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Accredited by the General Pharmaceutical Council* (GPhC), approved by Health Education West Midlands. *Currently undergoing re-accreditation.
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Enhances your practice as a pharmacist and the delivery of care to your patients by enabling you to manage fully patients' medication as an independent prescriber
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![REF 2014 icon]()
Research in Allied Health Professions and Studies ranked 5th out of 97 UK higher education institutions (REF, 2014)
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Top 20 in the UK for graduate prospects, student satisfaction and research quality (Pharmacology & Pharmacy, Complete University Guide, 2020)
Course outline
The Clinically Enhanced Prescribing in Acute and Emergency Medicine module will enhance knowledge, skills and clinical confidence to prepare independent prescribers to manage patients within the clinical categories of acute medicine and emergency medicine.
The aims of the programme are to enable you to:
- Understand, apply and assess professional knowledge and skills commensurate with being an independent prescriber within cute medicine and emergency medicine.
- Utilise clinical and professional collaboration with patients and other health care workers.
When achieved, you will be able to:
- Identify and evaluate presenting complaints of patients.
- Respond to varied clinical situations, multiple pathologies or complex medical needs, guided by consultation and diagnostic methods designed to establish reliable identification of clinical presentations and therapeutic options.
Module content includes:
Patient assessment and prescribing in the clinical areas of respiratory, cardiac, pancreatic, trauma, abdominal, and ophthalmology. In addition to the identification of urgent cases and delivery of immediate life support.
This is a clinical course involving health assessment of patients. You must be prepared to physically examine patients, models and fellow students.
This course is part of the Aston Pharmacy School which sits within the College of Health and Life Sciences.
Key information and fees
This 15-credit standalone module can be completed by itself, or after the successful completion of the 45-credit Pharmacist Independent Prescribing Practice Certificate in order to graduate with a full 60 credit Clinically Enhanced Independent Prescribing PgCert qualification.
Application deadline: 17 April 2024
Start date: 22nd April
Intake: Up to 25 students.
Mode of delivery: Part-time, mainly delivered via online distance learning, with four mandatory attendance days on campus at Aston (9-5pm). In addition, 25 hours of in-practice learning is required with your clinical supervisor.
Fee: (2023/24): £930 (£650 per 10 credits)
Scholarships
If you are a West Midlands pharmacist, nurse or AHP you are able to apply to Health Education England (HEE) for possible funding for this course, as the course fully meets their curriculum requirements.
Key dates
Students will need to attend all face-to-face dates as listed below. Self-directed work is provided online via the University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and progression will be monitored by the programme team.
Face-to-face days: will take place between March to April. Exact dates to be confirmed. Usually week 2-4 of the programme, the focus of these days are clinical skills and students will be required to participate in examination skills practice.
Entry requirements
We welcome applications from candidates interested in our course who have the skills and capability to excel. All candidates are considered on an individual basis based on their qualifications and experience.
The information contained on this website details the typical entry requirements for this course for the most commonly offered qualifications. If you hold an alternative qualification, you may wish to enquire with our admissions team prior to application whether or not your qualifications are deemed acceptable. For less commonly encountered qualifications, this will be judged on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the programme director.
All applicants must have:
Employment
- Registered pharmacist, nurse, midwife or allied health professional (AHP) with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), or Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) employed in a patient-facing role, and be of good standing with your regulatory body.
Experience
- At least two years (pharmacist) or one year (Nurse and AHP) post-registration experience within a patient facing role.
- Appropriate patient-orientated experience practising in a hospital, community or primary care setting following your pre-registration year.
- Up-to-date clinical, pharmacological and pharmaceutical knowledge relevant to your intended area of prescribing practice.
- Can demonstrate that you reflect on your own performance and take responsibility for your own CPD.
Qualifications
- Completed the Practice Certificate in Pharmacist Independent Prescribing at Aston or an equivalent independent and supplementary prescribing qualification and annotated as an independent prescriber with your regulatory body.
Supervision
- A suitably qualified clinical supervisor to complete 25 hours of in-practice learning and a clinical framework. This will need to confirmed by the commencement of the programme and is applicants responsibility to organise. Please see the clinical supervisor section of this page for more details.
Desirable
- A relevant postgraduate clinical diploma (or equivalent) is desirable (Pharmacists only)
Learning, teaching, assessment and staff
The module takes a blended learning approach with a combination of interactive teaching over four face-to-face days, directed learning activities online via the university VLE and 25 hours of in-practice learning under the supervision of an approved clinical supervisor
The course follows the consultation process, leading to appropriate prescribing and related patient monitoring.
