The changing role of the pharmacist in community and hospital practice has necessitated many changes to the teaching of Pharmacy in universities. In particular only a minority of pharmacists nowadays actually make medicines and use the skills learned in laboratory classes. They spend much more of their time communicating scientific information to members of the public. The traditional research project while still useful for some students no longer seems to be the best use of time and resources for entire cohorts of pharmacy students. We therefore developed Critical Analysis and Communication (CAC) an alternative exercise to and running alongside the traditional research project. In developing Critical Analysis and Communication we sought to concentrate on those aspects of research science most relevant to the practice of pharmacy.
Critical Analysis and Communication is a 30-credit unit for final (fourth) year M.Pharm students. Semester one consists largely of taught material continuously assessed. Students are taught how to evaluate healthcare literature ranging from newspaper articles to scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. They are expected to be sceptical and alert to bias inflated claims lack of rigour and lies. Assessment is by oral presentation so that communication as well as critical analysis is assessed. In semester two the students carry out a more substantial piece of work designing a protocol for a research project drawing on material they have learned in semester one.
