Having the opportunity to be immersed in the pharmacy workplace environment while on placement was said to afford students substantial opportunities for learning. By observing what happens in practice, employers believe that students are more able to make connections between theory and practice and thus contextualise their learning. Having tangible learning
materials in the pharmacy environment, such as the medicine packaging, was viewed as positive.
HP1: “Well I think that when you’ve taken the knowledge right through
to the practical level, I suppose it depends, doesn’t it, on the type of learning for the individual. Maybe I feel strongly about it because I might be
kinaesthetic and want to learn through that experience, but is there enough of it at the moment? I suppose wanting there to be a better product coming as a pre-reg who’s more comfortable and able to speak to patients and actually prove their competency in the pre-reg year is telling me that there’s something preceding that that would be good to change.”
CP7:” I know it sounds silly but you’re used to looking at the drugs in
their boxes and knowing what the tablets look like and knowing what people think about the medication and talking to patients clinically.”
A current perceived lack of exposure to the workplace environment was highlighted by all participants, both hospital and community based, and was the reason attributed to some graduates inability to apply their knowledge in practice.
CP2: “…I think the theory of it all probably is there. The application,
well that comes down to practice I suppose and being put in those situations which, only comes down to application and opportunity to apply it. So I suppose the more opportunity they’ve had at undergraduate level um the better they will be…once you immerse them in situations and then you learn from it…”
CP4: “You know they might see an MUR form but have they actually
sat in on an MUR, have they led an MUR just being supported by the pharmacist?...it’s all well and good giving them a talk on it but they need to have hands on go at doing it to be able to apply it and that’s my biggest issue is always the application of what they get taught. Because they probably do cover all that but it’s not apparent when they come because they’ve got no idea how to apply it to those situations.”
HP1: ” …it’s just trying to make it better for the student to take that
new knowledge right to practical application at the time and making sense of it rather than having to build and build and build this massive knowledge then getting to the workplace and try to download that all into clinical practice in one year”
HP8 was able to draw a comparison with the way in which diploma pharmacists learn due to her involvement with these individuals in the
workplace. Diploma pharmacists were said to learn through being immersed in practice, hence able to apply their learning.
HP8: “…in the first year they are immersed, three months with medical
patients and three months with surgical patients…the application of everything that they’ve done undergraduate and pre-reg well its got to be used in that first year...maybe there isn’t a huge difference in the level its just that they know how to apply it, they know when to monitor patients, they know therapeutic drug monitoring and why because they are just with patients constantly”
Independent community pharmacy participants were keen to provide opportunities for students to gain exposure to the workplace environment. However, whilst hospital employers recognised the benefits of students gaining workplace exposure, fewer made reference to wanting to take students through their undergraduate training.
CP13: ”…community pharmacists now are going to be swimming in
really deep dirty water with all the changes. There’s going to be no financial gain [to students having placements] but there’s going to be a lot of
knowledge gain and I think to be honest the knowledge gain is vital.”
CP2: “…there aren’t many pharmacy undergraduates, blinking
thousands of pharmacies out there so why not think that this is a part and parcel of your role?...it would certainly help you I think if you’re looking to be a pre-reg tutor in recruitment as well. Um, you’d know kind of what you’re dealing with.”
CP6: ”now I don’t want to exploit students by saying to the university why don’t you send me your students during the summer. I’ll take three students over the summer for two weeks each but I can’t pay them. Now I think that’s a fact of life with a lot of independent pharmacies”
HP8: “I know we’d like to see more placements but I do realise that
that would have an implication on the workplace ….”
The majority of participants alluded to a formal collaboration between schools and employers with more consistent periods of exposure and defined placement objectives. This was deemed as beneficial both for student learning and also in allowing supervisors to have continued contact with students. HP7 had been involved in the education and training of medics
and hence their experience with the way in which medical undergraduates experience workplace exposure may have influenced this opinion.
HP7: “…some universities they go one day a week don’t they, they
meet the same pharmacists and they do a lot there and that would really help I think from a consistency point of view and you’d be able to see their
progression and their development if you were a named person and linked in with it then that would really help.”
HP1: “…really it’s about trying to help the university get the clinical
exposure for its undergraduates that it needs really. In each sector for the learning outcomes that are relevant in that sector. So there would be certain things that makes sense to be covered, you know, in primary care, in
community…”
CP10: “I think in reality they [schools] need to have more into
partnership working and potentially with the sectors that community is going out with…you need to be going out into these sectors much earlier and I suppose that comes with your actual placements. I think you need to quality assure those placements”
Having exposure to a range of workplace environments was also deemed as being important in providing students an opportunity to decide which sector of pharmacy they wish to progress their career in.
CP1: “[pause] I suppose more placements or longer placements, be
that in the summer or during hol, during term time
BB: So just to make sure I understood correctly um you say
preparing them for the different aspects so maybe do you mean making them better prepared for the aspect they choose to do their pre-reg in specifically or for both?
CP1: better chance of deciding which way they want to go to do pre-
reg and probably onwards from there” 4.4.4 Effective curriculum strategy