Clinical Pharmacy Practice - MSc, PG Dip, PG Cert
Capitalising on over 20 years experience delivering flexible distance learning to support the continuing professional development (CPD) of practicing pharmacists, Keele’s Clinical Pharmacy Practice programme allows you to improve your clinical and professional knowledge and skills at a time, place and pace that suits you. You can tailor your study to your interests and educational needs, choosing from over 25 different modules covering skills-based and clinical topics. Designed for pharmacists working in any patient-facing sector of practice, including hospital, community or GP practice, our CPD embraces foundation level training through to advanced practice and ultimately your master’s qualification.
Month of entry
- Monthly intake for our flexible pathway, January for PG Cert and PG Dip, February for MSc
Mode of study
- Online programme, Part time
Fees for 2024/25 academic year
-
UK - PG Cert (60 credits), Part Time £3,850
UK - PG Dip (120 credits), Part Time £7,700
UK - MSc Year (60 credits), Part Time £3,850
Duration of study
- Part time by distance learning over 1-5 years. The Programme is flexible in that it allows you to finish your studies at one of three postgraduate levels - PgCert, PgDip, MSc.
Why study Clinical Pharmacy Practice at Keele University?
Course summary
From new scopes of practice and greater interprofessional collaboration, to changing regulations and service developments, the pharmacy profession is continually evolving to meet the desire for more efficient and effective patient care.
CPD has become crucial to ensure pharmacists — and the profession as a whole — are able to respond and adapt to rapidly changing healthcare systems and needs.
We believe our Clinical Pharmacy Practice (CPP) programme is one of the most flexible learning programmes on offer. Not only does it allow you to tailor your studies by choosing from over 25 different modules, but you can set your own timeframe for study, potentially dipping in and out of learning over five years or working your way up to the MSc in as little as three.
What's more, our CPP programme aims to equip you with the relevant knowledge and skills necessary to develop and extend your professional role - whatever the current level of your career.
Post-registration foundation training may, for example, entail building on your existing knowledge of disease states, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and therapeutics to enable you to apply this in a clinical setting. We offer clinical modules on Cardiovascular Disease, Infections, Respiratory Disease and Mental Health, for example. We also offer a Foundation Practice Development (FPD) module to enable newly qualified pharmacists to demonstrate achievement of specific outcomes, based on their development needs, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Post-registration Foundation Curriculum.
Alternatively, you may wish to use the CPP programme to increase your confidence in your ability to contribute to patient care as part of the multidisciplinary healthcare team. Our skills-based modules include Personal Effectiveness and Collaborative Working, Leadership and Change Management, and Education Theory and Practice for Health Professionals, among others.
Students will be encouraged to develop problem-solving approaches to clinical practice: for instance, how to assess drug therapy for effectiveness, safety, compatibility, patient acceptability and cost to make effective, evidence-based interventions and optimise prescribing practice.
Depending on whether you work within the hospital sector, community pharmacy or primary care, you can select specialist modules focusing on pharmaceutical care in relation to Critical Care and Parenteral Nutrition, Hepatic Disease, or Women's Health.
The CPP programme provides a structured, yet highly flexible learning programme that will help you apply new knowledge and skills in daily clinical pharmacy practice. The written assessments for each module are designed to test the application of your learning to your professional practice. For example, you might critically evaluate your pharmaceutical care of a patient, plan a change to implement in your workplace, evaluate the effectiveness of your workplace team, or plan a learning event in your workplace.
Keele University has become known within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector for delivering effective, highly flexible continuing professional development (CPD) and lifelong learning for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, paramedics and other health care professionals. For over 20 years more than 5,000 students have completed our CPD programmes, which tie in with the relevant Royal Pharmaceutical Society frameworks, such as the Advanced Pharmacy Framework or Prescribing Competency Framework (in the case of the IP module) and Post-registration Foundation Curriculum.
Capitalising on our strong links with the National Health Service (NHS) and other industry employers, we ensure that all of our courses are regularly reviewed by specialists in practice.
