The Health Minister Mike Nesbitt MLA said he was “very impressed” with the Pharmacy students from both Queen’s and the Ulster University who are gaining vital hands on experience in the South Eastern Trust during their 12 week placements.
This is the second year of the successful Experiential Learning (EL) programme which gives Pharmacy students 12 weeks of practice-based learning in hospitals, community pharmacies and General Practices across Northern Ireland. This allows the students to have practice-based experiences in a wide range of healthcare settings, helping them to interact with patients.
During his visit to the Ulster Hospital the Health Minister had an opportunity to speak to some of the students on their first day of the programme and observe how robots now deployed in the Pharmacy Department in the Ulster Hospital to sort medications.
The Health Minister said, “I think this 12 week initiative is really important. It means the students are not always in lecture theatres, they’re getting actual experience of working in a hospital Pharmacy, GP and community pharmacies. It will make them much, much better clinicians by the time they graduate.”
The Minister added, “We are standing beside the robot which is freeing up Pharmacists to do the jobs that they are supposed to do. They’re not stacking shelves with boxes of drugs anymore. They’re really able to deliver better outcomes for patients and that’s what we want.”
260 third year Pharmacy students from both Queen’s and the Ulster University take part in the EL programme across all five of the hospital Trusts.
One of the students who met the Minister, Alyeah Fanning-Lydon explained, “I am loving the EL programme. I’m learning so much on the job. I’m learning about the complexity of patients and really bringing to life everything I’m learning in my lectures and my exams.
“I feel that this is taking me from being a student to a professional. It is really special.”
The Clinical Pharmacy Development Lead in the Trust, Esther Brownrigg detailed how the programme means students are now able to turn their theory into practice early on.
“Sometimes you can be sitting in Medicinal Chemistry and not quite understanding how that science can be applied to real life, to real patients, to real situations, but coming out to a hospital and putting that science into motion can really help the student’s journey and help focus their studying as well.”
The Director of Pharmacy in the Trust, Maggie Parks said she was delighted to welcome the Minister to meet a group of the Pharmacy students. “Pharmacy plays such a vital role within health care, within the Trust and within the Ulster Hospital, so it’s really important for the Minister to see everything that the Pharmacy Department does, both in the department and out in the clinical areas.”
