Creating prescriber-ready pharmacy students: Flipped classroom and simulation teaching for responding to symptoms and minor illness management in the MPharm programme

The first-year Role of the Pharmacist module was re-designed to incorporate diverse teaching methods and mixed student groupwork as part of inclusive curriculum design. A flipped classroom approach, integrating sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, was implemented for responding to symptoms and minor illness lectures, an approach which introduces learning material before lectures, allowing classroom time to deepen understanding and application of knowledge (Bergmann and Sams, 2012). Simulation-based learning, e.g., role plays, is vital to develop skills of collaboration, communication and clinical decision-making that cannot be gained through conventional teaching methods and are desired employability attributes. Students were split into groups of three, rotating the roles of pharmacist, patient and observer, between scenarios. Peer feedback processes allowed students to gain essential learning skills e.g., critical thinking; giving, receiving and acting on feedback. A teaching evaluation was conducted. This talk shares how these teaching methods were implemented and student feedback.