Independent Prescribing

Overview
The Postgraduate Certificate in Independent Prescribing for pharmacists is designed for pharmacists in Northern Ireland who wish to train and qualify as non-medical independent prescribers.

The Postgraduate Certificate can be undertaken as a stand-alone course or can be combined into a larger programme of study (see Advanced Pharmacy Practice course).

If you are employed as a pharmacist in Great Britain and wish to train as an Independent Prescriber, please visit our PG Cert in Prescribing for Pharmacists.

Year 1
Core Modules
• Professionalism (10 credits)
• Learning in practice (20 credits)
• Disease management (10 credits)
• Clinical skills (10 credits)
• Person-centred care and collaboration (10 credits)

A primary degree in Pharmacy (minimum Bachelor degree) from an institution approved by the University.

Additionally all students must:
• be registered as a pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) or the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
• be in good standing with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and/or the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and any other healthcare regulator with wwich they are registered.
• must have relevant experience in a pharmacy setting and be able to recognise, understand and articulate the skills and attributes required by a prescriber*
• must identify an area of clinical or therapeutic practice on which to base their learning*
• have a designated prescribing practitioner (DPP) who has agreed to supervise their learning in practice*

* Further guidance on the type of experience needed and DPP requirements is provided on the NICPLD website: https://www.nicpld.org/courses/ip2/

Note: this programme is only open to students who are resident in Northern Ireland.

Applicants are advised to apply as early as possible and ideally no later than 31st July 2024 for courses which commence in late September. In the event that any programme receives a high number of applications, the University reserves the right to close the application portal. Notifications to this effect will appear on the Direct Application Portal against the programme application page.

How to Apply
Apply using our online Postgraduate Applications Portal and follow the step-by-step instructions on how to apply.

Assessment

Assessments associated with the course are outlined below:

Each module has one or more assessments associated with it. A general overview is provided below:

Person-centred care & collaboration (10 CATS) - assessment is comprised of three elements; consultation skills OSCE, SJTs, and a written assessment.

Disease management (10 CATS) - assessment is comprised of two elements; submission of a treatment plan/ case study in each clinical/ therapeutic area of practice and a summary education table of recent CPD/clinical area.

Clinical skills (10 CATS) - assessment is comprised of two elements: Clinical skills OSCE and the Direct Observation of Procedural Skills assessment carried out by DPP.

Professionalism (10 CATS) –assessment is the submission of a written professional decision making scenario.

Learning in practice (20 CATS) – assessment is the submission of a practice portfolio.

1 year (Part Time)

Teaching Times
Teaching is delivered via a combination of online learning, live workshops and work-based learning. A timetable of workshops related to this course is available on the NICPLD website.

Entry Year: 2024/25

Career Prospects
Professional Opportunities
This PG Certificate in Independent Prescribing enhances the opportunities for pharmacists in Northern Ireland to progress their career through annotation on the pharmacy register as an independent prescriber.