Clinical Pharmacy PgDip/MSc

Gain vital core skills and knowledge necessary to prepare for your role as an advanced pharmacist practitioner and prescriber. Use your portfolio assessments in building your Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) individual pharmacist portfolio.

Scholarships available

Overview

The Postgraduate Diploma (PgDip)/MSc in Clinical Pharmacy has been designed to align with the RPS's foundation and advanced pharmacist frameworks and the RPS's knowledge summary guides. You'll gain vital core skills and knowledge necessary to prepare for your role as an advanced pharmacist practitioner and prescriber, and use your portfolio assessments in building your RPS individual pharmacist portfolio.

The course has been developed by pharmacist practitioners and academics to reflect the most up-to-date and relevant areas to a pharmacist’s practice. Customise your clinical learning needs for your pharmacist role through our tailored module approach. We offer a mentored programme, and we would advise that you look to choose an in-work mentor as soon as possible in the application process; your mentor must have a diploma (or higher qualification) in Clinical Pharmacy and must have held this qualification for a minimum of one year before becoming a mentor. We highly recommend that you identify an in-work mentor where possible, however, a non-mentor approach can be opted for if deemed necessary.

We offer both a PgDip (2 years) and MSc (3 years) in Clinical Pharmacy. If you choose to study the MSc, you'll need to undertake additional research modules to develop as a research practitioner.

Why us?

Part-time, innovative, and flexible course design
Tailor your learning with our suite of elective modules
Blended learning approach with the use of Canvas, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and a series of taught, online seminars (webinars) across the academic year

Interactive, online learning materials including self-check quizzes, e-learning, video presentations, applied case-based scenarios, and much more
Webinars are delivered by experienced academic practitioners, specialist advanced clinical pharmacists in practice and other members of the healthcare team, including consultants and registrars, GPs and specialist nurses

Course structure

The course is delivered through a blended learning approach. A strong focus is on the interactive distance-learning material, which you can work through at a time and a pace that is best for you.

Teaching is delivered through online lectures, expert interviews, directed reading, case-based scenarios, research, tutorials and online tutor support. Content is divided into bite-sized chunks so even in a short amount of time you could cover a specific area, self-check your knowledge in a quiz, watch an expert consult or watch a video.

In addition to online content, you'll have the opportunity to attend a series of online seminars (webinars). You'll be taught by experienced academic pharmacists working in current practice, highly specialist advanced clinical pharmacist practitioners, medical consultants, and many other healthcare professionals.

Assessments include written/online examinations, OSCEs, a work-based portfolio mapped to the RPS pharmacy frameworks, and written coursework.

The suite of modules running over the academic year allow you to manage your own time and gives you the flexibility of when you study across the module time period. Compared to an undergraduate course, you'll find that this course requires a higher level of independent working.

Core modules

Clinical Decision Making and Stages of Care (20 credits)

Develop and rationalise your clinical decision-making skills as a pharmacist practitioner
Learn how to interpret and consider all relevant information in the context of the patient, including medicines optimisation
Develop your underpinning knowledge as a pharmacist for effective clinical decisions for better patient outcomes

Patient Safety (20 credits)

Learn about patient safety looking at medicines-related risk, prescribing of high-risk medicines, monitoring requirements of specific drugs, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), human factors, and the application of advanced pharmaceutical calculations in practice
Understand how care providers identify and quantify clinical risk
Understand processes of risk assessment and management from an organisational perspective, encapsulating theoretical models of risk in addition to the ethical and legal issues surrounding adverse events

The Acute Patient (20 credits)

Explore the patient in a number of acute settings where they present with an acute disease, condition or syndrome
Further your clinical knowledge through complex case scenarios with multiple co-morbidities and polypharmacy affecting your decision making
Critically analyse and formulate appropriate management plans for the patient

The Chronic Patient (20 credits)

Follow the patient journey from the perspective of a patient with established (long-term) diseases or conditions, developing a rounded understanding of the management of longer-term illnesses
Take a patient-centred approach to the case scenarios
Make decisions on appropriate pharmaceutical care for these integrated, multifaceted cases using a critical approach to the underpinning evidence-base

Primary Care and Social Pharmacy (10 credits)

Consider the key principles relating to transfer of care and identify potential issues and formulate strategies to reduce risks leading to better patient outcomes
Gain knowledge of the underpinning legal, professional and good practice guidelines which support the management of medicines in a care home setting and incorporate these considerations in any course of action relating to medicines optimisation in this patient group
Develop the ability to contextualise and integrate the data provided in case-based scenarios and plan the best course of action to deliver excellent patient care considering any relevant operational, legal and clinical aspects of care

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Psychiatry (10 credits)

