Keele UniversityFaculty of Health
Pharmacy
Undergraduate, Postgraduate and International
School of Pharmacy
Explore this Section
Explore…Unfamiliar Words and Abbreviations
Academic Year
An academic year at Keele runs from September of one year to June of the following year. For example, those students coming to Keele in September 2013 will be part of the 2013/14 cohort and the first of your academic years will finish in June 2014.
A variety of types of assessment are used in order to gauge how much information you have gained. The list of types includes essays, multiple choice questions, exams, poster presentations, laboratory reports, class tests, role plays, placements, reflective writing and patient interactions. Different people perform better in different settings. The variety of assessments used gives everyone the opportunity to display the knowledge they have gained in the way that suits them best.
British National Formulary: The BNF is an invaluable source of information which you will use throughout the course, especially when dispensing. It is a drug reference manual that contains information relating to prescribing and the pharmacology of drugs, dose and formulation, indications, cautions, side effects and costs. It also contains information on reactions between drugs and on those drugs that should be avoided by patients with certain pre-existing conditions.
The BNF is updated every six months. There is also a BNF for Children which is similar to the standard BNF but with an emphasis on the use of medicines specifically for treating children. You can also access their website for further information.
The British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association is a long-standing organisation that represents students studying pharmacy students and those on pre-registration placements. The BPSA is involved in educating pharmacy students but also aims to entertain them. They organise many social events and are represented within each School of Pharmacy throughout the UK. The Keele BPSA reps are part of the KAPS society. You can also access their website for further information.
See Clinical Education Centre
This is a multi purpose building in the centre of campus (building 2 on the Keele campus map). It contains numerous lecture theatres and seminar rooms as well as a coffee shop, sandwich/snack shop and restaurant. This can be a very confusing building so, until you know where you’re headed, leave some extra time to find your way around inside.
This is a type of assessment that can be conducted within the time of a normal lecture. The class test might be formative or summative. Formative class tests do not contribute to your marks but give you the opportunity to see how well you have understood the material taught. Summative class tests will contribute to your marks but, again, also allow you to assess how well you understand the material. Class tests usually have a mixture of multiple choice questions and short answer questions.
This is one of the buildings away from the central Keele campus. It can be reached by bus which travels regularly though the campus and on to the hospital site at University Hospital North Staffordshire. The CEC has several seminar rooms and skills laboratories in addition to a well stocked library. The CEC has several thousand books and journals on a variety of healthcare topics as well as an online database of clinical information.
This is the system through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care, by creating an environment in which clinical excellence will flourish.
We encourage students to work together, share opinions and help each other through problems. However, you may not claim sole responsibility for a piece of work that has been prepared by more than one person and present it as your own. This is collusion which, as a sub section of plagiarism, is known as academic misconduct and can result in severe penalties. Look at the pages about referencing for further information.
The word cohort is used to refer to a particular group of students. This usually relates to the students in one year group and the date when they first joined the School of Pharmacy. So, for example, our first cohort joined in 2006/07 but those joining in September 2013 will be the eighth, or 2013/14, cohort.
Compliance is a term that refers to patients taking their medication as prescribed, the correct dose and the correct number of doses at the specified times. Non-compliant patients may forget to take their dose of medication or they may have reasons why they choose not to take it.
This is a concept that involves shared-decision making between the patient and a healthcare professional to ensure that patients get the best from their medicines. This contrasts with older perspectives on patient care where patients were expected to follow the instructions from their healthcare professional without question. One of the aims of concordance is to increase patient compliance by considering patient opinions, wishes and beliefs.
Continuing Professional Development
This refers to the practice of maintaining and furthering the knowledge and skills that are essential for your career as a professional. It also helps you to keep up-to-date with changes in your field. It is an active process that may involve learning through experience or through continuing education programmes.
COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. Each department or school that uses chemicals or conducts experiments will have its own version of the COSHH form but they all serve the same purpose. When you are about to conduct an experiment a COSHH form facilitates the acquisition of data relating to the hazards involved. This will include whether the chemicals themselves are toxic or non-toxic, what might happen if you mix the chemicals together and whether there any risks associated with this, how to dispose of any waste materials or final products, what to do in case of a spillage or fire and how to store both the starting materials and the final product. Click here to view the COSHH form.
The MPharm course at Keele can be represented in several ways. One of these is through the course themes that are central to the course as a whole. There are three core themes: pharmaceutical care, professionalism and governance. Each one of these is broken down into further themes as shown in the diagram. In order to put everything that you learn in context, and to ensure that the course is fully integrated, the learning outcomes are linked to one or more of these course themes. For example, the learning outcome ‘describe the roles of other health and social care professionals and the importance of inter-professional collaboration’ is linked to both professionalism and pharmaceutical care, ensuring that health and social care professionals work together to provide the best care for the patient.