We also purposefully minimise the impact for your employer: you will not need to be released from work to study and do not need to attend the University in person, unless you choose to study the Independent Prescribing Course, which requires attendance at four on-campus study days and two online study days. Furthermore, all of the supervision, academic and personal support you need to succeed will be provided by the University.
Our CPP programme is structured around individual credit-bearing modules, you can accumulate postgraduate credits from every module you successfully complete. You can choose from several study pathways (fixed or flexible) to receive staged interim awards: the Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (60 credits), followed by the Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (60 credits). Once you have achieved Diploma level and have been awarded 120 postgraduate credits, you can register for the three additional modules that lead to the full MSc.
Next Steps
"I knew that I wanted to continue to develop and progress as a healthcare professional. I knew that the postgraduate diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice at Keele was the perfect course for me to enrol on due to the expertise and support that I had had during my undergraduate study."
Course structure
Recognising the needs of pharmacists and their workplace, the Clinical Pharmacy Practice programme has been developed to provide the most adaptable programme of study possible to develop your clinical and professional skills and practice. You will also be supported throughout by a dedicated and experienced team of academics and administrative staff.
The broad range of modules is structured to offer you a flexible and personalised approach to your study, enabling you to choose to study any one or more of over 25 available modules with a three to six-month timeframe to complete each module. These modules are suitable both for pharmacists in their post-registration training and those seeking to advance their career by meeting the relevant competencies advocated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
There are a number of ways to accumulate the academic credits required to achieve your master's qualification or one of two interim awards.
- CPD Plus – This is a flexible pathway that allows you to choose the modules that you study for the Certificate and Diploma awards. Depending on your personal and professional commitments, you can complete one module at a time without having to restrict yourself to a set time period for the award. Instead, you have six months to complete each module. Completion of 60 academic credits will lead to a Certificate award and 120 credits a Diploma.
- Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy Practice – This is a fixed pathway where you register for nine months and complete six 10-credit modules of your choice (two modules per three months).
- Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice – This is a fixed pathway where you register for 21 months and in the first year complete the six modules required for the Certificate and an additional six modules of your choice in your second year of study.
- Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (Independent Prescribing) – You may choose to study the Independent Prescribing Course (45 credits), which is accredited by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), as a standalone module or as part of your Certificate or Diploma studies. Please note however that this course requires on-campus attendance at four study days here at Keele University and two synchronous online study days, though the dates are published well in advance.
- Professional MSc – Once you have gained 120 academic credits and been awarded the Diploma, you can register for the MSc. This final study year centres on three compulsory core modules (60 credits): Introduction to Research Methods (15 credits); Research in Practice (15 credits); and Researching Professional Practice (30 credits).
Modules
The module details given below are indicative, they are intended to provide you with an idea of the range of subjects that are taught to our current students. The modules that will be available for you to study in future years are prone to change as we regularly review our teaching to ensure that it is up-to-date and informed by the latest research and teaching methods, as well as student voice. The information presented is therefore not intended to be construed and/or relied upon as a definitive list of the modules available in any given year.
Optional Clinical Pharmacy Practice modules
You can choose to study any of the CPD modules in isolation or as a fixed study pathway to achieve a Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (six modules to the value of 60 credits) or Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice/Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (Independent Prescribing) (an additional six modules to the value of a further 60 credits).
The large number of modules which support post-registration foundation pharmacist training are also suitable to be studied by pharmacists at any stage of their training/career, who have an interest in developing their knowledge and skills in that particular area.
The list of modules below is intended as a guide. Please note that all modules are subject to change depending on demand and availability, some modules are also restricted depending on your workplace. Those marked with one asterisk (*) are intended for hospital sector applicants only, those marked with two asterisks (**) are available for community pharmacy and primary care sector applicants only and those with three asterisks (***) are available for those working in hospital and/or GP practice.
Modules to support foundation training
SKILLS-BASED MODULES
PHA-40049 Education Theory and Practice for Health Professionals (10 credits) April start only
Module content includes: knowing your learners; designing a learning event; assessing your learners; learner support; and quality assurance and evaluation.
