Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 188

HEALTH

Pharmacy
Overview

Pharmacy at Keele offers excellent links with the local
health service; dedicated teaching and IT facilities;
modern, well-equipped laboratories and analytical
facilities; an enthusiastic, multidisciplinary teaching
team; and a stimulating research environment.
In common with all other UK Schools of Pharmacy,
Keele requires external accreditation of its course
by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
The MPharm programme achieved full accreditation
in May 2010 with the first cohort graduating in 2010.
We were reaccredited in December 2014.
Pharmacists are the experts in drug discovery,
development, preparation and usage of medicines.
They are both professional scientists and
qualified healthcare practitioners. Pharmacists
work in hospitals, in the community and in the
pharmaceutical industry but also in a wide variety
of other role including academia, regulatory affairs,
primary care and the armed forces. They promote
the safe and effective use of medicines and ensure
quality patient care. Often, pharmacists are the first
point of information on medicines for the public
and other healthcare professionals, and must be
excellent communicators.
Pharmacists are educated in diverse areas of
science and in the skills required to be effective
and professional in their job. The MPharm degree
provides the knowledge and skills education essential
for future practice and the School of Pharmacy at
Keele provides the ideal setting for this. Located
within the Faculty of Health, the school complements
the existing Schools of Nursing and Midwifery,
Medicine, and Health and Rehabilitation, and
students will be taught in a dynamic and flourishing
multidisciplinary, inter-professional environment.
The unique teaching and learning methods and
integrated course structure adopted in the Keele
MPharm programme, and the quality of our
graduates and newly registered pharmacists are
already having a positive impact on patient care
in practice.

Course content

The Keele MPharm course aims to produce highly
skilled graduates fully prepared to work as healthcare
professionals and pharmaceutical scientists.
Our graduates should be the forward thinking,
modern pharmacists of the future.
The Keele curriculum is designed such that core
aspects of pharmacy practice and the underpinning
science are integrated at every level of the course.
The core topics in pharmacy practice include:
• the roles required of the modern pharmacist
• legal, ethical and professional aspects of
health care

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• service quality and standards applying
to pharmacy
• understanding the signs and symptoms of illness
• improving the public’s health;
• medicines management
• advice to other health care providers
These topics run through all years of the course,
from Stage 1 to Stage 4, developing the professional
responsibilities of our future pharmacists year on
year. You are assigned pharmacist mentors who will
support your professional development through
the course. You will also maintain a portfolio of
professional development throughout your studies,
providing evidence of progress and commitment
to continuing professional development.
The programme provides a truly integrated and fully
contextualised MPharm degree. Each year of the
programme is based on a single 120 credit module
that spans both semesters.
Stage 1
In Stage 1 there are three cycles of learning,
assessment and reflection. Each cycle comprises
seven weeks of teaching followed by one week that
is reserved for end of cycle examinations, other
assessments tha