Skip to main content

Independent Prescribing for Pharmacists

    • How to apply Order a prospectus Postgraduate Open Days
    This course is eligible for Master's loan funding. Find out more.
    This course is eligible for Master's loan funding. Find out more.
    {{menu.previous.name}}
    {{menu.center.name}}
    {{menu.next.name}}

    Overview

    This short course provides pharmacists with the necessary skills and knowledge to practise safely and effectively as a prescriber. The course is aimed at an experienced pharmacist with up to date clinical knowledge and a defined area of practice in which you wish to prescribe. The course is suitable for pharmacists working in primary (community and PCN), intermediate and secondary care within the UK.

    The course is delivered as a blended learning programme to deliver a syllabus that aligns with learning outcomes as defined by the GPhC, through 12 blended learning academic study days, plus further time to focus on learning in practice. The 12 academic study days (Tuesdays) include at least 2 face-to-face study days with a focus on clinical skills and developing a portfolio of practice, supported by an online study programme that includes a combination of scheduled remote activities and learning the student can complete independently. Early submission points are available at 6 and 9 months.

    The course underpins the principle areas of knowledge, understanding and abilities required for the practice of prescribing: * The roles and responsibilities of the independent prescribing pharmacist, understanding and acting within your scope of practice and competence, understanding and actioning appropriate signposting and referral, supporting the patient to self-manage their heath where appropriate. * Understanding the legal and ethical frameworks that encompass the role of the prescriber. * Clinical skills to support prescribing practice and the development of a treatment plan, including history taking, undertaking an effective consultation and an introduction to completing an appropriate physical assessment using diagnostic aids. * Developing effective communication strategies to support patient centred care. * Develop reflective practice

    The full learning outcomes are available at Standards for the education and training of pharmacist independent prescribers

    Key Information

    Entry requirements

    These are determined by professional requirements as defined by the General Pharmaceutical Council. The course is offered part-time to pharmacists registered as a pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) or, in Northern Ireland, with the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

    Students must be UK registered pharmacists and be in good standing with the GPhC and /or PSNI and any other healthcare regulator with which they are registered.

    They must have relevant experience in a UK pharmacy setting and be able to recognise, understand and articulate the skills and attributes required by a prescriber.

    They must have identified an area of clinical practice in which to develop their prescribing practice, and have an up-to-date experience and clinical, knowledge relevant to their intended area of practice.

    All students must have a Designated Prescribing Practitioner who has agreed to supervise their learning in practice. The DPP must be UK registered independent prescriber with suitable experience and capacity to support learning in practice. The full details of appropriate people to undertake this role is available at DPP competency framework | RPS (rpharms.com). In addition to the RPS requirement, the DPP must be able to act as an impartial assessor and therefore should not be a family member or similar.

    If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent will be considered acceptable. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

    Start dates

    21 September 2026

    11 January 2027

    Duration

    12 months part-time

    Course Detail

    INDEPENDENT PRESCRIBING FOR PHARMACISTS

    This module provides pharmacists with the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the learning outcomes and to practice safely and effectively as an independent prescriber. Successful completion of the module will provide the student with a practice certificate in independent prescribing.

    Teaching strategies are aligned to the requirements of the ‘GPhC Independent Prescribing Programme’ and designed to ensure that you would benefit from the opportunity to learn with, from and alongside participants from the wide range of professions and backgrounds who study for a prescribing qualification at Huddersfield. Wherever appropriate students from all professions are taught together whilst provision is made for their differing requirements e.g pharmacists will need a greater emphasis on clinical examination techniques which are already familiar to nurses while nurses will require more background in pharmacology and the therapeutic use of medicines. As a part time, work related course the directed and self-directed elements are both significant and important.

    The assessments will include online and campus based written assessments, observed structured clinical examination, and work based activities leading to completion of a portfolio of practice.

    You must be able to personally use and read a standard BNF/BNFc and/electronic BNF and may not use the assistance of a 3rd party to read and understand the paper in the examinations.

