Introduction. The 2021 General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists focus on training that supports a more integrated health and social care system, with pharmacists supporting patients to access the care they need in the right setting at right time. To ensure that pharmacists have the correct skills and attributes to deliver this care, undergraduate curriculums need to change and provide more opportunities for hands-on experiential learning UK pharmacy students must also show how they can participate in the promotion and protection of public health.
In the UK, community pharmacies provide vaccination services and are central to delivering the National Influenza Immunisation Programme.
Method: This programme/project aimed to embed pharmacy students into vaccine programmes while achieving key objectives within their education and training. Following taught sessions regarding how pharmacists lead on pharmaceutical public health, including the provision of influenza vaccination services, third year (Level 6) pharmacy students were trained to be vaccinators and deployed to support flu vaccination services in community pharmacies across Leicestershire. In October-November 2024, students attended a local community pharmacy for 2 days. Under supervision, students were able to administer flu vaccinations under the UK National Protocol and support the team with associated record keeping. Additionally, students were expected to proactively support with identifying patients eligible for vaccination and encourage uptake.
Results: This pilot demonstrated that pharmacy students were able to effectively support with the administration of influenza vaccinations under supervision and provide valuable support in public health services in a community pharmacy setting.
Conclusion: In their evaluation of the placement, supervisors commented on the professionalism of students and that the students’ confidence grew over the 2 days. Future evaluation of patient experience and pedagogical outcomes will support development of other related public health services in the future.

Introduction: Pharmaceutical care (PC) is less practiced in United Arab Emirates (UAE) community pharmacies. This study assessed community pharmacists' (CPs) perceptions, practices, and perceived barriers to providing PC.
Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 2023 to October 2024 among CPs across the country. A previously validated 5-point Likert-type questionnaire was adopted with minor changes (Cronbach alpha=0.93). Individual Likert statements were scored 1-5, and Manwhittney and Kruskal Wallis tests were performed to find the association between total perception, practice, and barrier scores with demographic variables. Post hoc analyses and Kendall’s correlation were performed wherever applicable, at alpha=0.05.
Results: A total of 227 CPs, with 70.9% (n=161) of bachelor in pharmacy degree holders responded. The total median (IQR) scores for perception, practice, and barriers were 24 (22-26)/30, 40 (34-45)/50, and 76 (63-86)/125 respectively. Most of the CPs felt that patients’ medications should be reviewed by them to prevent medicine-related errors and promote the appropriate use of medications [median (IQR) 5 (4-5)]. They also felt that CPs are professionally skilled in providing PC [median (IQR) 5 (4-5)]. Major barrier reported was lack of support from other health professionals toward PC [median (IQR) 4 (3-5)]. There was a statistically significant association between total perception scores with age (p=0.023), work experience (0.036), and working hours (p= 0.012), total practice scores with work experience (p= 0.035), and training in PC (p= 0.009), and total barrier scores with the average number of CPs available in the shift (p= 0.002). A Significant correlation was noticed within a few perception, practice, and barrier constructs and between these constructs and participants' demographic characteristics, p<0.05.
Conclusion: Specific interventions targeting the barriers identified in this research are urgently needed with the incorporation of patient-centered care and interprofessional collaboration in academia and practice settings as the starting point.

Introduction: From August 2026 every pharmacist graduating in the UK will be ready to prescribe. This means that there is recognition now that current practitioners need to become prescribers if they are to compete with future graduates and be able to offer the same services. Discussions with the current workforce highlighted barriers including knowledge gaps, limited confidence and uncertainty over applying for postgraduate training programmes. CPPE developed a 12 week programme to address these barriers. The programme aligns self assessment with the prescribing competency framework, provides active education through e-learning modules and fosters peer networks through face to face workshops. The programme comprises three main themes: preparing for prescribing, integrating prescribing into practice, and extending competence.
Methods: Quantitative and qualitative data collection, including tracking engagement metrics and surveys on confidence and competence, will be used for evaluation collected from post workshop survey feedback.
Results: Since its launch in September 2023, over 900 pharmacists have enrolled. Preliminary data indicate increased self-reported confidence and competence in accessing IP courses and implementing prescribing skills in practice. The data also shows that learners developed an increased awareness of personal development areas which meant they could focus on these before starting their IP training and be more ready to start their IP training. In some cases HEIs now include the CPPE programme as a prerequisite for their course.
Conclusion: CPPE’s preparatory programme effectively supports pharmacists in transitioning toward IP roles. By providing accessible resources and fostering supportive networks, the programme is playing a crucial role in expanding the workforce of pharmacist prescribers, enabling pharmacists to access IP training who may otherwise have chosen not to and ultimately benefiting patient care across the healthcare system. Future analyses will further clarify its long-term impact and effectiveness in meeting evolving healthcare demands.

Introduction: Effective communication is essential for pharmacists delivering information to patients and healthcare professionals. Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a gold standard tool for evaluating the competency of pharmacist-in-training communication skills. Alsubaie et al.¹ identified the effectiveness of pharmacy students using politeness strategies to avoid imposition on patients and causing embarrassment during OSCE. Currently, teaching linguistic tactics isn’t part of the Australia pharmacy education curriculum and there has been limited research into their impact of use. This study investigated the impact of the use of linguistic modifiers i.e. hedges and intensifiers by pharmacy students on their communication grades in an OSCE assessing shared decision making.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of 30 OSCE videos (10 from each of good, average and poor communication grade) of fourth year undergraduate pharmacy students who completed teamwork OSCE that required them to speak to both simulated doctor and carer. Discourse analysis was conducted to elicit the number and types of hedges and intensifiers used.
Results: Overall, students used more hedges than intensifiers when interacting with others. There were less hedges amongst good communicators in carers’ interactions whereas a consistent number of hedges in doctors’ interaction amongst all communication grades. However, there were no trends for intensifiers used in both interactions.
Conclusion: There was a potential impact in carer-student interactions regarding the number of hedges used. Good communicators were able to adjust their use of hedges to soften the communication and avoid imposing on carers’ preferences whereas poor communicators couldn’t. Purposive use of politeness theory in teaching helps raise awareness in students’ communication. Future research could investigate whether use of linguistic strategies lead to better uptake of pharmacist-led recommendations.

​‌‌‍‍​‍1. Alsubaie S, Grant D, Donyai P. An Applied Linguistics study of how students prevent embarrassments and Impositions during interactive Examination OSCEs. AJPE 2023;87(8):100-3.