About the course

The Programme is designed to allow you choice and flexibility in your progression to Certificate, Diploma and Masters Awards, to meet your specific professional development needs and advance your professional practice.

The Clinical Pharmacy Practice programme can be completed via the following flexible pathways to accumulate academic credits at Masters level:

• CPD Plus– This is a flexible pathway that allows you to choose the modules that you study for the Certificate and Diploma awards.
• Certificate in Clinical Pharmacy Practice – This is a fixed pathway where you register for 9 months and you’ll complete 6, 10 credit modules of your choice.
• Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice – This is a fixed pathway where you register for 21 months and in the first year you will complete the 6 modules as described for the Certificate and an additional 6 modules of your choice in Year 2.  
• Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice (Independent Prescribing) – You may choose to study the Independent Prescribing Course (60 credits) in year 2.  Please see the Independent Prescribing Course pages for further information.
• Professional MSc – The professional MSc year can be undertaken once you have gained 120 academic credits from the diploma course

The majority of the modules on our CPP programme can also be studied as individual modules for those who want to advance their practice but do not want to work towards an academic award. These can be studied with or without academic credits.(See course structure for more details)

Keele's Postgraduate Clinical Pharmacy Practice Programme aims to:

• Build on your existing knowledge of disease states, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and therapeutics to enable you to apply this in a clinical setting.
• Equip you to assess drug therapy for effectiveness, safety, compatibility, patient acceptability and cost, and use this information to make effective, evidence based interventions and optimise prescribing.
• Encourage you to develop an understanding of the principles of pharmaceutical care and problem solving approach to clinical practice.
• Provide you with a wider view of healthcare and equip you with sufficient knowledge and skills to be able to develop and extend your professional role.
• Increase your confidence in your ability to contribute to patient care as part of the multi-disciplinary healthcare team.
• Provide you with a structured learning programme that will help you apply your knowledge and skills in daily practice.
• Encourage you to develop a reflective approach to your clinical pharmacy practice.
• Encourage you to develop the self-discipline of private study and self-directed learning that will be continued beyond Keele's Programme in your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as an independent learner.

The CPP programme and modules are suitable for pharmacists in their foundation training to help you develop your clinical and professional skills and support you in advancing your practice. You will be supported by a dedicated and experienced team of academics and administrative staff throughout.

It is also suitable for those of you who are further advanced in your career to address your learning needs. The programme links to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Advanced Pharmacy Framework, to enable you to meet the relevant competencies and provide evidence for your continued professional development.

Course structure

The modules that are currently available for both the fixed and CPD Plus pathways are shown below with an indication of the typical sector of practice to which they relate. A large number of our modules support foundation pharmacist training, as indicated. These 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 area:

How the course is taught

The Clinical Pharmacy Practice Programme is designed principally for distance learning. We provide mainly online distance learning materials, so that you can study where and when it is most convenient for you. Our methods of delivery allow us to revise and update the course quickly to meet your changing needs as a pharmacist. All of our learning materials are updated annually, by the academic team and our extensive network of clinical practitioners working in the NHS. Any additional key changes in clinical practice that occur, post annual update, are added to the learning materials as they happen.

The Clinical Pharmacy Practice Programme is fully supported by a team of experienced, friendly and approachable academic, administrative and technical staff based at Keele. The Programme is also supported by our network of experienced, practising hospital and primary care pharmacists who fulfil the roles of clinical co-ordinators and tutors. You’re not on your own! And, don’t forget the network of other pharmacists on the course whom you can contact. All our students are enrolled on a programme social media platform, so you can interact and support each other during your studies. We also run regular webchats to encourage interaction between students and the Team at Keele.

To study for a certificate, diploma and MSc award you need to build up academic credits. For the certificate and diploma awards you will do this by studying a selection of the modules we offer (see below) to suit your individual/ workplace learning needs. We offer all our modules at 10 credits.

• For a PG Certificate you need 60 academic credits
• For a PG Diploma you need 120 academic credits

Modules can also be studied as individual, stand-alone modules for those who do not want to work towards an academic award.

Once you have gained 120 academic credits you are able to study our MSc modules to gain a further 60 academic credits to gain the MSc award. (See below).  

The equivalent of 100 hours of study per 10 credits will be required to complete your course. Remember that the online nature of our course 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.

How you'll be assessed

Assessment is entirely by coursework for the Certificate, Diploma and MSc courses. A variety of assessment methods are used which aim to maximise your experiential learning

All of the modules contain Practice Based Assignments that will assess your knowledge, problem solving skills, and data interpretation skills in relation to 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

You will complete a Reflective Portfolio. This also assesses your ability to relate theory to practice, and self-evaluation of, and reflection on, your own performance and CPD needs.

