PHRM4062 and PHRM4072 – QUM Pharmacy Practice Placement

Course Introduction

The PHRM4062/4072 courses are supervised experiential placements in a pharmacy practice site that promotes opportunities to develop professional pharmacy practice knowledge, skills, and attributes, building on the previous three years of the BPharm(Hons) Program.

These ‘capstone courses’ offer a unique opportunity for the student to further expand their professional practice experience in preparation for graduation and beyond, the internship year and achievement of full professional competence. The student will complete 180 hours of supervised community pharmacy experiential placement, reflect on their individual practice from personal and professional angles (e.g. relate it to specific elements of the National Competency Standards for Pharmacists in Australia 2016), and provide reflection and feedback on their overall learning across the 4 years of their degree and into the future, as they continue their professional development as lifelong learners. As part of their learning in PHRM4072, students will be required to consider a particular patient demographic pertinent to their placement site and submit a written report on ‘Optimising Socially Accountable and Holistic Care’ in this demographic.

Students will complete their placement in either Semester 1 or Semester 2 of Year 4 of the Program, commencing two weeks prior to Week 1 of the semester and concluding at the end of Week 4 of the semester.

Student Preparation

Prior to fourth year, all students have completed the following placements:

• three one-week community pharmacy placements;
• one-week hospital placement; and
• two days aged care observation placement.

In PHRM4062 and PHRM4072, students will undertake a six-week (four days per week) placement in a pharmacy practice site that promotes opportunities to develop professional pharmacy practice knowledge, skills, and attributes, building on the previous three years of the BPharm(Hons) Program.

For details of the topics that students have studied in the previous year, please see:

PHRM3101 – Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management 3A

PHRM3102 – Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management 3B

Entrustable Professional Activities

Students are expected to undertake a minimum of THREE EPAs based on their individual learning goals.

Click on the links below to view the EPA templates

• Best possible medication history 
• Taking in a prescription
• Dispensing a prescription
• Provision of OTC Medicines
• Patient education
• Resolving a Medication Related Problem
• Assessment of Inhaler Technique and Counselling
• Oral Anticoagulant Education

Please note that the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) EPAs have been scaffolded to an appropriate level for the students and differ from the EPAs that are completed in other programs, including the internship programs. If you are familiar with other EPA formats, we ask that you follow the templates for this course as they have been designed to align with the students’ program of study.

Entrustment Level

As a general guide, we expect that most students will be assigned an entrustment level of 2 or 3. The level of entrustment assigned to the student will not directly impact their course grade and should be used as a guide for student feedback and development. It would be expected that entrustment levels for more complex EPAs may be lower as students work towards developing their clinical knowledge and skills.