MPharm Pharmacy with a Foundation Year / Course details

This unit is designed to teach students the necessary skills to be able to successfully complete their 4th year projects and to become evidence-based practitioners upon graduation. It provides students with the opportunity to develop some research skills used both in pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical sciences research. It allows students to apply some of these skills by conducting an audit in a community pharmacy and by undertaking an experiment in a laboratory.

In addition, the unit introduces students to critical appraisal, where they will learn how to systematically examine research to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance. Finally, it teaches students how to identify and apply research evidence to a clinical situation.

This unit aims to:

• help students to develop key research skills including: design of data collection tools; designing and conducting research ethically; literature searching and referencing; critical appraisal of research literature; academic writing; analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data
• develop students’ understanding of how clinical governance systems work in relation to audit, research methodology and research ethics
• consolidate practical laboratory skills developed in earlier units with an emphasis on identifying sources of error associated with the use of different analytical techniques to test hypotheses
• allow students to gain first-hand practical experience of critical appraisal of research papers and knowledge of study design to help prepare them for what is involved in 4th year projects
• provide students with skills to be able to apply research evidence in practice.

By the end of the unit, students will be able to do the following.

Understand the design and conduct of a research project:

• understand how aims and objectives are formulated
• understand the research methods used in pharmacy research and their application to different research questions
• describe the difference between qualitative and quantitative approaches
• understand the differences and similarities between research, evaluation and audit
• describe ethical and governance issues related to undertaking pharmacy practice research in line with the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP).

Apply their knowledge of quantitative research methods to undertake an audit in community pharmacy by:

• collecting data from pharmacy customers according to the principals of GCP
• understanding and applying simple statistical tests to data and interpreting the results of simple statistical analyses.

Apply their knowledge of qualitative research methods to:

• develop an interview topic guide
• conduct and transcribe a qualitative interview
• undertake a simple thematic analysis of qualitative data.

Critically appraise research literature by:

• searching library and internet databases
• referring to sources; formatting references
• being able to decipher crucial points in scientific articles and critically evaluating research evidence of the standard required for a fourth year MPharm project.

Recognize the potential of using alternative experimental approaches to answer the same or similar scientific questions.

Understand how research evidence can be used to review current practice, provide medicines information, support safe and effective use of medicines, and improve health outcomes.