Academics

The primary goal of the clerkships is to provide an experiential learning environment which will assist our students to become confident, caring, with the ability to think critically and apply their knowledge and skills in the best interest of their patients regarding individualized pharmacotherapy planning, intervention and outcome evaluation.
The clerkships program is designed to guide the trainee to gain the proper understanding of pharmaceutical care concepts, to decide their choice of clinical specialty, to continue successfully in their lifelong learning and practice and to meet their responsibilities to patients and the society.

For M. Pharm in clinical pharmacy specialization, clinical clerkship is obligatory. Clinical clerkship is for 14 weeks each during third and fourth semester, during which students will be assigned primarily to clinical rotations in different hospital departments of Dubai Health Authority approved facilities. Each student’s experience will include total four weeks each on Internal medicine, Infectious diseases, Pediatric care, Intensive Care, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and two-week blocks in each area for any two of the following Selection: Psychiatry, Drug Information Service, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, and Total Parenteral Nutrition

A formal affiliation agreement between DPCG and training sites exists for the purpose of establishing a clinical training program for the MPharm (Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Practice) second year students. Clinical centers and hospitals accept qualified students into organized, patient-based teaching programs and provide additional instruction with pertinent lectures, conferences, ward rounds and seminars. The college budgets a specified sum of money to help defray the expenses incurred in running the teaching program at each hospital; provides professional liability insurance coverage for all its students working in any of its affiliated hospitals; ensures that all students fulfill health care requirements required by hospitals; and only assigns students to hospitals with academic qualifications consonant with the demands of the clinical program provided by the hospital. All hospitals have been carefully selected to ensure their facilities meet DPC’s standards. They must demonstrate a continuing commitment to medical education and furnish the necessary infrastructure to provide a successful clinical training program: integrating medical students into the health care team, providing access to the library and other ancillary facilities and supervising involvement with patients.
Training sites

• Rashid Hospital, Dubai (MOU)
• Latifa Hospital, Dubai (MOU)
• Saudi German Hospital (MOU with Dubai)
• Fakeeh University Hospital, Dubai (MOU)
• Al Jalila Children’s Hospital DHA
• Cleveland Hospital, Abu Dhabi (MOU)
• Iranian Hospital (MOU)
• The following EHS hospitals are also included as training sites with a formal approval from the Ministry of Health & Prevention.
• Al Qassimi Hospital, Sharjah
• Fujairah Hospital, Fujairah
• Al Baraha Hospital, Dubai
• Applicants from military staff are allowed to pursue their clinical clerkship in Zayed Military Hospital.

DPC has a formal administrative and academic structure for conducting its clinical program at affiliated hospitals. DPC appoints a clerkship supervisor (from Clinical faculty of DPC) oversees the scheduling of rotations, delineates holidays and vacation time, administers examinations provided by DPC, and determines the scope of student activities, deals with student concerns. The clinical supervisor reviews the overall clerkship program with a program director at the time of their visits to the hospital.

The teaching cornerstone of the core rotation is the close relationship between the student and the attending preceptors. Preceptors are nominated by the hospitals based on their experience and leadership qualities. Generally, a senior pharmacist with a minimum of 5 years of experience is acceptable to be a preceptor as a requirement by the college. The student preceptor ratio will be maintained as 1:3. Many hours per week are spent in small group discussions involving students and their clinical preceptors as they do ward rounds. Together, they discuss the patient’s diagnosis, treatment, and progress.

1. Orient student to site, policies, and procedures.
2. Facilitate informal, collaborative, respectful learning environment.
3. Be a positive and effective role model.
4. Provide learning experiences with appropriate patients.
5. Provide on-going feedback.
6. Pace learning experiences to meet student needs.
7. Direct student to resources, readings
8. Notify faculty of concerns about student’s behavior, work, or progression
9. Provide evaluation data to clerkship supervisor.

Each Student must select a minimum of three compulsory and one elective clerkship in each semester (Semester 3 & 4). The students should attend the clerkships in rotation. Each student has to attend 4 weeks of compulsory and 2 weeks of elective clerkship in rotation.
The student has to report to the preceptor (pharmacist) of their respective area of clerkship. The students are expected to become active members of the team. The students will be monitored by the Clinical teaching staff assigned by the DPC. During the four-week rotations students are required to actively participate in patient care as outlined below:

• Attend rounds with assigned medical team.
• Monitor patients assigned by preceptor. In this regard you will be required to maintain a patient specific document to record patient database information, drug therapy problems, vital monitoring parameters, recommendations, and follow-up.
• Meet with preceptor daily for discussion session that may include:
   
1. Giving informal oral presentations of assigned patients to preceptor and fellow students.
   
2. Provide daily update to preceptor and fellow students on patients they are following.
   
3. Discusses/complete reading material assigned previously by preceptor.
• Conduct at least 2 patient interviews during the rotation.
• Students must report a minimum of 5 cases and 3 cases in each compulsory and elective clerkship rotation respectively.
• Supply drug information question assigned by preceptor. (Don’t offer any information to medical team that requires interpretation or judgment without first reviewing your response with your preceptor).