PHA-40147 Evaluating Practice (10 credits)
Module content includes: an overview of research, audit, service evaluation and quality improvement; an introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methods including questionnaire design and sampling; and the key steps in designing an evaluation.
PHA-40234 Foundation Practice Development (15 credits) - May and October start only
Module content includes: completing a learning needs assessment. Students will focus specific learning outcomes linked to their development needs and with the support of an academic tutor to develop their knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies to demonstrate achievement of specific outcomes of the RPS Post-registration Foundation Curriculum.
PHA-40159 Leadership and Change Management (10 credits)
Module content includes: skills required for effective leadership in the healthcare setting; effective communication skills including the use of tools and models to analyse your own and other’s communication; conflict management; an understanding of culture, power and politics of the organisation and how this impacts on the workings of the organisation; how to plan and manage the process of change within your practice.
PHA-40053 Monitoring Therapy (10 credits)
Module content includes: common biochemical and haematological tests, and biomarkers, including pharmacogenomic biomarkers; adverse drug reactions (including the role of genetic factors) and reporting mechanisms; drug-drug interactions; pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics (including therapeutic drug monitoring) and pharmacogenomics.
PHA-40132 Personal Effectiveness and Collaborative Working (10 credits) - Available to start January to May
Module content includes: personal communication styles; organisational cultures: values, beliefs, rituals and ways of working; time management and prioritisation; influencing people and managing conflict; and understanding the place of your organisation within the local and wider NHS encompassing the wider network for patient care.
PHA-40121 Quality in Healthcare and Evidence-Based Practice (10 credits) - Available to start January to May
Module content includes: quality improvement in the NHS; definition and components of clinical governance; evidence-based medicine/practice in prescribing and medicines optimisation; and a systematic approach to critical appraisal of published literature.
PHA-40167 Rational Prescribing and Medicines Optimisation (10 credits)
Module content includes: rational prescribing and therapeutic decision making; the patient-prescriber partnership; consultation skills; shared decision-making, including deprescribing, within the context of medicines optimisation.
PHA-40188 Introduction to Hospital Clinical Pharmacy (10 credits)*
Module content includes: the structure of the NHS and a hospital organisation; the breadth of the hospital pharmacy service and the scope of the clinical pharmacy service within this; delivering pharmaceutical patient-centred care, including interpreting and utilising clinical information, medicines optimisation and reconciliation, effective communication and prioritisation.
PHA-40145 Patient Centred Care and Medicines Optimisation (10 credits)*
Module content includes: pharmaceutical care, medicines optimisation and medicines management; patient centred care on admission and during an inpatient stay in secondary care; seamless care; and discharge planning.
PHA-40149 Introduction to Public Health (10 credits)**
Module content includes: public health and public health policy; the role of the healthcare professional in promoting health; and theories and models of behaviour change.
CLINICAL TOPICS
PHA-40061 Cardiovascular Disease 1 (10 credits)
Module content includes: managing cardiovascular risk; dyslipidaemia; hypertension; and heart failure.
PHA-40067 Cardiovascular Disease 2 (10 credits)
Module content includes: coronary heart disease; cardiac arrhythmias; stroke; and anticoagulation.
PHA-40065 Central Nervous System Diseases (10 credits)
Module content includes: Epilepsy; Parkinson’s disease; multiple sclerosis; motor neurone disease (also know as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis); and myasthenia gravis.
PHA-40141 Child Health (10 credits)
Module content includes: therapeutics in the early years; common childhood conditions; childhood infections and vaccinations; and neonatal and intensive paediatric medicine.
PHA-40063 Endocrine Disease (10 credits)
Module content includes: diabetes; thyroid disorders; Cushing's syndrome and Addison's disease.
PHA-40062 Gastrointestinal Disease (10 credits)
Module content includes: Dyspepsia (including peptic ulcer disease); inflammatory bowel disease, other gastrointestinal conditions such as acute gastrointestinal bleeding.
