Search

The design, implementation and evaluation of a year 1 pharmacy-integrated learning component, using the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) analgesic ladder as a scaffold for case-based learning, is described. A novel aspect of the integrated component is the mapping of the cases to the national Core Competency Framework (CCF) for Pharmacists in Ireland and to the school’s own cross-cutting curricular integration themes. The integrated cases were student led and delivered through peer-to-peer teaching for 68 first-year pharmacy students. The integrated cases mapped strongly to three of the CCF’s domains, namely, personal skills, organisation and management skills and supply of medicines. With regard to the school’s curricular integrative themes, the cases mapped strongly to the curricular integration themes of professionalism and communications; medicines sourcing, production and use; and safe and rational use of medicines. Highlights from an anonymous online student survey were the recognition by students of the importance of core science knowledge for practice, the enabling of integrated learning and the suitability of the integrated component for entry-level. While a majority of students were found to favour individual work over group work, future iterations will need to consider a greater degree of group work with a view to reducing the volume of content and time required to complete the cases.

This paper describes the design and implementation of elements of an integrated competency-focused pharmacy programme in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SoPPS), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. Following a national review of pharmacy education and training in Ireland in 2010, and subsequent publication of legislation in 2014, the School has implemented a five-year integrated programme of pharmacy education and training, leading to the award of a Master’s degree in Pharmacy (M. Pharm.). Curricular integration has been achieved by underpinning the new programme with a national competency framework for pharmacists and through the utilisation of curricular integration themes. Programme integration also encompasses embedded experiential learning placements in Years 2, 4 and 5 of the five-year programme. The new five-year integrated pharmacy programme, which commenced in 2015, replaced the 4 + 1 model of education and training where a four-year Bachelor’s degree was followed by a one-year internship, which was a distinct and separate element of the students’ training.