See Continuing Professional Development.
Criminal records bureau check. Please note that the MPharm course is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. You should have declared any criminal record on your UCAS form in the appropriate section. If you have not done so and you have any convictions, cautions, penalty notice disorders, reprimands or warnings, past or pending, you must disclose them immediately via e-mail to Julia Crawford (Admissions Tutor). If you have committed certain crimes in the past, or while you are studying on the course, you will be unable to participate in some parts of the course, especially placements where you might come in contact with vulnerable people. This would mean that you were unable to complete the course and qualify as a pharmacist. We need to find this out early on so you will be required to complete a CRB check in the first few weeks after you enrol on the course. If you admitted to any convictions on your UCAS form it is likely that we will have already contacted you to sort this out but if you have any worries then get in touch with us.
Each module is worth a specific number of credits which reflects the amount of learning involved. On some courses students will study several modules in one year. In any year a student will study a total of 120 credits. In all years of the MPharm course students study one single 120 credit module which integrates all of the learning in that Stage.
Demonstrators are often found in your practical laboratory sessions. They are usually postgraduate students who help out in lab sessions which relate to their area of research. So the demonstrator you see in for pharmaceutical chemistry practicals will be different from the one you see in human physiology practicals. Demonstrators provide a useful stepping stone between students and tutors…they have more knowledge and experience than most students but may seem more approachable than your tutor at first – until you get used to everything. In addition, the provision of demonstrators means there are more people on hand in a lab session to answer your questions, help you with the equipment and make sure your experiments work.
Directed study is additional research and learning that you complete outside of teaching sessions. You will be directed towards specific sources of information which may include chapters of books, journal articles, sections of the MEP or websites. These resources are used to give you a broader education, adding the details to the broad topics introduced in lectures.
Extenuating circumstances. Although we’d all like life to progress smoothly it almost never does. At some point throughout your MPharm studies you are likely to have an accident or illness or be unfortunate enough to experience a death in the family. This may affect your performance in exams or assessments.
We might be able to take this into consideration when marking your work, or extend the deadline for your submission. In order for us to be able to do either of these we need you to fill in a form stating your ECs and provide the relevant supporting evidence. If you don’t tell us, we can’t help!
An e-portfolio is your personal space in the virtual learning environment. It allows you to present files, whether that is a written document or a collection of pictures, for your own use and for your invited guests to see. You can give people access to the specific items you want them to see. Your guests might include friends, tutors or your mentor. One of the uses of the e-portfolio is to allow you to write reflective pieces that show what you have learnt form your different experiences on the course. We even provide you with pre-defined templates to help. In addition, the portfolio requirement closely follows the requirement of a qualified pharmacist to submit online reflective work to the RPSGB for their continuing professional development. This means you get to experience what is required of you while there is plenty of support around to help you.
See ECs.
Formative work is designed to help you measure the knowledge and skills you have gained relative to those you need to gain. It gives you awareness of the level of attainment you have achieved and helps to point out areas that might need more work. Formative work can be evaluated but does not contribute towards your overall mark. Instead, you can use the piece of work in different ways. You may be able to revise from it, to use it as a means of directing your private study, or to gain feedback from a tutor or your peers.
See clinical governance.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is the independent regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises in Great Britain.
The Huxley building, also known as Life Sciences, is where some of your lectures and lab sessions will occur. Building 16 on the Keele campus map.
The KAVE, or Keele Active Virtual Envirnoment, is a room where you can experience a virtual ward full of patients, step inside the structure of a protein or investigate the anatomy of the human body in three dimensions. Visit the KAVE website for more details and a demonstration.
The KLE is the Keele version of a virtual learning environment. See VLE below for more details.
This type of assessment will usually occur in parts of the course which have a large practical component. You will conduct an experiment in the laboratory and will then write a report outlining what the aim of the experiment was, the methods you used to complete it, what you noticed (your observations) during the experiment, what your results were, your conclusion outlining what your results showed and, finally, the references you used. Your references will usually be text books or websites but if your experiment went wrong and you needed to use someone else’s results then they need to be referenced as well.
A learning outcome is designed to give you a specific indication of what knowledge you need to acquire. For example, you will learn a variety of mathematical skills during Stage 1 of the course but this is a very broad concept. One of the learning outcomes is that, by the end of the Stage 1, you will understand the kinetics of a chemical or biological process. This is a far more detailed description of what you are aiming for. So, while any part of the course will have one or two broad themes it will have many more learning outcomes.