The nature of the assessments develops your professional communication skills and will help you to develop an evidence-based approach to solving clinical problems.  Practical skills and key life/transferable skills are assessed within the methods described above.

Each method of assessment is supported by clear criteria for marking, which are explained in the relevant Course Handbook. The minimum pass mark is 50%.

Summative assessments are supported by a variety of formative assessment activities that include on-line discussions, formative feedback on elements of your course work including your reflective portfolio.

Entry Requirements

Academic entry requirements

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, and be practising either full-time or part-time in a patient-facing role.

For our fixed pathway, we recommend that applicants should normally, have worked in a patient-facing pharmacy setting for 6-12 months prior to commencing the Course so that they have gained some experience of working in this sector. Applicants who wish to study on our fixed pathway programme and who work in the hospital sector must be working at a hospital that can provide a Clinical Co-ordinator to support you in the workplace. It is also essential that you have the support of your workplace to access patient data, where necessary for course learning activities and assessment. The equivalent of 100 hours of study per 10 credits will be required to complete your course.

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 practising in either primary or secondary care.

Normally, only applicants with the minimum of a second class degree classification (or equivalent for applicants from outside the UK) in Pharmacy will be accepted onto the programme without interview. Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The University reserves the right to interview prospective students and take up academic references. The final decision in any case rests with the University. Candidates are also admitted on the basis of perceived and potential competence to complete the programme.

Progression each year is dependent on your satisfactory performance in the previous year. For the MSc year, you may be able to gain direct entry if you have an ‘equivalent’ postgraduate diploma from another UK University.

The fixed pathway programme commences each January.  The flexible CPD Plus pathway can be commenced each calendar month throughout the year.

The MSc commences in February each year.

If you wish to study the Independent Prescribing module as part of our Clinical Pharmacy Practice Diploma/MSc programme then additional entry requirements apply.  Please see the Independent Prescribing Course pages for further information on these requirements.

Our stand-alone credit bearing short courses are open to pharmacists and other practising healthcare professionals, registered with their appropriate professional body, who are in a patient facing role, and who have studied to at least undergraduate degree level, or who have at least 5 years of experience of practising in their field.

From January 2021 CPD short-courses, without associated academic credits (CPD Short courses) can be studied by all practising healthcare professionals. (See – CPD short courses) 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENTRY REQUIREMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

If English is not your first language, you must either:

Hold a degree from an institution where English was the language of instruction. This must have been obtained in the two year period prior to starting the course.

OR

Pass the Academic IELTS - an average of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in all sub-tests is required. The University also accepts a range of internationally recognised English tests.

Please note that IELTS exam (or equivalent) must be no more than two years old at the start of the course for which you have applied.

If you do not meet the English language requirements, the University offers a range of English language preparation programmes.

During your degree programme you can study additional English language courses. This means you can continue to improve your English language skills and gain a higher level of English.

Funding

The cost for a 10 credit stand alone module is £500 

The cost for a CPD short course (no academic credit) is £199

For all programmes you will need regular access to a computer, email and the internet. Some travel costs may be incurred to attend study days, where applicable. There may be additional costs for textbooks and inter-library loans.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND FUNDING

We are committed to rewarding excellence and potential. Please visit our bursaries and scholarships webpage for more information. 

Our expertise

Keele has over 25 years of experience in providing distance learning postgraduate pharmacy education. Your learning will be supported by our experienced team of course managers, tutors and administrators. More information about members of the team can be found in the staff biographies section of the School of Pharmacy website: https://www.keele.ac.uk/pharmacy-bioengineering/ourpeople/.

The fixed pathway programme for those working in the hospital sector is also supported by Clinical Co-ordinators in the workplace who have a formal education role with Keele.

Course Tutors who are pharmacists working in practice in both primary and secondary care support our programme. Course Tutors contribute to the development and delivery of the course as well as marking assessments and providing feedback to students.

Facilities

You will study most elements of the Programme at a distance, in your own home or your workplace. Most modules are delivered

Careers

The Programme is designed to allow you choice and flexibility in your progression to Certificate, Diploma and Masters Awards, to meet your specific professional development needs and advance your professional practice. This programme can be a core part of supporting your learning during your foundation training and in advancing your practice as your career progresses.

We are closely in touch, through our advisors and networks, with NHS development and service needs. We are 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 or their structure, content and end value in relation to service, professional and career development.

Teaching Facilities