Pharmacy at Keele enables you to develop the values and attitudes required of a pharmacist. Pharmacists play a key role in the different aspects of medicine design, development and delivery, ensuring the safe and appropriate supply and administration of medicines.

How medicines treat medical conditions and discovering how the body works are just some of the features of our Pharmacy programme. Prescribing and clinical skills are a key component of the course alongside developing important communication skills so you can confidently engage with patients and work effectively as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

You will develop a solid foundation in areas such as biology and chemistry and build on these progressively throughout each academic year. You will explore key themes such as pharmacology where you will learn how drugs work within the body, and you'll also cover pharmaceutics where you will focus on formulating drugs in ways that can be administered to a patient. You will explore therapeutic areas which concentrate on medical conditions, how they are diagnosed and monitored and what treatments should be used to effectively manage them.

You will study the current legal framework for pharmacy and develop your ethical reasoning to enable you to act in the best interests of patients such as the emergency supply of medicines.

A successful pharmacist engages with patients skillfully through careful listening and provision of evidence based advice. The role of the pharmacist is multi-faceted, you will need to confidently provide advice, deal with sensitive subject areas, signpost people to additional services and provide guidance on how patients should administer their medication. You will also interact with carers, other service users and a wide range of healthcare professionals.

As a healthcare professional you will also seek to promote healthy lifestyles with individuals which may involve initiating challenging conversations about health issues in society like weight management or alcohol consumption. We nurture you to develop those pivotal communication skills so you can manage these discussions in a confident, sensitive and effective manner.

We use a range of innovative methods and 21^st century technology to give you the best opportunities to learn authentic pharmacist skills. Our facilities include a 3D lecture theatre, virtual and augmented reality facilities, and a clinical skills suite to aid development of your hard and soft skills.

You will engage in tasks with students on other healthcare courses to help build your understanding of other medical professions, helping prepare you for your future working environment.

Experienced academics, including staff who are research active teach on this programme. Many of our staff are practising pharmacists and we also have individuals who have extensive practice working in the pharmaceutical industry. Academics provide context and perspective to all aspects of our course.