Lecture is the word used to refer to large group teaching sessions. These will normally include all of the students in your year. Although we use the term lecture we will not actually lecture you! Lectures are a way for a tutor to introduce some broad themes which will form the basis of your directed learning. They also allow the tutor to address a large number of people at the same time. The time during which a lecture takes place will often be used in a variety of ways giving students the opportunity to discuss topics and gain further information from their peers as well as the tutor. This interactive approach encourages you to pay attention, to engage with the topics being introduced, to share opinions and thoughts and to explore alternative resolutions to the problems posed.
Also known as the Chemistry building, this is building 17 on the Keele campus map.
Multiple choice questions. These may form part of your class tests or end of cycle examinations.
Medicines Management is part of the School of Pharmacy and refers to the postgraduate pharmacy courses. You will meet some of the staff in Medicines Management in their role as professional mentor to our undergraduate pharmacy students. The Medicines Management staff are all found within the Hornbeam Building alongside the MPharm Staff.
A professional mentor is similar to a personal tutor but they will help you with issues relating to you professional development. Your professional mentor will be an experienced pharmacist who can give advice and guidance on completing your personal e-portfolio successfully.
A module is a unit that makes up the learning content of an academic year. Some courses will offer several modules within the year that each cover a specific topic. On the MPharm course you will study one module each year which covers all of the learning outcomes in an integrated pathway.
Objective structured practical examination. This is a practical assessment where you will act out the role of a pharmacist in an interaction with a simulated patient. You will be given a scenario to read which outlines why the patient has come to speak to you. You will be assessed on your communication skills and professionalism, both of which you will start to learn about in your first year.
As a student in the School of Pharmacy you will be assigned a personal tutor who is a member of staff teaching on the MPharm course. You will be one of several ‘tutees’ assigned to a member of staff. A personal tutor acts as the first point of contact for advice and will have regular contact with you. They can provide support, advice, feedback and guidance as well as directing you to more appropriate sources of help for both academic and personal issues when necessary.
Pharmaceutics is an area of pharmacy that deals with the complexities of converting a raw drug, or chemical, into a medicine that is safe and effective for patients to use. This involves considering factors such as the physical characteristics of the drug and the intended site of action of a drug on or within the body. One of the key concepts in pharmaceutics is the dosage form. Drugs can be combined with other raw materials to yield a variety of medicinal products including tablets, suspensions, sprays, ointments and gels. These, and many others, are all dosage forms. Choosing the right dosage form is an essential part of ensuring that the correct concentration of the active ingredient reaches the desired site of action in a suitable time period.
A placement refers to a period of time that you will spend gaining professional experience in a healthcare setting that involves close patient contact. This might be in a community pharmacy or hospital pharmacy but, in contrast to the visits you have undertaken previously, you will be actively participating in patient care rather than observing others. You may also be involved in other aspects of patient care such as health promotion in the local community.
This is the use of another person’s ideas, thoughts, concepts or words and representing them as your own work without correct referencing. Plagiarism includes copying sections of text, pictures and even the layout of a presentation slide. Look at the pages about referencing for further information.
You might be familiar with this type of assessment if you have done something similar at school. Students will normally work in groups to produce a poster that reflects what they have learnt about a certain topic. You might also have to give a short presentation describing the work that you and your colleagues have done. This is an example of work where a number of students will work together but all students will be named as contributing to the outcome. This is not collusion as you are presenting the ideas and work as a group effort, naming all those involved.
Room 1.05, upstairs in the School of Pharmacy (Jack Ashley). This is primarily where you will learn how to dispense but you might undertake workshops or problem classes in this room as well.
See Self-Directed Study.
The concept of professionalism comprises a number of factors including a specified level of education, personal behaviour, independent judgement and ethics. As students on a professional course you will be expected to exhibit some particular characteristics. You can start by thinking about the kind of behaviour you would expect from other professionals such as doctors and nurses, lawyers, teachers or pilots. This might include concepts such punctuality, politeness, respect, honesty, trustworthiness and dress code. You should demonstrate these characteristics during interactions with all those you come into contact with on the MPharm course including your peers, staff, patients and other healthcare professionals. This extends to any form of communication, whether verbally or in writing.
This is the centre for communication between the School of Pharmacy and the students on the MPharm course. Both the staff and students will use electronic means to communicate, submit work and share information for the most part. However, there will be times when we need to give work back to you, ask you to sign forms or make sure you have received extra resources in hard copy. At these times you will be asked to come to the Programme Office on the ground floor of the Pharmacy (Hornbeam) building. The staff in the Programme Office will also be able to help either by answering general queries or by directing you to the best source of help.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is the professional body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was the professional body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales. The RPSGB has now split into the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is the professional body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales while the General Pharmaceutical Council is the independent regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises in Great Britain.
