Pharmacy (Aug 2019)

Design and Implementation of an Integrated Competency-Focused Pharmacy Programme: A Case Report

  • Theo J. Ryan,
  • Tamasine Grimes,
  • Martin C. Henman,
  • Eimear Ní Sheachnasaigh,
  • Máire O’Dwyer,
  • Cicely Roche,
  • Sheila A. Ryder,
  • Astrid Sasse,
  • John J. Walsh,
  • Deirdre M. D’Arcy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7030121
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 3
p. 121

Abstract

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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.

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