MPharm in Pharmacy

University College Cork

A pharmacist is a healthcare team member specifically concerned with drugs and medicines. Pharmacy at UCC provides the confidence, skills and knowledge to make a difference in the pharmaceutical arena.

The four main areas of study on this four-year course are pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry; formulation design; drug action in the body and the practice of pharmacy. The course incorporates both basic sciences learning and the practice of pharmacy, as well as a number of placements as outlined above.

Exciting new changes to Pharmacy Education

From September 2015 students who enter the UCC Pharmacy programme will graduate with a level 9 MPharm degree. Once you have successfully completed your first four years (BPharm) you will then progress to the fifth year (MPharm). This new and exciting change in Pharmacy education in Ireland has come about because the Irish professional Pharmacy body (the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, PSI) now requires graduates to have completed a Masters degree before entering the PSI Register and practising as a Pharmacist.

So what does this mean for you?

The pharmacy degree is designed to integrate both the subjects you will study and the placements you will undertake so that you can really understand and apply your knowledge of science and healthcare to drug treatments for patients. Placements will be an integral part of the programme over the five years. There will be a one day placement in first year, two weeks in second year, two months at the end of third year (summer period), four months in fourth year and eight months in the final year. Placements can be carried out in community, hospital or industry as well as within regulatory organisations but the final eight month placement in your fifth year must be carried out in a patient facing setting.

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

• Register with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland on the Register of Pharmacists;
• Evaluate interventions to improve prescribing in practice and within the health care team;
• Practise Pharmacy competently in the primary care/secondary setting with due regard to the competencies set out in the Core Competency Framework for Pharmacists Document;
• Communicate effectively with patients and healthcare professionals for the purpose of counselling and advising on medicines and their safe usage and supply;
• Interpret and evaluate prescriptions and supply medicines in accordance with current legislation and professional codes of practice;
• Apply the physiochemical properties of drugs underpinning the design, development and manufacturing of emerging medicines;
• Outline the physiological, biochemical, molecular and genetic basis of disease, drug therapy and drug delivery;
• Recognise common disease states and respond appropriately to presented symptoms;
• Conduct a literature review, design a research protocol, collect and interpret data and write a dissertation.

Skills and Careers Information

This course is an excellent broad-based degree that can take you in a number of career directions, including:

• community pharmacist
• hospital pharmacist
• industrial pharmacist
• university lecturer
• wholesaling
• regulatory work

There are also opportunities for research in areas such as drug delivery, drug design, drug action and the practice of pharmacy. Pharmacists can manage businesses for other people or set up their own business.