This course has been designed to provide you with a broad education in Clinical Pharmacy in tandem with opportunities to focus your studies on hospital, community or primary care sector priorities. It will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to enhance your career.

It provides the opportunity for pharmacists to develop professional practice as clinical practitioners involved in making decisions about patient care. Practitioners working in both primary and secondary care contexts will benefit from the development of a range of skills to enhance career prospects and benefit service delivery.

It has been developed to be compatible with competency clusters outlined in the General Level Competency Framework and is mapped to core dimensions within the NHS Knowledge and SKills Framework.

In view of the unique nature of the multidisciplinary input to the course and the fact that it has been designed in collaboration with employers in both primary and secondary care, career prospects for holders of the postgraduate qualification in hospital or community practice are extremely good.

There are two distinct routes through the course leading to awards in the context of hospital or community pharmacy practice. The first three modules of the course are common but you then choose from a number of elective modules. Each of these modules is specifically designed for hospital or community practice. 

View CPP routes as table

The first two modules of the course are common to both routes and studied over two semesters:

• PHM031 Pharmaceutical Care Planning
• PHM032 Therapeutics

The first module of the PgDip stage is common to both routes and studied over one semester:

• PHM026 Managing Medicines: Collaborative Working

To complete the PgDip stage you will be required to complete one of the following modules from either the hospital or community route.

Hospital Route

To follow the hospital route you will have to complete PHM033 Specialised Pharmaceutical Care Provision in Secondary Care. The aim of this module is to apply skills of pharmaceutical care to individual patients within specialised clinical areas building on module PHM031 Pharmaceutical Care Planning.

• PHM033 Pharmaceutical Care in Secondary Care

Community Route

To follow the community route you will have to complete either PHM025 Community Pharmacy Service Provision which enables students to critically investigate the structures, processes and outcomes of a variety of services provided by community pharmacies or PHM035 Pharmaceutical Care in Primary Care. This module explores approaches to the provision of medicines management services in primary care such as prescribing budgets and data analysis and factors impacting prescribing choices, how to influence prescribing decisions and communication and teamworking for managing and implementing change.

• PHM025 Community Pharmacy Service Provision
• PHM035 Pharmaceutical Care in Primary Care

MSc  Stage

 Students progressing to the MSc stage have an opportunity to develop skills and expertise in relation to research and development of pharmacy services. The MSc stage of the course is common to both routes and allows you to carry out work in health services research methods and a research project in either sector of practice. The project area is chosen by you and therefore relevant to your practice and should produce outcomes that allow you to evaluate and develop local services. The two modules that are studied during the MSc Stage are:

• PHM010 Health Services Research Methods
• PHM011 Health Services Research Project

You will be taught via our virtual learning environment CampusMoodle, allowing you to develop clinical knowledge and skills whilst remaining in employment. The modules are delivered part-time.

All your materials will be provided online and are designed to allow self-assessment of learning needs then subsequent acquisition and application of knowledge in practice-related problem-based scenarios. These scenarios may involve you carrying out a range of activities including: participation in online discussion forums, formative peer-assessed essays, short answer problem/case study questions and multiple-choice questions.

Additionally, you will be supported by e-tutors who are all practising clinical pharmacy practitioners. E-tutors review the learning materials, provide 'real life' case scenarios and participate in the marking of practice related assessments. They facilitate discussion and learning within the modules and bring a unique practice related perspective to learning. 

Each module is sub-divided into a number of topics and you are encouraged to use materials to identify and address your own learning needs.

The Course Leader is a central point for information and support with regard to the delivery of the course. It is also recommended that you have a work-placed mentor to provide local support and encouragement.

Residential Period

An element of the Pharmaceutical Care Planning module (PHM031) is a five day residential period which is held on the University Campus. The residential period will focus on care planning in the context of clinical pharmacy and is delivered in collaboration with a range of healthcare professionals. This is designed to help you acquire and develop new skills that cannot be taught at a distance. The residential period also provides the opportunity for you to meet fellow students and develop networks to support your practice. Attendance at the residential period is compulsory for progression to the PgDip stage of the course. If commencing the course in January 2013 attendance at the residential period will be required 29 April-3 May 2013. Please note that failure to attend the residential period will prevent progression to the PgDip stage of the course.

Assessment

You will be assessed by continuous assessment. This takes many different forms including: responding to case studies, developing care plans and essay responses to specific topics and contribution to online discussion forums. During the residential period of PHM031 you will undertake a practical skills assessment which involves developing an evidence based pharmaceutical care plan for a patient.

Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in pharmacy from a UK university or overseas equivalent, at a minimum of honours level and one years post-registration experience OR an integrated masters degree in pharmacy (MPharm) and professional registration OR in consultation with the course leader.

English Language Requirements

All international students, for whom English is not their first language, must provide evidence of linguistic ability by gaining either IELTS 7 (Minimum of 5.5 in any one element) or its equivalent in TOEFL prior to receiving an unconditional offer of a place on the course.

Please be aware that any applications made too close to the closing date, requiring an IELTS test may result in deferment of the offer until the following academic year (Starting date January)

The School of Pharmacy & Life Sciences is pleased to offer a number of merit scholarships to outstanding students who wish to study at the School starting in January 2013.

Find out more about Merit Scholarships

In addition, the University offers a 10% Alumni discount for all previous RGU graduates.

For further information and finance options, see student finance pages.

All course fees are reviewed annually and subject to change. Published fees apply to the course's mode of delivery.

For further information on this course please email pharmdip@rgu.ac.uk

Applications for admission to postgraduate taught courses can be made via Apply Online. Closing date for applications for commencing the course in January 2014 is 12 January 2014. Apply at www.rgu.ac.uk/applyonline.

This course has been designed in collaboration with employers in both primary and secondary care ensuring that the course is kept up to date and in line with current practice and the demands of the workplace. The multi-disciplinary nature of the course enhances its appeal to employers and as a result, career prospects remain buoyant in both hospital and community practice.

Employers will benefit from their staff completing this course since it is designed to enable practitioners to develop in the key competency areas for clinical practice. This will mean that staff are able to make valuable contributions to the provision of clinical pharmacy services through the application of aspects of their learning in areas such as direct patient care, personal, problem solving and management and organisation.

Anita is a registered pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPSGB) and Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA).

She graduated from the Robert Gordon University in 2001 with an MPharm (Hons) and in 2008 with a Ph.D in Molecular Biology. Anita joined RGU after working in Hospital Pharmacy in Cambridge, UK and Ottawa, Canada as well as working in community Pharmacy in the UK. Since she has a varied background encompassing both science and practice Anita’s research interests include both scientific and pharmacy practice applications of the treatment of diabetes and obesity.

Dr Anita Weidmann's Full Staff Profile

The University recognises two types of prior learning - certified (APCL) and experimental (APEL). Applicants who have already completed part of a postgraduate degree in a professional pharmacy discipline may be afforded advanced entry or exemptions of certain modules.

APL is permissible for up to 50% of the total degree credits and must be approved by the Course/Programme Managment Team as part of the student application process.

A seperate APCL form and evidence of/or part of a successfully completed postgraduate degree in a professional pharmacy discipline must be submitted together with the online application form.