PHA-40058 Infections (10 credits)
Module content includes: infection control; antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial resistance; treatment of specific infections including urinary tract infections; respiratory tract infections; bone, skin and soft tissue infections; endocarditis; meningitis; tuberculosis; sepsis; antimicrobial prophylaxis and healthcare-associated infections.
PHA-40143 Joint and Bone Disease (10 credits)
Module content includes: rheumatoid arthritis; osteoarthritis; gout; and osteoporosis.
PHA-40055 Mental Health (10 credits)
Module content includes: dementia; affective disorders; and schizophrenia.
PHA-40051 Respiratory Disease (10 credits)
Module content includes: asthma; and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Modules to advance your practice
PHA-40073 Advanced Practice Development (15 credits) - May and October start only
Module content includes: using competency frameworks to develop personal learning outcomes. Students focus on an area of their professional practice and with the support of an academic tutor develop their knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies to demonstrate advanced professional practice in their chosen area.
PHA-40066 Critical Care and Parenteral Nutrition (10 credits)*
Module content includes: key pharmaceutical problems encountered, including acid-base disorders; individual body systems; management of sepsis; nutrition, enteral and parenteral; evidence-base for treatment.
PHA-40068 Hepatic Disease (10 credits)*
Module content includes: investigating liver function; acute and chronic liver disease, their characteristic features, prognosis and treatment, including management of the classic complications; and drug selection and dosing in patients with liver disease.
PHA-40056 Malignant Disease (10 credits)*
Module content includes: solid tumours (colon, breast, lung and prostate cancer) ; haematology (anaemias, leukaemias, multiple myeloma and lymphomas) ; and chemotherapy, safe use, accurate dosing and limitations.
PHA-40052 Renal Disease (10 credits)*,***
Module content includes: renal function tests and biochemical abnormalities; the causes of and management of acute and chronic renal failure; the use of renal replacement therapies; renal transplantation; and drug selection and dosing in patients with renal disease.
PHA-40050 Surgical (10 credits)*
Module content includes: peri-operative medication; antibacterial prophylaxis; thromboprophylaxis; and post-operative symptom control.
PHA-40153 Women's Health (10 credits)**
Module content includes: menstrual health (including pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS)), dysmenorrhoea, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and heavy menstrual bleeding.
Core professional MSc modules
Once you have successfully completed the Diploma and achieved 120 postgraduate credits, you can enrol on the three compulsory modules required to graduate with an MSc.
PHA-40161 Introduction to Research Methods (15 credits)
This module introduces you to the principles of research and evaluation, giving you a greater understanding of a range of research methods, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. You will learn how to select the most appropriate research methods when researching and evaluating different aspects of practice and performance, together with the practical issues that can arise when using them.
PHA-40163 Research in Practice (15 credits)
Building on the knowledge you have gained so far of research methods, this module prepares you to produce your own informed research proposal in your chosen field of professional practice or service. It provides deeper insight into the application of research methods to practice research, using existing literature to illustrate appropriate use and showing how to identify potential research projects. Taking account of the principles of research governance and ethics, you will learn how to design data collection tools for your research using appropriate technology for data analysis and management, and become familiar with the different methods and approaches for disseminating research findings.
PHA-40165 Researching Professional Practice (30 credits)
To be able to start this module, you must have successfully completed the Introduction to Research Methods and Research in Practice modules and had your research proposal approved. Supported by an academic supervisor, you will then conduct research and evaluation into your chosen area of practice, policy or service, developing your comprehensive understanding and specialist expertise in doing so. This module will enable you to develop a comprehensive understanding and critical awareness of a chosen field of your professional practice, through research and enquiry that will inform the development of your professional practice/services.
Next Steps
"I have recently achieved my 2 year Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice, alongside having two young children and working as a community pharmacist branch manager three days a week. The course is challenging but extremely rewarding. The increased clinical knowledge has enabled me to deliver better patient care, and has given me increased confidence in making appropriate clinical recommendations to GPs, greatly improving my professional practice. I would highly recommend this course due to the ease of use and extent of material on the learning platform used to study the course, and the support offered. "
Entry requirements
Next Steps
Entry requirements
The following section details our typical entry requirements for this course for a range of UK and international qualifications. If you don't see your qualifications listed, please contact us to find out if we can accept your qualifications.
