Ulster University

Pharmacy MPharm (Hons)

The MPharm course at Ulster University, Coleraine is delivered from the Saad Centre for Pharmacy and Diabetes, by the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Specialised teaching laboratories, seminar rooms, a facsimile of a pharmacy shop, a computer suite, a drug information suite, store areas and staff accommodation have all been finished to a high specification for the delivery of the MPharm. MPharm students will also have access to the extensive facilities available to other courses on the Coleraine campus.

This is an exciting and challenging time for pharmacy. The government has introduced many changes that schools of pharmacy must deliver, including graduates with the clinical skills required to allow them to focus on patient-centred clinical care, i.e. to provide a more clinical MPharm. In order to provide high quality education in clinical practice, it recommends that schools of pharmacy increase their practice workforce and have an increased clinical input from practising pharmacists at Ulster. In Coleraine, we will achieve this by delivering a course that will provide a sound and comprehensive knowledge base developing into the clinical and professional practice of pharmacy. Appropriate modules will be delivered by practising community and clinical pharmacists, so that our students will be learning from both knowledge and experiences.

We will integrate as many of our students as we can into the profession from the start. There will be placements within all years of the course during pharmacy practice and clinical skills modules, to allow students to see in practice, both in hospital and community, what they are learning about in the classroom. This will promote the professional attitudes and behaviours expected of practising pharmacists. In addition, in some modules pharmacy students will be taught alongside students from other professions, in addition to case study analyses with these students, resulting in the valuable experience of interprofessional education. The hospital clinical placements will be delivered by clinical Teacher Practitioners based in Trust hospitals in Northern Ireland, while the community placements will be provided by independent and multiple community pharmacists within Northern Ireland. During these placements, students will be provided with portfolios to develop their learning skills, including lifelong learning and reflective and personal development skills.

The focus on providing a practice-based format to our teaching is illustrated in the staff competencies within the School – three pharmacy practice lecturers have all come from a practice background rather than an academic one, so their experience in the practice of pharmacy is evidence and experience based. In addition, the further development of practical experience is facilitated by developing partnerships with the employers in the region, so that students who wish to seek part-time employment, will be assisted in taking up this employment within their chosen profession from the start. This initiative has been named the ‘Pharmacy Job Shop’.

In the MPharm at Ulster University, the course team have produced an exciting, dynamic course that will meet the needs of the students, prospective employers and the pharmacy profession as a whole; resulting in graduates who have both the knowledge and social skills to begin their pharmacy career as competent junior pharmacists who are fit to practice. The integrated nature of the programme, where teaching is carried out within therapeutic areas, allows students to develop an understanding of 'Molecules to Man' - the journey of a drug compound from discovery and development, through formulation and drug delivery, to therapeutic treatment, clinical outcomes and patient-centred care.