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Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists at University of Portsmouth - UCAS

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2025 - 2026
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Course summary

Overview If you're an experienced practicing pharmacist and want to further your career in a specialist area, joining our PgCert Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists course is the perfect way to fulfil your ambitions. On this course you'll develop your clinical examination and consultation skills, and build on your understanding of pharmacology and therapeutics, to inform evidence-based management decisions alongside patients within your chosen scope of practice. When you graduate, you'll be qualified for a career as an independent prescriber within a clinical setting. What you'll experience On this course, you'll:

  • Learn from experts in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Health Sciences and Social Work
  • Get hands-on experience in clinical examination and history taking
  • Study topics including pharmacology and therapeutics for prescribers, clinical skills for prescribers, and professional aspects of prescribing
  • Improve your counselling and consultation skills in our practice dispensary facilities, where you'll consult with patient actors
  • Build on your clinical simulation expertise in our clinical skills suite, featuring both CAE and Laerdal human patient simulators
  • Be supported by experienced clinical pharmacists as you develop your competencies portfolio
Careers and opportunities Graduates have gone on to take roles in: Mental health Rheumatology Minor ailments Pain management Nutrition Travel medicine Critical care Cardiology Renal disease HIV medicine We'll provide you with as much support as possible in finding employment through close industrial contacts, careers events, recruitment fairs and individual advice. Changes to course content We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies. Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional units may not run every year. If a unit doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative unit. Work experience and career planning We'll help you opportunities that will complement your studies. When you finish the course, our Careers and Employability service can help you find a job that puts your skills to work in the healthcare industry. After you leave the University, you can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career. Learning support As well as support by faculty teaching staff and your personal tutor, you can use the University’s Academic Skills Unit (ASK). ASK provides one-to-one support in areas such as: academic writing note taking time management critical thinking presentation skills referencing working in groups revision, memory and exam techniques Teaching Teaching on this course includes: online learning seminars workshops practice How you'll spend your time Each academic year is divided into 2 teaching blocks and an assessment period: Autumn teaching block – September to December Spring teaching block – January to Easter Assessment period – Easter to June Most teaching takes place during the day, on Thursdays, Fridays and very occasionally on Saturdays. You may occasionally need to go to University and course events in the evenings and at weekends. Teaching dates Timetabled teaching is due to take place on the following dates. Please note these dates are provisional and may be subject to change. September 2021 start
  • 6, 7, 13 and 20 October 2021
  • 3 and 17 November 2021
  • 1, 15 and 22 December 2021
  • 5 and 19 January 2022
  • 2 and 16 February 2022
  • 2, 16 and 30 March 2022
How you're assessed You'll be assessed through: practical skills assessment written case studies and therapeutic reviews portfolio of competencies and reflective accounts

Modules

Core modules in this year include:

  • Prescribing and Therapeutics for Pharmacists (60 credits)
There are no optional modules in this year. We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies. Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry. If a module doesn't run, we'll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment method

This course provides an excellent blended learning opportunity with delivery through interactive live and online learning, seminars and workshops. In addition, there is a 90 hour period of learning in practice, which is supervised by a Designated Medical Practitioner. You will be assessed in ways that align with the practical nature of the course: Essays Presentations Applied Health Assessments (observation in practice) Observed Structured Clinical Examinations Portfolio of competencies and reflective accounts

Professional bodies

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

  • General Pharmaceutical Council

Entry requirements

A second-class honours degree in Pharmacy (BSc, BPharm or MPharm), registration as a practising pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council and two year's UK-based patient-facing experience post-registration. Applicants require the written agreement of a Designated Medical Practitioner to mentor them throughout the course and the support of their employing organisation where applicable. All shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an interview.

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 7.0 with no component score below 7.0.
Cambridge English AdvancedCambridge English: Advanced (CAE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 185 with no component score less than 185.
Cambridge English ProficiencyCambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 185 with no component score less than 185.
PTE AcademicAn overall score of 68 with a minimum of 68 in each skill.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

**Postgraduate fees for 2025 entry will be available shortly.** For further fee information please see the corresponding University of Portsmouth course page or visit https://www.port.ac.uk/study/masters-and-postgraduate-taught/fees-and-funding
Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists at University of Portsmouth - UCAS