- Learning and teaching methods
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- Four face-to-face days at Aston on campus focusing on hands-on clinical skills.
- Online learning components via the university VLE, allowing flexibility for distance learning.
- Online interactive components, discussion boards and workbooks for peer online learning.
- 25 hours in-practice learning and reflective portfolio.
- Support from your own dedicated personal academic tutor for academic and personal development.
- Students have to self-direct their learning in order to develop in their specialist area.
- Assessment methods
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- A reflective Portfolio of in-practice 25 hours learning
- A Clinical Framework - the completion of a skills-based record of competence, covering the main clinical assessment activities of the module within the 6 clinical areas listed above. These will include simulated clinical practice and shop-floor (with Clinical Supervisor) records demonstrating competence in key skills to inform patient management and prescribing decisions. Assessments follow typical post-registration clinical competence assessments with each task signed-off by an appropriate clinical supervisor. Around 30 individual clinical skills will be assessed within the log. This method models the framework approach adopted by the Royal College Of Emergency Medicine to assess clinical staff in this area of practice.
- A 1,500 word written reflection summarising the journey during the in-practice learning and how this has developed and enhanced clinical practice, including goal setting for future roles and responsibilities.
- Course staff
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- Moortooza Puttaroo, Senior Teaching Fellow, Module Coordinator, Programme Director.
- Gagandeep Degun, Senior Teaching Fellow
- Jaimie Micks, Teacher Practitioner at UHCW NHS Foundation Trust is DPP lead.
- Professor Raj Gupta is the Programme Medical Director. He is also Head of Specialist Clinical Teaching Academy / Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
- Facilities
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As a student at Aston University, you will have access to a range of specialist pharmacy facilities recently refitted as part of £3m upgrade. Facilities include:
- Teaching and research laboratories
- Mock 'ward' area
- Medication supply laboratories
- Medicines management suite
- Clinical examination suites
- Video recording technology
- Computer-aided learning and patient simulations
- An established Virtual Learning Environment for teaching and course-organisation materials and communications, such as lecture notes, presentations and videos.
- Hard-copy and electronic access to publications, journals and large scientific databases.
Professional accreditation
This course is approved by Health Education England.
The prescribing suite of programmes expect demonstration of Fitness for Professional Practise, accountability and acting in a professional manner. The programme is covered by the University Fitness for Practice policy and any concerns raised by clinical supervisors, students or practice environments will be managed via the robust University procedure and may result in referral to the GPhC/NMC/HCPC for investigation.
Future career prospects
Successful candidates will enhance their confidence, skills and practice as an autonomous clinician. Enabling full management of patients’ assessment, medication and condition as a clinically enhanced independent prescriber.
The programme will:
- enhance your career opportunities
- enable you to become a holistically focused practitioner
- empower you to focus on person centred care provision
You may also wish to consider the PgCert in Advanced Health Assessment at Aston to further advance your clinical expertise. In addition, you have opportunity to progress to the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, delivered at Aston by the Academic Practice Unit.
Speak to our Admissions Team
If you have any questions about the application process please get in touch with our postgraduate admissions team:
Email: professionalcpd@aston.ac.uk
Call: 0121 204 3200 (Please note this line is open Monday-Friday between 09.30am-4.30pm)
Please click here for guidance on completing the postgraduate application.
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Clinical supervision
Students will be required to organise a clinical supervisor to complete 25 hours of supervised practice and a clinical framework as part of the module requirements. You will be required to confirm these details prior to commencing the module. This can be a consultant, registrar or experienced advanced clinical practitioner (ACP), however they should have experience in teaching and supervision and working within an area of acute or emergency medicine.
Ideally clinical supervisors should have:
- Active prescribing competence applicable to the area in which they will be supervising
- 3 years recent prescribing experience
- Appropriate patient facing clinical and diagnostic skills
- Supported and supervised other healthcare professionals
- Have the ability assess patient facing clinical and diagnostic skills.
- Please contact Gagan Degun (g.degun@aston.ac.uk) should you have any queries regarding eligibility for the role or would like further information.
The role of the clinical supervisor is:
“To oversee, support and assess the competence of trainees, in collaboration with academic and workplace partners, during the period of in-practice learning”
Key tasks include: facilitating learning opportunities, assessing, action planning, student development, formative assessment, review meetings, final sign off.
Support for clinical supervisors
We value the input of all healthcare professionals in order to help our students succeed and excel; therefore we offer online training to ensure you feel prepared to carry out your role. Support through individual mentoring will also be available for less experienced clinical supervisors where needed.
Contact us
- Admissions: pgadmissions@aston.ac.uk
- Programme Director: Moortooza Puttaroo