To gain admission to the Certificate and Diploma courses, you must:
- be a pharmacist registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), or equivalent for pharmacists working overseas;
- have a degree at 2:2 or higher (or overseas equivalent);
- and be practising either full-time or part-time in a patient-facing role.
The fixed pathway of this programme is not available to those who are not resident and working in the UK. However, the CPD Plus flexible pathway to obtain a Clinical Pharmacy Practice award is available to International pharmacists.
It is also essential that you have the support of your workplace to access patient data, where necessary for course learning activities and assessment; please submit a completed Declaration of Support form with your application.
The equivalent of 100 hours of study per 10 credits will be required to complete your course.
You will also need: an English language qualification (see below)
English language requirements
All of our courses require an English language qualification or test. For most students, this requirement can be met with a 4 or C in GCSE English. Please see our English Language guidance pages for further details, including English language test information for international students. For those students who require an English language test, this course requires a test from Group C.
References
Normally, you will need to provide at least one academic reference to support your application unless you have been out of study longer than two years. If it has been more than two years since you last studied on a degree-level programme, you will normally need to provide an employment reference instead. For more information about Academic References, please see our Postgraduate how to apply web pages.
Personal Statement/Statement of Purpose
Please see our Postgraduate how to apply web pages for guidance on what to include in your personal statement.
Recognition of Prior Learning
The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a process which enables applicants to receive recognition and formal credit for learning acquired in the past through formal study or work and life experiences.
RPL can also be requested for admission onto the start of a programme in lieu of the admission requirements. For more information, see our Recognition of Prior Learning web pages.
General information
The entry grades outlined in this section indicate the typical offer which would be made to candidates, along with any subject specific requirements. This is for general information only. Keele University reserves the right to vary offer conditions depending upon a candidate's application.
Funding
We are committed to rewarding excellence and potential. Please visit our scholarships and bursaries webpage for more information.
Please note, if your course offers a January start date, the January 2024 start date falls in the 2023/24 academic year. Please see the 2023/24 academic year fees for the relevant fees for starting this course in January 2024.
Planning your funding
It's important to plan carefully for your funding before you start your course. Please be aware that not all postgraduate courses and not all students are eligible for the UK government postgraduate loans and, in some cases, you would be expected to source alternative funding yourself. If you need support researching your funding options, please contact our Financial Support Team.
Next Steps
Your career
Health agencies across the UK, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK and NHS England, all agree that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians need the knowledge, clinical skills and behaviours required to provide more patient-centred care.
The NHS in particular is committed to meeting the challenges of a growing and ageing population with the next generation of pro-active, preventative health care, education, advice and treatment. It wants pharmacy professionals to: embrace new ways of working as part of multidisciplinary healthcare teams in GP practices, care homes and urgent care settings such as NHS 111; deliver better and safer services to patients and the public; and help ensure value from the NHS’ investment in medicines.
Our CPP programme is designed to allow you choice and flexibility in your progression to Certificate, Diploma and the Master's award, to meet your specific professional development needs and advance your professional practice. As such, it can be a core part of supporting your learning during your post-registration foundation training and in advancing your practice as your career progresses.
The clinical and professional modules we offer aim to equip you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to develop and extend your clinical and professional role as part of a multidisciplinary health care team. If you go on to achieve the Professional MSc, the specialist research skills you learn also provide a strong foundation for pursuing further study at doctoral level and you could progress to our Professional Doctorate.
Keele is recognised nationally as a centre of excellence for postgraduate education delivered by distance learning. Our programmes are highly acclaimed by students, employers, purchasers and external course assessors for their structure, content and end value in relation to service, professional and career development.
