Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours)

Compliance with Australian Law and professional regulations.

Knowledge, understanding, and compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements are necessary in order to reduce the risk of harm to self and others in clinical and related settings; compliance with these professional regulations and the Australian Law ensures students are both responsible and accountable for their practice.

• Respond to the requirements for student registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
• Comply with relevant legislation including child protection and safety, work health and safety, and anti-discrimination legislation

Ethical and professional behaviour in academic and clinical/professional environments

Compliance with University and relevant Australian Pharmacy professional standards, codes, guidelines and policies that facilitates safe, competent interactions and relationships for students and the people they engage with in the many environments of practice is required for the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of all.

• Comply with academic and non-academic conduct codes and policies and professional standards
• Identify and enact relevant applications of these codes and standards, including those relating to   plagiarism, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, and equitable and respectful behaviour in academic and clinical settings

Compliance with safe practice sufficient to meet patient care needs, including considerations of current scope of practice, workplace health and safety, and infection control

Compliance with current scope of practice, workplace health and safety, infection control considerations and effective and timely response to alarm systems are required to provide safe environments for students, staff and others.

• Limit task performance to current scope of practice
• Comply with relevant Workplace Health and Safety policies for equipment use and storage
• Remain up to date with first-aid and CPR knowledge and practice
• Be able to identify and respond to alarm systems to maintain personal safety

Knowledge acquisition, utilisation and retention spanning and drawing together all coursework subjects. Cognitive skills for focus, memory, attention to detail, theoretical deliberation, and practical functioning sufficient to meet practice needs.

Understanding and retention of coursework information and the effective processing of this information is required for appropriate, safe and effective delivery of practice.

• Make safe and appropriate patient care decisions from retained knowledge
• Assess the application of policy and procedures in the context of practice
• Source research and use an evidence based framework to provide sound advice regarding patients with complex prescription requirements
• Analyse impact of multiple medications on a patient's clinical presentation
• Notice and respond effectively to critical small changes in instructions, measurements or reported symptoms

Awareness of own thinking, and skills to reflect, evaluate, adapt and implement new cognitive strategies for improved learning and practice.

Understanding and ongoing learning about oneself as an instrument in patient care is required for safe and effective delivery of practice.

• Review the outcome of treatment for a patient's particular symptom presentation and then adapt own knowledge for future clinical decisions
• Manage and proactively learn from academic and clinical set-backs by self-evaluation
• Reflect on the options, ethical implications, and impact for all the stakeholders in practice decisions
• Be aware of, and take responsibility for own personal role in inter-personal and team interactions

English literacy skills that allow the creation and interpretation of clear meaning for patient care through a range of symbols and English language text.

Patient care information can be delivered by many different modes and competent literacy skills for these are essential to provide appropriate, safe and effective delivery of practice.

• Comprehend, summarise and reference a range of literature in accordance with appropriate academic conventions in written assignments
• Interpret clinical graphs, diagrams, pictographs
• Produce accurate, concise and clear medical documentation and prescription advice which meets legal requirements

Accurate processing and reasoning with numbers and numerical concepts for patient care decisions.

Competent reasoning and reliable accuracy with numerical concepts are essential for safe and effective practice.

• Calculate accurate medication and pharmaceutical solutions in a time- constrained environment
• Interpret and reason with clinical calculations to produce the required prescription

Verbal communication in English to a standard that allows fluid, clear, and comprehensible two-way discussions for patient care, tailored to the local English-speaking audiences.

Effective verbal communication, in English, with patients and university and clinical staff is required for effective learning and to provide safe and effective delivery of practice.

• Understand and respond to verbal communication accurately and appropriately in a time-constrained environment when provided with additional verbal information impacting on a prescription
• Build rapport with a patient to encourage full disclosure of relevant symptoms
• Present information more formally to a wider audience including engaging in developing case discussions and working with multidisciplinary health professionals

Non-verbal communication skills that enable respectful communication with others to meet practice needs.

Skills to recognise, interpret and respond to non-verbal cues, to communicate with congruent and respectful non-verbal behaviour, and to be sensitive to individual and/or cultural variations in non-verbal communication contribute to safe and effective care.

