Placements are an important part of the MPharm course. Your placements will prepare you for the workplace, while complementing your on-campus studies. You’ll get direct experience with patients in a variety of settings, building your confidence and developing your practical and communication skills.
While some universities offer limited placement opportunities, we embed integrated placements throughout all four years of our MPharm course. They’re designed so that you can experience both hospital and community pharmacies, as well as GP practices and other settings where a pharmacist may be needed. This means you’ll leave the MPharm course with a well-rounded understanding of the role of a pharmacist and the career path you want to follow.
Here’s what to expect during your Pharmacy placements:
What will my placement look like each year?
Year 1
You’ll spend 10 days (one day a week for 10 weeks) working in a community pharmacy. We’ll pair you with another student on your course, so you’ll be learning together and supporting each other during the placement.
We’ll arrange for you to carry out your placement in a pharmacy that is close to your term-time address. This will make your travel more convenient and financially effective. If we’re unable to find a pharmacy near to you, we’ll provide transport so you can travel further afield.
Year 2
Your second-year placement is very similar to your first year – you'll be working in another community pharmacy alongside another student. This time however, you’ll spend 15 days (one day a week for 15 weeks) on placement.
In your first and second year we’ll place you with the same pharmacy throughout the year to enable you to build up a rapport with your colleagues and the local community.
Year 3
In your third year you’ll move onto hospital pharmacy placements. You’ll spend 10 days (one day a week for 10 weeks) working at a local NHS Foundation Trust with a small group of students on your course.
You’ll also spend two days on a ‘specialist sector’ placement. This refers to a non-traditional setting where a pharmacist may work, for example in a palliative care hospice, mental health hospital, or a prison. We’ll provide you with a list of specialist sector settings that are available, and you’ll be asked to rank them in order of preference, considering the type of career you might want to explore. From there, we’ll do our best to place you at your first or second choice, depending on how many students have chosen a particular setting.
As with your first- and second-year placements, we’ll aim to find a placement provider close to you and will provide transport if you are required to travel further.
Year 4
Your final year will give you the opportunity to build on your hospital pharmacy experience, as well as the chance to work in a GP practice.
You’ll spend 10 days (one day a week for 10 weeks) on your hospital pharmacy placement and 10 days (one day a week for 10 weeks) in a local GP practice. Again, we’ll try and find a placement provider near to your term-time address and support you with transport if necessary.
What will I do during my placements?
Community pharmacy
- Deal with minor conditions: For example, you may need to recommend appropriate treatment for a patient with hayfever.
- Blood pressure readings: You’ll be able to take a patient’s blood pressure and counsel or refer them appropriately.
- Assessing cardiovascular risk: You’ll use a clinical tool to calculate a patient’s cardiovascular risk and then counsel or refer the patient appropriately.
- Counselling on how to use medication: For example, showing a patient how to use an inhaler.
Hospital pharmacy
- Medical histories: You'll take medical histories from patients who are in hospital.
- Undertaking medicines reconciliation: You’ll use different sources of information to ensure an accurate and safe list of medication.
- Counselling patients on their prescribed medication: For example, advising a patient on medication to prevent blood clots whilst they are in hospital.
- Checking prescriptions: Checking the prescriptions of patients who are going to be discharged.
- Multidisciplinary meetings: Attending and getting involved with multidisciplinary meetings with healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses.
Specialist sector
- Palliative care: Working alongside pharmacists, doctors, and nurses in a hospice, you’ll get involved in ward rounds, admissions, discharges and multidisciplinary meetings for patients with a palliative diagnosis or those at the end of life.
- Prison: Supplying medication and patient counselling to prisoners.
GP practice
- Running clinics alongside prescribers: For example, working alongside pharmacists, GPs or nurse practitioners, seeing a variety of patients. This will include undertaking clinical skills as part of the diagnostic process.
- Undertaking a clinical audit: Auditing an aspect of patient care and then presenting the data back to the team at the surgery.
What are the benefits of doing my placements?
The main benefit you’ll get from your placements is the confidence and experience to thrive in your future career as a pharmacist. Your on-campus learning is invaluable, but your placement will truly prepare you for life after graduation. There are many other benefits too:
- Emphasis on independent prescribing: Our placement structure is designed to support the emphasis our MPharm course places on independent prescribing. By studying MPharm with us, you’ll leave with the clinical skills necessary to embark on an exciting career as a prescriber. During your GP practice placement in your final year, you’ll work alongside and learn from a skilled independent prescriber.
- Longitudinal placements: Doing one day a week across several weeks (i.e. instead of a block placement) provides the chance to see how things work in a pharmacy environment week by week and gives you time and space to reflect on what you’ve learned.
- Further placement opportunities and part-time work: You might impress your placement provider so much that they offer you more placement opportunities (for example, many of our students undertake summer placements) or even a part-time job in their community pharmacy. This has happened for many of our students, demonstrating how much our students make a difference and positive contribution to the pharmacy sector.
- Networking and connections: Placements are as much about making connections as they are about gaining experience in the workplace. Take the opportunity to network as much as possible with your colleagues at your placement provider – this will help you with your Trainee Pharmacist Foundation Year placement, as well as your future career.
- Excel on campus: You’ll complete activities while out on placement that are linked to your on-campus learning and assessment. This will help you connect theory with practice, increasing your knowledge and skills in both areas. Many of our students return from their placements with improved communication skills, better decision-making, and more confidence in their abilities.
Future placement opportunities
Your on-campus studies include participation in interprofessional learning (IPL) sessions with students on other healthcare courses, including medicine, all nursing courses, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. In future, we are planning for you to participate in interprofessional placements so you can truly explore what it’s like to work as part of the multidisciplinary team in practice.
Find out more
Learn more about our course by checking out the MPharm course page, or contacting programme leader, Kathryn Bullen.
Published: 14 March 2024