CSB420 Introduction to Pharmacy Practice

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Gardens Point, Internal

Overview

This foundational pharmacy practice unit will introduce the knowledge and skills related to the legal responsibilities and cognitive activities of a pharmacist. This can include dispensing prescriptions, clinical reasoning of primary health conditions and scope of practice, selecting medications and counselling on their use, and basic business management. A particular emphasis of this unit will be to provide a foundation for practical knowledge, skills and application of knowledge and skills related to pharmacy practice. This will enhance your experiential placement experience, and prepare you for more complex patient needs, which will commence in the second year of the pharmacy course.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Dispense medicines safely and accurately in accordance with current legal and professional requirements.
2. Assess ambulatory conditions and recommending appropriate management approaches, including pharmacological, non-pharmacological and referral options where appropriate
3. Apply knowledge of quality use of medicines (QUM) and communication skills when supplying and counselling medications.
4. Apply knowledge within the pharmacy domains of the health care consumer, drug action, the medicinal product, and the wider context

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit introduces you to active and collaborative learning, encouraging you to search for solutions to real world problems and cases by applying an inquiry based learning approach. This will involve straightforward cases where you are encouraged to consider diverse stakeholder perspectives. Your critical thinking skills will be developed through scientific thinking, practising problem solving, and applying these skills to case-based examples, whilst working in groups during supervised workshops. Your scientific and collaborative communication skills will be developed further by sourcing and organising information to inform problem solving. Each week, you will engage in collaborative activities with peers and tutors to practise the skills required for your Work Integrated Learning experiences / professional placements in subsequent years e.g. dispensing, counselling and information gathering, problem solving.

This unit also provides you with the skills to use technology for dispensing medicines.  You will use industry relevant dispensing software, and VMotion® (an interactive visual support for medicines consultations) to supply medicines.  

The content presented for this unit may be presented in face to face sessions, via video-conferencing, or recorded online medium through Canvas.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

As you engage with content, you will receive progressive formative feedback after completing assessment within the weekly content modules.  You will also receive feedback within this unit by actively participating in weekly workshops.  This feedback will be provided by academics, as well as your peers during activities such as case study discussions and role plays. This will directly relate to your final OSCE and exam. 

During the semester, you will have the opportunity to undertake a practice OSCE station, and will receive individual feedback from academics will directly relate to your final OSCE exam. 

During dispensing weeks, you will receive individual feedback from teaching staff will directly relate to your invigilated dispensing task.

At the end of semester, you will be provided with a feedback for the end of semester assessment.  This will help you understand your learning needs going into future pharmacy units. 

Assessment

Overview

All assessment items are designed to measure your achievement of the learning outcomes. The portfolio assessment is situated across the semester to provide feedback on your learning.

There are three pieces of assessment to be completed in this unit. Each task is designed to assess particular learning outcomes. For the purpose of professional accreditation and demonstration of competencies, a satisfactory performance in the OSCE (threshold assessment conditions apply) and an overall passing mark of at least 50% are required to obtain a passing grade for this unit.

Electronic access to resources in school-based examinations may be provided using University computers only (this is at the discretion of the Unit Coordinator and further details will be provided via Canvas). If electronic access is provided, students should be aware that access to resources cannot be guaranteed and students should ensure they are able to utilise hard copies of the same references.

Threshold assessment conditions
In this unit, for you to be eligible to receive a passing grade, threshold assessment conditions apply. You are advised to seek feedback on your assessment from the unit coordinator prior to resubmission.

• OSCE: If you do not achieve a satisfactory result, you are able to make one further attempt of this task for the minimum pass level, only when your achieved mark/grade is within 10% (or 1 grade) of the pass level for the assessment item.

You will be required to electronically submit all written assignments for content matching checks.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Dispensing

Acting as a pharmacist, you will dispense medicines in accordance to current legislation, scope of practice, professional guidelines and relevant jurisdictional requirements to optimise health outcomes for people within your care.  

To ensure effective skill development of dispensing, you will have the opportunity to complete weekly tasks receiving individual feedback, before undertaking a final dispensing independently. 

