• An opportunity for pharmacy graduates to upgrade their clinical skills.
• Offered fully online and will not require students to be on campus.
• Shortage of clinical pharmacists for a number of years in many countries, including Australia, resulting in difficulties for hospital and community sectors attempting to recruit pharmacy graduates to clinical pharmacy positions - this course will provide graduates with the skills required for clinical pharmacy and medication management reviews.
• It is expected that graduates may be employed in a variety of areas including clinical and consultant pharmacy in both community and hospital settings.
• This degree may lead to entry to the PhD program within the School

The benefits of this course?
This postgraduate degree provides the opportunity for pharmacy graduates to gain skills and qualifications in the clinical pharmacy area. Restricted opportunities to enter continuing professional education programs are often cited as one of the major limitations in rural or remote Australian regions for health professionals to upgrade their qualifications, including pharmacists.

This clinical pharmacy training program is flexible and easily accessible, and aims to provide graduates with the necesarry skills to take up identified and emerging employment opportunities in Tasmania, Australia and overseas.

The School of Pharmacy has an outstanding reputation in clinical pharmacy teaching and research. No other Australian university is offering an online postgraduate course in the clinical pharmacy teaching and research area.

Who should be interested?

The MClinPharm has been designed for registered pharmacists in any State or Territory of Australia, or registered in other countries, who wish to develop clinical and management skills and gain a postgraduate qualification in pharmacy. This course would be particularly suited to those pharmacists who would like to offer pharmaceutical care or be better skilled to perform medication reviews in patients' homes or nursing homes and residential care facilities.

This degree would suit pharmacists who are particularly interested in clinical pharmacy/clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. The emphasis will be a case-oriented teaching approach to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, with the objective of improving the problem-solving skills of pharmacists and to develop their ability to contribute to the quality use of medications.

Online delivery allows pharmacists who are unable to attend lectures to undertake postgraduate study off-campus. Pharmacists interested in research higher degrees can also use this degree as a foundation to further research study.

To develop the knowledge and skills of registered pharmacists leading to:

• a good understanding of the clinical features and therapeutic management of specific diseases;
• an ability to retrieve, interpret and apply published literature relating to pharmacy practice;
• the skills necessary to perform and report research projects relating to pharmacy practice; and
• good verbal and written communication skills, to effectively communicate with other health professionals and patients.

The MClinPharm degree will enhance the role of the pharmacist as a member of the health care team.

• Bachelor of Pharmacy degree
• Registered pharmacist
• At least two years post-graduate experience

Students will have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Tasmania or another university or tertiary institution which is deemed equivalent, and will be registered pharmacists. Where an undergraduate degree has been recently obtained (within past 3 years), a minimum average grade of 60% obtained in the final 2 years of study would be required for entry to the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program. Appropriate post-graduation work experience of at least 2 years is also considered as a requirement for acceptance into this program.

Course structure

Course Schedule

• selection of an appropriate drug therapy (drug and dosage regimen);
• provision of verbal and/or written information on drug therapy to the patient or carer;
• drug therapy monitoring (e.g. patient parameters, biochemical monitoring and plasma level monitoring of drugs);
• adverse drug reactions; and
• possible interactions and incompatibilities with other drugs, foods and laboratory tests.

An introduction to research methodology and literature evaluation, including the design and conduct of clinical trials, presentation and analysis of data, literature searching and interpretation of published research.

On completion of the Research Methodology and Clinical Trials unit, students students undertake a project which is intended to develop the pharmacist's ability to conduct independent research, including the scientific and logical planning, performance, interpretation, and documentation of pharmacy-based research studies.

Under supervision, students will be required to identify a suitable research topic, gather any relevant background literature, develop the research protocol and present it, if necessary, to an appropriate ethics committee, collect and analyse data, and prepare a thesis on the research.

Assessment

Assignments will be completed and submitted electronically. Assessment will be based on the assignments and expert review of the research project thesis. Assessment may also be based on participation in online discussion groups.

Progress reviews will be undertaken after completion of each unit with a minimum of passing grades in coursework required. Once the research project: literature review, planning, initial data collection and analysis is satisfactorily completed this will enable progression to completion of project and submission of thesis. The thesis component of the course will not be examined until all coursework has been satisfactorily completed.

The choice of units and the order in which they are taken shall be subject to approval. If progress is less than satisfactory enrolment may be reviewed. Assessment of grade and award will be based on academic performance within the structure of this course. Except by special permission of the Dean, there shall be no re-examination for Masters.

Passes in units in other courses may be credited towards the degree, provided that the School may specify what more a candidate so credited shall be required to do to qualify for the degree.

Graduates of this course may apply to progress to MPharm or PhD candidature.
The award of the Master of Clinical Pharmacy will not qualify a person for registration as a pharmacist.

Why study at the University of Tasmania?

The Tasmanian School of Pharmacy has been at the forefront of offering an integrated approach to professional and contemporary clinical education in Australia.

Graduates from the Tasmanian Pharmacy School are highly regarded and keenly sought for employment within community pharmacies and hospital pharmacy departments Australia-wide. The results of the Graduate Careers Council of Australia's surveys of graduates continue to place the Tasmanian School of Pharmacy ahead of the other Australian schools of pharmacy in terms of graduate satisfaction with the course.

The school's graduates have had amongst the highest average marks in the national preregistration year Australian Pharmacy Competency Assessment Test (APCAT) since its inception.