Positions may include:
- Academic
- Community pharmacist
- Consultant pharmacist
- Enhanced services community pharmacist
- GP pharmacist
- Hospital specialist pharmacist
- Prescribing pharmacist
- Primary care pharmacist
Next Steps
Teaching, learning and assessment
How you will be taught
The majority of the CPP modules are delivered entirely online. All of our online learning materials include learning materials based on up-to-date published literature with embedded activities to consolidate learning. These are updated annually, by the academic team and our extensive network of clinical practitioners working in practice. Any additional key changes in clinical practice that occur, post annual update, are added to the learning materials as they happen.
You will need to set aside around 100 hours of study for each 10-credit module, but remember that the online nature of our programme materials and the fact that a good proportion of the assessed work focuses on your daily practice means that you can integrate study and work. You can also choose when and where to study outside of working hours.
Keele University has extensive experience of designing programmes of study that are easily accessible and relevant to working healthcare professionals – our distance learning programmes have been running for over 20 years. Throughout your learning journey, from the moment you first consider how to meet your professional development needs, you will be fully supported by our team of experienced tutors. You'll be invited to an online course induction, have to opportunity to network with other students on the course through Microsoft Teams and within your online modules. Additional evening seminars are open to all students to attend and, for example, have previously covered managing heart failure in practice, monitoring therapy in practice, and managing patients with diabetes in primary care.
You will be provided with pastoral and academic support from relevant members of staff. Should you progress to the MSc, you will also be assigned a supervisor at the beginning of the Research in Practice module who will support you in planning and undertaking your research. The CPP programme is also supported by our network of experienced, practicing hospital and primary care pharmacists.
How you will be assessed
Your assessment will be entirely by coursework, other than for the Independent Prescribing Programme where there is the additional requirement to undertake an in person assessment of your clinical and consultation skills.
The majority of our modules contain Practice Based Assignments (PBAs), which can include case evaluations and case discussions. These PBAs assess your knowledge, problem-solving skills, and data interpretation skills in relation to the application of knowledge to practice, patient care and medicines optimisation. They also assess your ability to critically appraise the literature and relate published theory to everyday practice.
Furthermore, where possible, your assignments will require you to draw directly from and apply your learning in your workplace, whether evaluating the treatment of real-life patient cases or critically reflecting on your learning and practice.
All the MSc modules assess your ability to critically appraise the literature and relate published theory to everyday practice and, for your final assessment, you will write a 10,000-word dissertation.
Next Steps
Keele Postgraduate Association
Keele University is one of a handful of universities in the UK to have a dedicated students' union for postgraduate students. A fully registered charity, Keele Postgraduate Association serves as a focal point for the social life and welfare needs of all postgraduate students during their time at Keele.
Hugely popular, the KPA Clubhouse (near Horwood Hall) provides a dedicated postgraduate social space and bar on campus, where you can grab a bite to eat and drink, sit quietly and read a book, or switch off from academic life at one of the many regular events organised throughout the year. The KPA also helps to host a variety of conferences, as well as other academic and career sessions, to give you and your fellow postgraduates the opportunities to come together to discuss your research, and develop your skills and networks.
Our expertise
Teaching staff
The School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering enjoys strong links to major employers such as Well, Boots and the National Health Service. It is a tight-knit community of undergraduate and postgraduate students, led by a team of academics with experience of working within a variety of pharmacy sectors and supported by a dedicated team of administrators. Together, we are committed to providing you with the best possible educational experience in a friendly setting; much like the ethos Keele University was founded on – the pursuit of truth in the company of friends. We embrace teaching innovation and adopt a variety of teaching and learning methods to enhance your experience with us at Keele.
Teaching team includes:
- Daxa Knowles, Clinical Pharmacy Practice Programme Manager – Daxa has been managing the CPP programme since 2000, having originally joined the School of Pharmacy in 1998 from a background in hospital pharmacy. She initially supported the Medicines Evaluation Unit and was involved in writing reviews and guidance for the Midlands Therapeutic Review and Advisory Committee (MTRAC)
- Dr Simon White, Reader in Pharmacy Practice – Simon Joined Keele University in 2010 from the University of Sheffield where he lectured in public health. His professional background relates principally to clinical pharmacy; his PhD thesis centred on cardiac rehabilitation patients’ perspectives of medicines and lifestyle modification. He is primarily interested in the fields of medicines usage and pharmacy practice, though he has research interests in a diverse variety of related fields, including public health, health services research, implementation science and pharmacy education.
