Pharmacists in Scotland - five-year integrated education programme: scoping report

Advisory Group: Meeting Four

A paper describing the two options for change, an enhanced 4+1 or a five-year integrated programme, was presented, and the group were asked to consider their preferred position.

It was recognised that some aspects of this could progress without a national position. Examples included areas such as the admission process and the modular pre-registration programme.

It was agreed that the proposal must be explicit about balancing the numbers and not over-producing pharmacy graduates.

It was suggested that the enhanced 4+1 model could be modified in order to badge it as a five-year integrated MPharm delivered as a 4+1 model. If the service and the Schools were forced to make the links between the undergraduate course and the pre-registration year, then it would continue to move the current Scottish model forward. The idea would be to keep the traditional concept of a final year at the end of the undergraduate course but introduce a linked qualification with coterminous registration and graduation. That would allow better control of the numbers and also help with the international student dilemma. Consideration would need to be given to the status of the students if they exited after four years.

In essence this would provide three options grouped under a five-year integrated model: five-years with a 12-month block; five-years with two six-month blocks; and five-years with a dispersed six month block and a final six month block.

It was agreed that a detailed options appraisal should be prepared for further consideration prior to implementation. Following this, there would need to be an implementation phase with sufficient time to support any changes.