Q&A
IN ThIS ISSUE, ThE UCA’S PhARmACIST REPRESENTATION gROUP, whICh wORkS ON BEhAlf Of All PRImARy CARE EmPlOyEE PhARmACISTS, PUTS ITS TEN qUESTIONS TO DR lEzlEy-ANNE hANNA, SENIOR lECTURER (EDUCATION) AT qUEEN’S UNIVERSITy, BElfAST’S PhARmACy DEPARTmENT.
TEN qUESTIONS
CAN yOU BRIEfly TEll US yOUR STORy AND hOw yOU CAmE TO wORk AT qUEEN’S UNIVERSITy BElfAST (qUB)?
I had always loved science-based subjects at school which led me to study pharmacy at queen’s University Belfast (qUB). I graduated from qUB with a first Class honours degree and worked for Boots as a relief and in- store pharmacist for several years.
Boots supported me to complete a diploma and I was a member of a locality group. I found training healthcare teams and pre-registration trainees about various patient services to be a really rewarding aspect of my work, so when I saw an advertisement in 2004 to teach Pharmacy Practice to undergraduates and postgraduates at qUB School of Pharmacy, I thought it sounded like an excellent opportunity and applied for the role.
Thankfully I was successful, although the position was part-time. The part- time nature actually turned out to be ideal as it enabled me to continue to work for Boots for several years and later to undertake a PhD in evidence- based practice under the supervision of Professor Carmel hughes (2006- 2010). I love teaching students and have endeavoured to inspire future pharmacists to be passionate about their profession, equipped with necessary attributes to be safe and effective practitioners.
Outside of qUB, and over the past ten years, I have developed and delivered educational material for the Northern Ireland Centre for Pharmacy learning and Development (NICPlD), am a question-writer and reviewer for the general Pharmaceutical Council (gPhC) registration examination, a
24 - PhARmACy IN fOCUS
Additionally, continuing technological changes have presented us with opportunities to change and enhance our teaching and learning styles. Students have greater expectations about using digital literacies to facilitate the provision of a high quality experience.
CAN yOU TEll US A lITTlE ABOUT ThE CONCEPT BEhIND CREATINg ThE OTC CONSUlT APP? hOw DID yOU gO ABOUT ThE PROCESS Of ACTUAlly CREATINg AN APP AND hOw wIll yOUR APP hElP PhARmACISTS TO DElIVER CARE? wIll yOU BE AllOwINg yOUR PhARmACy STUDENTS TO USE ThE APP IN ThEIR ‘RESPONDINg TO SymPTOmS’ EXAm?
Pharmaceutical Society NI Registration Examination committee member and a member of Pharmacy forum NI Education and Research committee. I recently sat on a medicines and healthcare products Regulatory Agency (mhRA) herbal working group, became a Senior fellow of the higher Education Academy and a faculty fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. I was promoted to a full-time Senior lecturer (Education) in 2013 and am currently an external examiner for another Uk university.
hOw wOUlD yOU COmPARE yOUR UNDERgRADUATE STUDENTS TODAy TO TEN yEARS AgO?
Currently within Uk higher education there is a higher proportion of younger and female students, those from a disadvantaged background, and those of non-Uk residence.
Specifically within qUB School of Pharmacy, I think our undergraduate student body has become more cosmopolitan (with non-Uk students largely coming from Asian countries such as China and malaysia) and there is greater cultural awareness and emphasis on respecting diversity.
moreover, student satisfaction has increased and graduate employment outcomes have remained strong. Our undergraduate students embrace extracurricular opportunities across the globe as more prominence is placed on personal and professional development and global citizenship.
As the role of the pharmacist has expanded and evolved over the past decade, the mPharm students have been provided with more inter- professional learning opportunities, patient exposure, employability skills, and competency-based assessments to prepare them for practice.
I developed OTC Consult with a colleague, Dr maurice hall, to provide current and future pharmacists and healthcare staff with an easily- accessible, up-to-date digital tool to enable safe and effective over-the- counter consultations. we co-ordinate this module at qUB (Responding to Symptoms) and my doctoral work also related to it. we considered that developing a mobile phone app had the potential to increase confidence, raise the quality of care, and standardise practice.
Covering over 70 conditions from a best-practice perspective, OTC Consult outlines their clinical features, referral criteria, time frames to resolution and management strategies. Pertinent prescription-only deregulations are also summarised, in addition to information on the Uk Vaccination Schedule, adult s creening programmes, and communication (including the Calgary-Cambridge model to help ensure a patient-centred approach to the consultation).
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