- Rose-Marie O'Byrne, MSc Programme Manager – Rose-Marie has worked in practice for over two decades in both community and secondary care sectors in a variety of roles including as a prescribing pharmacist. She joined Keele University as a permanent member of staff in 2017 working across both the clinical diploma programme and the independent prescribing course. In 2021 she took on the MSc programme management. She has a particular interest in the wellbeing of post graduate students which she explored as part of her MA thesis.
- Wendy Clark, Academic Clinical Educator – On joining Keele in 1995, Wendy helped establish the Midlands Therapeutic Review and Advisory Committee (MTRAC), which provided timely advice to GPs in the West Midlands on the prescribing of new medicines. She headed up the Medicines Evaluation Unit at Keele for eight years, and was involved in regional and national strategic developments in relation to prescribing guidance on new drugs. Since 2003 Wendy has taken the lead in developing the learning materials for the Clinical Pharmacy Practice programme (formerly Clinical Pharmacy programme) and been involved in the continuing development of the postgraduate courses offered by CPD4ALL. Her particular areas of interest are medicines optimisation, systematic evaluation of the evidence and the application of this evidence in practice.
- Shane Artis, Lecturer – Having spent many years as an NHS hospital pharmacist, in a variety of roles, Shane joined Keele's CPD4ALL team in 2018. Most of his time is devoted to clinical pharmacy studies for community pharmacists, though he is also a tutor on the secondary care (hospital) programme and an assessor on the Independent Prescribing course.
- Michaela Probert, Independent Prescribing Programme Manager – Michaela qualified as a pharmacist in 2012 and worked in community pharmacy for Well in various roles, including relief pharmacist and pharmacy manager. In 2018, she took up the position of postgraduate academic clinical educator at Keele working across both the clinical diploma programme and independent prescribing course, before taking on management of the course in 2019.
-
Jennifer Swindells, Lecturer in Postgraduate Pharmacy Education (Independent Prescribing) - after accumulating considerable experience as a hospital pharmacist within a large NHS trust, Jenny recently took on the role of lecturer on the Independent Prescribing course. Jenny's professional interests lean towards specialist domains, particularly renal medicine, transplant medicine and paediatrics.
- Aisha Sahi Lecturer in Postgraduate Pharmacy Education (Independent Prescribing) - Aisha started her career in community pharmacy in 2017 where she was pharmacist manager for Lloyds pharmacy in the southwest. She then joined Boots pharmacy during the COVID pandemic as clinical lead of the COVID vaccination HUB. After completing the independent prescribing course, she moved into primary care, with her most recent role being senior practice pharmacist. Aisha has always had a passion for teaching and development and joined Keele University in 2023 as a lecturer. Her areas of interest are health inequalities and health education in particular the understanding of diseases in ethnic minorities. She also has a keen interest in equality and inclusion in education.
Next Steps
Facilities
You will study this programme at a distance, in your own home or workplace, using self-study materials accessed through Keele’s Learning Environment (KLE).
Our high-quality learning materials are developed and updated to reflect current professional and research practice and you will be provided with full support by our dedicated postgraduate team. The KLE is also used to enhance student support during the course and provide a forum for exchange of ideas and discussion of issues that arise.
As well as web-based virtual learning materials, you’ll have full access to online journals and specialists publications available through the University's library services.
Next Steps
How to apply
Please utilise the apply now links below for the relevant programme you wish to apply for. In addition to the online application form, you are also required to complete and submit the 'Declaration of Support' form. Please attach the form, linked below, to your online application form.
1. Online Application Links
Apply Now for PG Certificate - please complete this application form for all applications related to the Clinical Pharmacy Practice Programme; CPD Plus, Certificate or Diploma award.
Apply Now for MSc - please complete this application form for our Professional MSc course.
2. Declaration Of Support
Declaration of Support for Clinical Pharmacy Practice
Next Steps