Aims and Fit of Module

This module aims: 1) provide an overview on the concepts and skills of clinical pharmacy practice, dispensing and healthcare policies affecting pharmacy practice, national and international medicines-related legislation and regulations; 2) provide the students with the skills of interpreting and assessing prescriptions; 3) put knowledge learnt in classroom into practice through placement experience in supervised hospital pharmacy visits; 4) provide students with communication skills whilst considering ethics and individual patients’ dignity, needs and values during consultation.

Learning outcomes

A	Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge on national and international regulations associated with drug procurement, retail and wholesale dealing, supply and use of controlled medicines, unlicensed and off-license use of medicines
B	Assess, endorse and process prescriptions; discuss the regulatory requirement associated with the dispensing, recording and labelling of medicines
C	Discuss the use and limitation of traditional and alternative medicines; regulatory aspects associated with the use of traditional, herbal and other complementary medicines.
D	Analyse patient and medication information; communicate effectively with patients, members of the healthcare team and pharmacy colleagues to reach optimum patient care plan.
E	Demonstrate skills in patient consultation and providing medicines-related information through supervised visits to hospitals.
F	Discuss ethics, patient- and family-centred care and shared decision-making in patient care plan.

Method of teaching and learning

This module will use a range of teaching and learning methods including lectures, tutorials, supervised hospital pharmacy visits and directed private study. 

Lectures will be used to introduce students to the concepts, theories and the applications covered by the module, supported by materials on LMO and other web-based resources. Handouts will be made available to students in classrooms and on LMO. Animations and/or videos will be shown for some of the topics. 

Tutorials will help students to deepen their understanding on the subjects of the module, which will run in ways mixed with group discussion, problem-solving, reviewing and reflection, Q&A, formative quiz, and feedback to coursework. The size of the group will vary with the learning objectives. The review sessions will be arranged towards end of the semester and the students will have opportunities to self-assess their understanding of the course.

Students are required to spend a designated time in allocated community or hospital pharmacy placements working under the supervision of professionally qualified staff, engage with the day-to-day pharmacy working routine and complete the necessary placement tasks to achieve the key learning outcomes. Students are also required to reflect on their experience and write a formal reflection portfolio.

Assessment facilitates evaluation of student learning and development, while the feedback helps deepening students’ understanding. Timely, relevant and specific, constructive and actionable feedback will be provided to students in class, on paper and/or in person for each assignment. 

The assessment has 3 components: Coursework 1, Coursework 2 and Final exam, covering different LOs. Each coursework contains short answer questions, essay-type questions and calculations and is due in 2 weeks. The final exam will contain short answer questions, essay-type questions and calculations, which will be a 3-hour close-book exam.