticised for providing undergraduates with insufficient practical clinical exposure. Funding was provided for an expanded hospital placement programme in the School of Pharmacy involving week-long clinical placements in levels 3 and 4 to be delivered using a variety of methods including workshops, ward-based clinical teaching and experiential learning. This study was undertaken to consider the views of students in levels 3 and 4 regarding timing, content and duration of the clinical placement, and to consider its impact on their future career plans. Students were also asked to consider the potential integration of the pre-registration training year into the MPharm degree, as proposed by the Department of Health White Paper in 2008.

Are pharmacists medicine specialists or expert generalists

Poor adherence to treatment is evident in adolescents with asthma. Although reasons for nonadherence have been suggested, research illuminating why nonadherence is highly prevalent in this group is limited. Recruiting adolescents to participate in research and eliciting their views can prove challenging. Photography has been used in research to engage with adolescents and to counteract power imbalances that may present when adult researchers work with adolescents. This research study employed the use of participant-generated photographs as interview prompts, with an aim to elicit richer and more detailed responses from adolescents with asthma during an interview exploring barriers and facilitators to medication adherence.

Primary care and hospital doctors experiences of a shared electronic patient medical record system: Transfer of information about patients drug therapies

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