    For your portfolio you will need to be able to provide an electronic copy of your signed statements. This will be best achieved by the use of scanner so students should have access to such hardware to undertake this course. Your module specification/course handbook will provide full details of the assessment criteria applying to your course.

    Feedback (usually written) is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks. You will be told during the course when feedback on your final examination performance will be available.

    As prescribing is a practical skill, practical components are assessed both in the teaching and the working environment.

    This course has modules making up 30 credits, with each credit being 10 hours of study (300 hours in total). An average [Approximately*] 53% (158 hours) of the study time on this course is spent with your tutors [face to face or online] in [lectures, seminars, tutorials, practicals and workshops]. The remainder of the time will be spent on independent study. Assessments takes place through a variety of [exams, coursework, etc].

    Subject to mode of study. *Based on current core and compulsory modules. Calculated using data from the academic year 2024/25, as of November 2024.

    Teaching

    The teaching year for most courses normally starts in September with breaks at Christmas and Easter, finishing with a main examination/assessment period around May/June. Teaching on other courses including professional courses, postgraduate taught, research, distance learning and apprenticeship may have other start dates including January and May. All start dates can be found on each course page and term dates are also available. Students on a full-time course may have to attend every day of the week. Students who choose to study a full-time course on a part-time basis will generally attend modules at the same time as our full-time students. Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

    Our courses are taught at our University campus and you can expect that your lectures and seminars will be held face to face, except in cases of emergency or if specifically stated otherwise in the module description.

    Feedback

    Feedback (usually written) is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks – unless the submission was made towards the end of the session in which case feedback would be available on request after the formal publication of results. Feedback on exam performance/final coursework is available on request after the publication of results.

    Progression

    You may progress to the next stage of your course or research degree, subject to meeting University assessment criteria and professional, statutory, or regulatory body guidelines.

    1. Our teaching staff rank first in England for the proportion with higher degrees and teaching qualifications, as well as being top five for those holding doctorates (HESA 2025). So you’ll learn from some of the best, helping you to be the best.

    2. We are second in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 24 since 2008 (2025 data).

    3. We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award, recognising the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

    Visit ‘Our experts’ page where you’ll find in-depth profiles of all our academic staff

    Placements

    You will spend a total of 90 hours in supervised practice, which will be facilitated by your Designated Prescriber Practitioner.

    Research excellence

    Research plays an important role in informing all our teaching and learning activities. Through research our staff remain up to date with the latest developments in their field, which means they can help you to develop knowledge and skills that are current and highly relevant.

    Find out more about our research staff and centres

    Discover more about the course

    Professional links and accreditation

    Recognised connections to give you an extra edge when you graduate.

    Careers advice

    Check out the personalised guidance we offer you.

    Student Support

    Discover all the support available so you can thrive.

    Further Study

    Learn about pursuing a Master’s or PhD at Huddersfield.

    Research Excellence

    See how our innovative research shapes what you'll learn.

    Important information

    When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

    Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons:

    Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

    If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and if you are unhappy with the change we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

    Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

    Changes to option modules

    Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

    Major changes

    We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff being unable to teach due to illness, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to pandemics, other disasters (such as fire, flood or war) or changes made by the government.

    Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will consult with affected groups of students and any changes would only be made in accordance with our regulations. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you let us know before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for any additional tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so and you may be eligible for an exit award depending on how far through your course you are.

    In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

    The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

    You may also be interested in...

    Clinical Pharmacy Practice with Hospital Placement MSc

    Full-time

    Postgraduate

    Discover Clinical Pharmacy Practice with Hospital Placement at the University of Huddersfield. Focus on pharmacy practice, patient care, and clinical skills in a hospital environment.

    Find out more How to apply

    Clinical Pharmacy Practice with Research Project MSc

    Full-time

    Postgraduate

    Enroll in Clinical Pharmacy with Research Project at the University of Huddersfield. Combine pharmacy research, clinical practice, and patient care with advanced research skills.

    Find out more How to apply
    View more courses