A new theme emerging within the Division is the development of initiatives within pharmacy education. Pharmacy education begins at undergraduate level and continues through a pharmacist’s entire professional career. In the division there are a number of research interests focusing on several stages throughout this educational pathway.
Specific research themes and related projects:
WHO UNESCO FIP Pharmacy Education Taskforce
Recognising the need to ensure a sustainable pharmaceutical workforce relevant to local needs and build the local capacity of pharmacy higher education institutions, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) launched the Pharmacy Education Taskforce with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in March 2008, at the first Global Forum for Human Resources for Health in Kampala, after a series of global consultations on pharmacy education.
The Taskforce is a collection of stakeholders representing various global, regional and country networks with the shared goal of coordinating and catalysing actions to develop pharmacy education.
The Taskforce is working on implementing its action plan with seven SSA country case study partners in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, who have all signed memoranda of understanding with FIP. The research plan put forward in this current proposal, which reflects the outcome of a workshop held by the partners in Kenya in August 2009, will enable the Taskforce to take forward its action plan. It will provide the background data necessary to begin to formulate new, evidence-based policy and test tools and interventions in seven African countries. 
Claire Anderson was involved in setting up the taskforce and is now lead for the academic workforce and capacity building domain and is carrying out work in capacity evaluation, workforce issues and needs assessment.
Claire chaired the FIP working group on the pharmacy workforce and contributed to the recent FIP Global Pharmacy Workforce Report.
Zoe Lim a PhD student is working with the taskforce looking at capcity building in Malawi.
Papers
C Anderson, I Bates, D Beck, TP Brock, B Futter, H Mercer. M Rouse, T Wuliji, A Yonemura. 2009. The WHO UNESCO FIP Pharmacy Education Taskforce. Human Resources For Health, 7, 45 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697153/
Hawthorne N, Anderson C. The global pharmacy workforce: a systematic review of the literature. Human Resources for Health 2009, 7:48 http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/7/1/48
C Anderson, I Bates, D Beck, TP Brock, B Futter, H Mercer. M Rouse, T Wuliji, A Yonemura. The WHO UNESCO FIP Pharmacy Education Taskforce: Enabling Concerted and Collective Global Action. American Journal of Pharmacy education 2008, 72; 6: 127. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2661156/
Anderson C Academic and Institutional capacity: a global issue American Journal of Pharmacy education 2008, 72; 5:114. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630139/
C Anderson, I Bates, D Beck, TP Brock, B Futter, H Mercer. M Rouse, T Wuliji, Action! Update on the Global Pharmacy Education Consultation. International Pharmacy Journal 2008, 22: 6-8
C Anderson, I Bates, D Beck, TP Brock, B Futter, H Mercer. M Rouse, T Wuliji, The Pharmacy Education Taskforce: FIP and WHO move forward in developing pharmacy education. International Pharmacy Journal 2007, 22: 3-5
Academic and social experiences of pharmacy undergraduates from a cross cultural perspective
This current project aims to:
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Examine the success of the new 2+2 MPharm taught at the University of Nottingham campuses in Malaysia and Nottingham University Park.
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Explore student and staff experiences of the course.
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Assess the way in which students integrate into the course, from both academic and social perspectives
The study is based on semi-structured and in-depth interviews, surveys and observations of staff and students at both campuses.
This collaborative project, which is a PhD study led by staff from the School of Education, is funded by the School of Pharmacy.
Enhancing Learning in clinical in the workplace
Learning in the work-place is a fundamental component of vocational undergraduate courses. Contact with real situations is a unique opportunity for learning, but developing and supporting the educational experience alongside the demands of the workplace is a challenge. This project Enhancing Clinical Learning in the Workplace (ECLW) is primarily set in the veterinary workplace, but deals with concepts applicable across the education of vocational professionals. The project will enhance the clinical work placement as a learning environment. The two veterinary schools (University of Nottingham and The Royal Veterinary College) involved are leading the evolution of new practices in clinical education. Their approaches to the clinical placement is being compared and their organisation, assessment, positioning within the overall learning experience, and use of new technologies that enrich learning, will be evaluated. The transferability of workplace practices will be tested by comparison and collaboration with other professional course including pharmacy, and as the workplace should provide life-long learning, the educational benefit to the qualified staff as well as the students, will be considered. We aim to identify best practice in the use of the clinical workplace as a learning environment, and disseminate that information between the veterinary schools, among educators and professional bodies in the healthcare sector, and across UK and international vocational education. This project is being carried out with colleagues in the School of Education and The School of Veterinary Medicine in Nottingham and the Royal Veterinary School in London.
Completed projects
Continuing professional development (CPD) and how pharmacists use CPD to inform their day-to-day practice
This was a joint PhD project jointly run between the Schools of Pharmacy & Education through the Centre for Social Research in Health & Health Care.
This project investigated how pharmacists in all sectors of the profession learn and develop once in practice with respect to their day-to-day CPD and how they create their own network of support to achieve their desired educational goals. In addition this project involved studying the use of reflection within the current CPD structure and which underpinning learning theories are used to inform the current CPD structure.