Assessment: OSCE

Acting as a pharmacist, you will apply effective communication skills and interpret information to generate evidence-informed solutions when supplying and counselling medications.  This will ensure you apply professional expertise in order to deliver socially accountable person-centred care. 

The OSCE will take you approx 45 mins but there will be waiting time also.

Threshold Assessment:

If you do not achieve a satisfactory result, you are able to make one further attempt of this task for the minimum pass level, only when your achieved mark/grade is within 10% (or 1 grade) of the pass level for the assessment item.

Assessment: Open book exam

This open book exam will assess your understanding of your pharmacy practice knowledge within the pharmacy domains.  You will be required to demonstrate the ability to use pharmacy specific reference sources.  The exam will consist of MCQ and short answer questions.  

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

Australian Medicines Handbook, current edition. Adelaide: AMH Pty Ltd.

Recommended text(s)

Beardsley, R. S., Kimberlin, C. L., Tindall, W. N. (2012). Communication skills in pharmacy practice: a practical guide for students and practitioners. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Golan, D. E., Tashjian, A. H., Armstrong, E. J., Armstrong, A. W. (2012). Principles of pharmacology: the pathophysiologic basis of drug therapy. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021:https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/2021-09-27/sl-2021-0140

Newby D, Rutter P.  Community pharmacy (ANZ edition): Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, current edition. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Sansom, L., Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Australian pharmaceutical formulary and handbook: the everyday guide to pharmacy practice Current edition Deakin West, ACT: Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.

Risk Assessment Statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit. You will be made aware of evacuation procedures and assembly areas in the first few lectures. In the event of a fire alarm sounding, or on a lecturer's instruction, you should leave the room and assemble in the designated area which will be indicated to you. You should be conscious of your health and safety at all times whilst on campus. More information on health and safety can be obtained from https://qutvirtual4.qut.edu.au/group/student/health-and-wellbeing/health-safety-and-environment

Course Learning Outcomes

CS47 Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours)

1. Understand and apply knowledge of the health care consumer: person-centred care promoting wellness, person and societal good, prevention of poor health outcomes and harm, treating disease.
   Relates to: ULO1, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
2. Demonstrate expertise in knowledge of medicines, including knowledge of the drug substance and drug action: sources, properties and actions of medicinal substances.
   Relates to: ULO1, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
3. Demonstrate ethical, legal and professional responsibilities, whilst considering quality, risk, best interests and safety of patients and public, formulating strategies to address any issues.
   Relates to: ULO1, OSCE
4. Communicate and collaborate with a socially and culturally diverse range of people on interpersonal and interprofessional levels.
   Relates to: ULO2, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
5. Provide tailored information, advice and documentation using a range of communication modes including written, verbal, non-verbal and digital.
   Relates to: ULO2, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
6. Demonstrate quality use of medicines including actions and recommendations for safe, rational and cost-effective use and management, prescribing, and medication reviews.
   Relates to: ULO1, ULO2, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
7. Deliver person-centred care, obtaining, assessing, formulating, monitoring, facilitating self-management/adjustment of health, medical and medication information and plans in collaboration with individuals, communities, health care teams for optimal outcomes.
   Relates to: ULO1, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
8. Provide medications and other management options including administering, dispensing, preparing and supplying, safe storage, tailored counselling, and assessing ambulatory conditions.
   Relates to: ULO2, Dispensing, OSCE, Open book exam
9. Demonstrate health promotion and harm minimisation approaches providing evidence-based screening, assessment, prevention, referral and strategies to reduce harm from misuse of legal and illegal drugs, and participating in health promotion activities.
   Relates to: ULO4, Dispensing, OSCE
10. Demonstrate knowledge and skills in research and inquiry through questioning and critique, appreciating the complexity and ambiguity of professional practice, using research processes and synthesis to disseminate and apply outcomes in practice.
    Relates to: ULO3, Dispensing, OSCE
11. Access, use, adapt and share information and/or other technologies to meet current and emerging needs of professional practice.
    Relates to: ULO4, Dispensing, OSCE