Grading Policy: Clerkship is evaluated based on clerkship evaluation (continuous) and final evaluation (case presentation and written report) with 60% and 40% marks respectively (see the evaluation forms). Students must obtain at least 70% marks in each clerkship. Students who fail to secure at least 70% marks in clerkships have to repeat the respective clerkship during the next six months. If the student again fails to secure at least 70% marks in clerkship, she will be withdrawn from the college.

Attendance: Attendance of this course is compulsory. Students must compensate all missed work during absence.

Professional Demeanor: Professional conduct must be maintained appropriately. >

• Students should wear a clean white lab coat with a badge at all times to prove that the student follows Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls.
• Pants and open skirts are not allowed.
• Comfortable shoes are preferred.

Confidentiality and Working with Patient’s Records

• The patient's medical record is a personal file which is to be properly respected and kept confident at all times. Under no circumstances should information about a patient be discussed outside the hospital with anyone than fellow health professionals.
• Charts are to be reviewed in their assigned area (patient care unit or medical record department) and are not to be removed from the location.
• When utilizing charts please return the chart back to their proper storage area (chart rack on wards and appropriate personnel in medical record).
• The patient charts are very often utilized by health care providers and must be given to them when needed, e.g., when the patient is going for x-ray, the chart must accompany him. Please do not write in any section of the chart, but if you have any concerns communicate to your preceptor.

Courtesy

• Participation in the rounds and clinics is conducted for the purpose of reviewing patient’s care and teaching students. Good behavior is required during rounds and clinic. Questions concerning patient cases should be postponed until after the case presentation of the patient.
• Common rules of courtesy should be observed in dealing with Students should deal with all employees (nurses, receptionists, housekeepers, and other personnel) of the hospitals and clinics with respect.
• Reviewing patient charts should not interfere with the normal care and medical work-up scheduled for the patient.

Immunization and Health Insurance

• Immunization for the students is preferred as per the requirement of the hospital for health care professionals in UAE. All the students have health insurance and is renewed every year as the active health insurance and health checkup is mandatory for visa renewal.
• Policies and procedures concerning blood borne pathogen exposures and exposures to communicable diseases are addressed during the orientation sessions for students. In addition, these policies are reinforced during the Surgery and Internal Medicine clerkships.
• In the event that the student contracts a communicable disease which potentially poses a risk to patients or co-workers (e.g., tuberculosis, varicella), steps will be taken to prevent dissemination in accordance with Student Health, Public Health and/or CDC protocols. Certain communicable diseases may also be reported to county or state health authorities, as required by law.

Student Safety & Precautions
When providing patient care, regardless of the real or perceived communicable disease status of the patient, all students and staff should follow Standard Universal Precautions:

• Wash hands before and after ward rounds/patient contact, according to hospital policy, even if gloves are used.
• Wear gowns and gloves when exposure to blood, body fluids, excretions or secretions is likely.
• Use gloves appropriately according to aseptic and/or sterile techniques.
• Never recap needles or scapel blades by hand.

After successful completion of didactic courses in year one in Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls (DPCG), Students are required to go for clinical clerkship rotation in Hospitals in Year two. During their training, students are required to conduct a minor research project for a minimum of 12 weeks in clinical, hospital or community related topics. All the senior academic staff of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice unit will be involved in supervising the M. Pharm Clinical pharmacy postgraduate students in their research as part of the curriculum. Students are required to prepare a proposal for their research/review topic. If the project involves interaction with the patients or patient data, then they are required to apply for institutional ethical approval in DPC. They are also required to get an approval from DHA/MoH if the data collection site is in DHA/MOH hospitals. Students utilize hospital databases and library databases to conduct the research/reviews.  Students have to submit the report at the end of Clerkship training and have to do final presentation of the research/systemic reviews to fulfill the requirement of Master of Pharmacy (clinical pharmacy) program.
Upon successful completion of the research project during the second year of the programme, candidates will be able to demonstrate:

1. An aptitude for research and will be equipped to undertake (under supervision) focused research in a field of their choosing.
2. Several generic competencies that are required of postgraduates including being able to:
   • formulate meaningful and relevant research questions.
   • formulate testable research hypothesis.
   • design a study to test this hypothesis.
   • prepare drafts of research protocols that will be peer reviewed.
   • carry out research under supervision adhering to guidelines laid down by professional societies.
   • write results of their research in their own words, providing appropriate references to sources of ideas and information
   • communicate results of their research to a professional audience; and
3. An aptitude for continuous professional development.

The evaluation process of the will be as follow:

• Research & Report (60%),
• Presentation & viva voce (40%)

Report & Presentation:

• The candidate is expected to present his/her research project/systemic review report under the following headings to the supervisor and an internal examiner/representative appointed by the Dean, Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls (DPCG):
• Background (motivation for this work); hypothesis (if appropriate); objectives; methods; summary of results; limitations of the present study; conclusions and references.
• The examiner should be provided with a pre specified semi-structured assessment scheme for evaluating the students’ performance. The viva-voce should be moderated by the internal examiner. Successful defence of report is required for the candidate to be declared as passed.