Self-directed study is work you do outside of teaching sessions and separate from your directed study. It is up to you to decide if there are any areas of work about which you would like to find out more or if there are areas where you feel that some extra knowledge would benefit you. You can always ask a tutor for some extra advice on what topics or resources might be useful. However, if you feel that you need to know more about something, then that’s a good place to start.
See Student Sickness Self-Certification Form
The academic year at Keele is split into two fifteen week semesters. The first semester, beginning in September, is known as the autumn semester while the second semester, beginning in February, is known as the spring semester.
The Undergraduate School of Pharmacy consists of two buildings. School of Pharmacy (Jack Ashley) was the original home of the undergraduate MPharm course and is situated in building 22 on the Keele campus map. This used to be known as the MacKay Institute. You’ll find some members of Pharmacy staff here but it is mainly used for teaching Dispensing and Pharmaceutical Science.
School of Pharmacy (Hornbeam) is now the main undergraduate MPharm building housing most MPharm staff and the Medicines Management team. SoP (Hornbeam) is listed as building 19 on the campus map. Many lectures and a variety of other teaching sessions are held with the SoP (Hornbeam) and you will also find your main point of contact, the Programme Office, here.
The term Stage is used to describe which part of the course students are studying on. The MPharm course has 4 Stages. Stages 1-3 are taught at undergraduate level while Stage 4 of this integrated MPharm Masters course is taught at postgraduate level.
This document will be given to you once you arrive at the School of Pharmacy and contains a variety of essential information. This includes the contact details of all staff in the School of Pharmacy as well as information about the different kinds of support that are available to you. You will also find important guidelines about academic matters such as health and safety, what to do if you are ill, how to submit coursework, how your work will be assessed and the facilities available to you at Keele.
Student Sickness Self-Certification Form
If you miss any compulsory teaching sessions through illness at any time during the course you will need to fill in the student sickness self-certification form. This asks for brief details of your illness and whether or not you needed to see a Doctor. The form will then be stored in your file. You will find a copy of the form is accessible on the KLE.
These types of assessments are used to calculate your marks. Summative assessments identify how much of a specific subject matter you have learned about and understood. They are directly linked to the learning outcomes. Different assessments will be used to summarise your level of learning.
Teaching evaluation questionnaires. These are documents which the teaching staff will ask you to complete near the end of a module. There will be short sections for you to fill out giving your views on the positive and negative aspects of the modules. This gives you the opportunity to register your thoughts on what you have been taught and the teaching methods used as well as allowing you to contribute to the development of the MPharm programme. We look at the feedback contained in TEQs and use these to help modify the MPharm programme for future years. While we can’t promise to stop teaching certain things, we might be able to find more interesting or engaging ways of delivering the subject content.
This is a unique web-based system which is used to facilitate debate about topics of concern such as, for example, abortion and euthanasia. It allows students to share ideas about issues in pharmacy and healthcare and, as such, forms a very important part of your preparation to deal with the ethical challenges you will come across in practice.
As Pharmacy students at Keele you will practise your communication skills in a variety of ways. In order to see, and begin to understand, how your decisions might affect real patients you will be introduced to the virtual patient. This is a computer-generated 3D character that simulates clinical scenarios. The virtual patient uses voice recognition technology that allows you to communicate with the avatar. The avatar will then respond to you using a library of language and a range of gestures which can indicate emotions such as pain, stress and anxiety. Essentially this is a 'patient on demand'. The Virtual Patient is also used for the delivery of feedback, to allow the computer and a human facilitator to analyse the decision making process of the student.
Visits refer to the periods of time you will spend, normally half a day, in one of several different pharmacy settings. Throughout the first and second years of the course you will undertake visits to community and hospital pharmacies as well as a manufacturing unit in a hospital. At this early stage of your career you will spend most of your visits observing, or talking to, the Pharmacist rather than actively engaging in patient care. As you progress through the MPharm course you will begin to take on a more active role in these settings as you undertake placements.
Virtual learning environment – an online resource that allows you to look at lecture notes and additional sources of information to help you learn. It contains information such as lecture notes, presentations, quizzes and preparatory work for laboratory sessions. You’ll also find the MPharm module guides and an anonymous discussion board where you can raise any issues you have, compliment the staff and your peers on something they have done well or just see if anyone else is experiencing the same issues as you.
See Virtual Patient
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Week
A week, for most people, is a seven day period and you’ll be glad to know that it’s no different at Keele. However, we do number the weeks in a semester, from one to twelve, as the timetable can change each week. This numbering system also helps you to keep track of where you are in the semester and when assignments are due in.