Consider the underlying neurobiology and anatomy, presenting features, clinical and radiological investigations of common psychiatric disorders
Develop a comprehensive understanding of the underpinning evidence-base supporting drug and non-drug therapies used in a range of mental health disorders, recognising where evidence for an intervention is lacking and how to address this
Learn how to tailor clinical management plans to complex, higher-risk groups with critical awareness of associated legal and ethical issues arising during decision-making processes

Evidence-based Medicine (10 credits)

Get an introduction to the concepts of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice and the processes involved in applying this into everyday practice
Learn how to undertake a literature review using major healthcare and specific databases
Understand the concepts of the hierarchy of medical/scientific data and its relevance within medical practice

Clinical Investigation and Diagnostics (10 credits)

Build upon the general biochemical data obtained from patients and look at specific markers for a number of different conditions, for example, pancreatitis
Explore the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests
Develop your ability to critically analyse investigations and formulate management plans to monitor disease states and drug therapies, taking into consideration medicines optimisation

Population Healthcare (10 credits)

Expand upon your knowledge and understanding of the pharmacists’ role in improving population health
Develop your critical appraisal skills across a range of published research studies
Consider the importance of epidemiological data in the context of clinical pharmacy practice

Clinical Skills 1 (10 credits)

Learn how clinical skills and their integration with diagnostic testing are becoming increasingly important for pharmacists
Develop your fundamental knowledge of human anatomy and physiology as it applies in a conceptual context to the clinical examination of a patient
Learn to critically integrate physical findings to a patients’ history and recognise differential diagnostic explanations across a defined group of anatomic/therapeutic classes

Clinical Skills 2 (10 credits) (This module can only be taken once you have completed Clinical Skills 1)

Learn how to perform a holistic assessment of a patient that integrates history, systems assessment, and physical examination, facilitated by an on-site face to face session
Gain a systematic knowledge-based approach to understanding the patient assessment from a physical, psychological and social perspective
Develop a critical approach to evaluating the theoretical likelihood of differential diagnostics

Clinical Audit (10 credits)

Develop a clinical audit from first principles and employ critical approaches to the design and implementation of a clinical audit
Gain the ability to conduct, interpret and make recommendations based on a clinical audit
Learn the importance of self-audit for independent clinical practice

Research Methods (30 credits)

Gain a comprehensive and critical understanding of research methods
Learn the ethical, theoretical and logistical considerations associated with research study design
Develop the ability to construct and communicate research findings

Research Project (30 credits)

Gain the skills to identify, design and justify your investigative healthcare study
Learn to critically evaluate the research literature relevant to your area of study
Develop the ability to produce a detailed written analysis of your investigative study

Independent Prescribing (40 credits)

Prescribing is a fully integrated option for the Diploma/MSc in Clinical Pharmacy.
Build upon the knowledge and skills developed during the course to ease the transition to becoming a prescriber
This module is accredited by The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and allows you to gain an award of Postgraduate Certificate of Achievement: Practice Certificate in Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists. You'll need to apply for this course separately as it is an accredited module.

Facilities

Onsite facilities include state-of-the-art equipment for pharmacy. On-campus teaching for clinical skills is held within the Living Lab in the John Dawson Sciences Complex, which boasts multi-disciplinary laboratories and cutting-edge equipment thanks to multi-million pound investments. Online facilities include the use of the VLE Canvas where software such as reVIEW and Storyline are utilised to deliver the course.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

We usually require:

Registration with the GPhC and employment as a Pharmacist in the UK
Your degree should be recognised by the GPhC

If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.

Fees and finance

Tuition fees are:

£445 per 10 credits if you are from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled

Each year of the course requires 60 credits to complete.

Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements, and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

We encourage you to plan your career progression with your employer.

On completing this course you will be equipped with the advanced skills and knowledge specifically needed for progression into various senior pharmacist roles.

A promotion to a higher band of pay can quickly ensure a good return on your investment in the course. Within the NHS, salaries for specialist clinical pharmacist are rated as Band 7 (up to around £40,000 per annum).

Recommended Route for Learning

We have a recommended route for your learning on the course, however, this is only a guide and you may have specific requirements or areas that you would want to cover. Most students study 60 credits across each academic year to obtain the 120 credits for the PgDip or 180 credits for the MSc. The recommended route would be:

Year 1:

Clinical Decision Making and Stages of Care (20 credits)
Patient Safety (20 credits)
Two additional 10 credit modules

Year 2:

Option 1:

The Chronic Patient (20 credits)
The Acute Patient (20 credits)
Two additional 10 credit modules

Or:

Option 2:

Independent Prescribing (40 credits)
An additional 20 credit module

Year 3:

Research Methods (30 credits)
Research Project (30 credits)

Related courses

(MPharm) Pharmacy

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing.

Page last updated: 14 May 2024

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.