Bachelor of Pharmacy

  Institution: Private: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Programme Description

The degree of Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours is awarded after the student has successfully fulfilled all the requirements of a four year pharmacy programme.

The Pharmacy course consists of core, elective, option and university courses.  The core courses are the main courses whereas elective courses are courses that provide advanced knowledge on certain pharmaceutical aspects.  Students may choose any elective course that is offered.  Option courses, on the other hand, are courses in other fields such as Humanities, Social Sciences and Management.  These courses are intended to equip the students to interact constructively with society, cultivate an understanding attitude towards people and develop a strong sense of responsibility towards the community.

General Educational Goals and Objectives

Objectives:

The Bachelor of Pharmacy Degree offered by the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM aims to:

•  produce graduates who are competent, skillful, resourceful, ethical and professional.
•  cultivate leadership values and critical thinking in order to produce graduates who are self-reliant.
•  produce graduates who are caring, compassionate and show respect and fairness to others.
•  nurture graduates for life-long learning and who are adaptable to socio-economic, health and environmental changes.

Programme Outcomes

A pharmacy programme outcomes is divided into 8 areas.  At the end of the programme the students will be able to:

Logistics: 

• order, store and supply medicines in accordance with the law, pharmaceutical knowledge, and codes of professional conduct and practice.
• apply Good Storage Practice and the practice of cold chain.

Prescription Screening and Interpretation: 

• interpret and critically evaluate prescriptions and other orders for medicine.
• interpret and apply the laws related to prescriptions and other orders for medicine.

Pharmaceutical Care: 

• conduct medication history taking and identify pharmaceutical care issues.
• conduct medication reviews for promoting quality use of medicines.
• recognize common disease states and make appropriate responses to the presented symptoms and information.
• apply clinical knowledge and skills to advice patients and other healthcare professionals about medicines and their usages.
• provide advice on individualized dosing through pharmacokinetic manipulations.
• interpret biochemical data of patients and make the appropriate recommendations.
• document clinical pharmacy activities in an accurate manner.
• recognize the importance of patient and medication safety through detecting, preventing and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADR) and medication errors.
• apply concepts of medicine management or pharmaceutical care and to provide such services.

Preparation of pharmaceutical Products: 

• perform pharmaceutical calculation accurately, able to recognize and differentiate the various types of pharmaceutical dosage forms and its preparations.
• prepare extemporaneously any non-sterile medicines for which this will be regarded as the normal means of provision.
• prepare extemporaneous sterile medicines for which this will be regarded as the normal means provision, including by aseptic techniques.
• apply the concepts of total parenteral nutrition and its preparations.
• utilize the concepts of cytotoxic drug reconstitution and the precautions required in its preparation.
• formulate and manufacture pharmaceutical products.
• apply the principles of quality and quality assurance mechanisms in all aspects of scientific and professional activities.

Communication: 

• communicate clearly, considerately and effectively, both orally and written, with other healthcare professionals.
• communicate clearly, considerately and sensitively with patients and their caretakers and the general public. This should include the ability to counsel effectively and to provide information in such manner which ensures patients and their caretakers can be truly informed about their medications.
• communicate effectively with the general public regarding drug therapy, wellness and health promotion.

Continuous Professional Development: 

• develop the desire to search for knowledge continuously and take personal responsibility in continuing professional development.
• use current technologies to search for new information, to adopt and integrate it to improve practice.
• undertake critical appraisal of information or conjecture in all forms of presentations.
• determine the research needs in pharmacy practice towards outcome measurement and service improvement.
• contribute to the improvement and progress of the profession and the welfare of the community.

Management and Interpersonal Skills: 

• manage and administer a pharmacy.
• work effectively as a team and can collaborate well with other healthcare professionals, able to recognize ethical dilemmas in healthcare and sciences.
• utilise ways to manage it, taking into account the relevant laws and able to optimize resources to achieve benefits.

ICT: 

• use common software applications in the pharmacy.
• recognize and utilize the potential of ICT in pharmacy practice

Source : Universiti Sains Malaysia