• Deliver information to a distressed patient/client incorporating non-verbal behaviour that matches the nature of the information

Ability to produce English text to a standard that provides clear and professional-level communication for patient care, with language usage and style tailored to the targeted recipients.

Effective communication in English text is required to demonstrate applied skills in academic writing conventions and in sustained and organised academic argument and provide safe and effective delivery of practice.

• Communicate complex academic and clinical perspectives in writing
• Summarise and appropriately reference a range of literature  in written assignments
• Use precise and appropriate language to contribute and analyse both handwritten and electronic dispensing records in a time-constrained environment

Ability to interact with visual inputs sufficiently to manage learning environments and to meet practice needs.

Elements in the working and teaching environment are delivered by visual means, and the ability to learn from or respond to these inputs is required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Detect colour differences in capsules, medication coatings, creams blended with another ingredient
• Set-up and use hot water baths, electronic stirrers and scales
• Process visual information from medication labels, electronic displays, wall-posted information, online dispensing software, and handwritten and electronic documents
• Process the visual information required to measure out sterile ingredients

Ability to interact with auditory inputs sufficiently to manage learning environments and to meet practice needs.

Elements in the learning and working environments are delivered by auditory means, and the ability to learn from or respond to these inputs is required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Interact with verbal communications that provide additional information impacting on a prescription
• Follow developing discussions with colleagues for patient care decisions

Ability to respond to tactile input sufficiently to meet practice needs.

Elements in the working environment are detected and measured by tactile means, and the ability to learn from or respond to these inputs is required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Detect the texture of powder grains not yet incorporated when blending creams with a spatula
• Apply appropriate pressure when blending components of a compound on a glass tile, or squeezing a pipette bulb to measure out very small quantities
• Adjusting Bunsen burner flames

Strength, range of motion, coordination and mobility sufficient to meet practice needs.

A range of physical actions in a time-constrained environment is required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Instigate and contribute to emergency life support responses
• Move and maintain balance around practice areas to access, transport and use ingredients, glassware and equipment on varying surfaces and levels, to complete tasks within constrained timeframes
• Reach and work across sterile areas without contaminating surfaces or materials
• Use two spatulas to bi-manually blend ingredients together and keep within a small blending area

Manual dexterity and fine motor skills sufficient to meet practice needs.

A wide range of fine-motor manual tasks in a time-constrained environment are required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Unscrew ingredient bottles, hold glass pipettes and release small quantities
• Tip very small amounts of ingredients onto scales without touching the scale surfaces, stir liquids using glass stirring rods, use both hands to use two spatulas to swipe from all angles of a glass mixing tile into the centre and into a jar and then wipe the blades clean with negligible ingredient loss
• Contribute to both handwritten and electronic medical records

Sustained physical, cognitive and psychosocial performance sufficient to provide safe and complete patient care in a time constrained environment.

A range of complex, multi-component or extended practice tasks carried out over a period of time and in a time-constrained environments is required to provide safe and effective practice.

• Sustain study practices and clinical performance to sufficiently engage with the learning workload for a study period, and for the degree, within a timeframe
• Sustain a working posture, associated manual tasks, cognitive engagement, performance level and emotional control for the full duration of a practice process e.g. making multiple small measurements and corrections to create a number of pharmaceutical products in a constrained timeframe with a significant ongoing workload
• Sustain performance for durations that are manageable within overall placement shift-planning for practice

Behaviour that adapts to changing situations sufficiently for safe and complete practice, and instigates self-care consistent with professional expectations.

Behavioural adaptation is required to manage personal emotional responses as an individual and within teams in changing and unpredictable environments. Students will also be required to adapt their behaviour appropriately during times of additional stressors in their own lives, whether this adaptation involves ways of continuing to engage with their role or withdrawing for self-care for a period.

• Adjust ways of working to work within teams of varied personal and professional backgrounds and clinical opinions to facilitate effective practice decisions
• Cope with own emotions and behaviour effectively when dealing with changing demands in the practice setting
• Maintain respectful communication practices in times of increased stressors or workloads
• Be receptive and respond appropriately to constructive feedback
• Adjust to changing circumstances in a way that allows self-care while maintaining a professional-level focus on patient care needs