Core Skills Statements

The Society’s Education and Training committee are keen to ensure that the undergraduate curriculum stays relevant and up to date in between more formal reviews. We welcome all feedback on the below core skills. If you would like to send us some feedback, please email education@bps.ac.uk.

Having successfully completed an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology, graduates will be able to demonstrate competence in the below Core Skills Statements. We have also provided some suggestion assessments and resources beneath each skill. 

Expanded Skills Statements

Experimental techniques

Core Skill Statement: Be able to formulate a scientific hypothesis.
Assessment:
  • Provide a redacted research article and get students to piece together the information provided to suggest a testable hypothesis.
  • Present a scientific problem and its context and get students to design and present a hypothesis explaining ways in which it might be tested.
  • Assess student abilities to write, explore and explain a scientific hypothesis within a research project
  • Participation in group exercises where students are provided with information about a scientific problem and question and have to determine a hypothesis to explore it
Resources:

Core Skill Statement: Implement principles of good experimental planning and design.
Assessments:
  • Preparation of mock grant proposals based on preliminary data from research groups
  • Participation in workshop/journal club focusing on the design of the experiments presented within a published study. Including analysis of whether conclusions match the data, additional experiments needed and validity of conclusions
  • Construction of an experimental plan including timeline
  • Critique of pharmacology research articles to assess whether studies meet the principles of good experimental design
  • Reflection on experimental design following attendance at a research presentation 
Resources:

Core Skill Statement: Identify the most appropriate statistical approach.
Assessments:
  • Provide simulated data and ask students to do an appropriate statistical analysis
  • Provide data for example from a drug trial in wildtype and knock out animals. Assess student's ability to identify the statistical approach, apply this and present the data graphically
Resources:

Core Skill Statement: Be able to make appropriate decisions about methodology when designing a study
Assessments:
  • Assess methodological approaches in student grant and project proposals
  • Participation in a groupwork exercise where students identify a drug to repurpose, and design a study with appropriate controls and data analysis
  • Critique of real/hypothetical research studies to identify issues in methodology and experimental design
Resources:
 
Core Skill Statement: Be precise and accurate when performing core laboratory skills
Assessments:
  • Completion of a laboratory task with a quantifiable output e.g. determining an unknown concentration from a standard curve
  • Observation of students completing and discussing laboratory tasks
  • Completion of a series of OSPE stations assessing various aspects of laboratory work
Resources:
 
Core Skill Statement: Carry out experiments with awareness of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)
Assessment:
  • Assess laboratory skills in a wet-lab practical write up / laboratory notebook recording.
  • Assess students’ ability to annotate/appropriately identify examples of good and poor practice from examples of laboratory work
Resources:

Core Skill Statement: Be able to use quantitative methods to collect, process and present data
Assessment:
  • Participation in a workshop where students analyse data then present it using a traditional lab report, poster or oral presentation
  • Completion of capstone project in the final year
  • Writing of a research proposal including for example, research problem, proposed methodology and data analysis
Resources:  

Core Skill Statement: Be able to use in vitro techniques in pharmacology
Assessment:
  • Assess lab practical reports which use in vitro techniques
  • Student participation in data analysis workshops on in vitro techniques
  • Orak presentations/Q&A sessions to test students' knowledge and understanding of in vitro techniques
Resources:

Core Skill Statement: Have the necessary theoretical and/or practical training to be able to use in vivo techniques in pharmacology
Assessment:
  • Student participation in scenario / experimental technique workshops
  • Student completion of the NC3Rs Experimental Design Tool training and assessment
  • Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) to assess legal, ethical and practical elements of in vivo techniques in pharmacology
  • Students select and explore a disease, then present an appropriate in vivo model to study the disease, e.g. using Jackson Lab - knockout animal database
  • Critique a project licence application
Resources:
 Data handling and analysis
 
Core Skill Statement: Identify and use information from appropriate and reliable sources
Assessment:
  • Participation in workshops where students are given experimental questions to answer, then must find resources as a group, discuss the information, then present with Q&As
  • Assess understanding of appropriate resources to use in the writing of a scientific article (primary research papers; peer-reviewed websites; science versus lay websites/blogs)
  • Create an infographic integrating information from appropriate and reliable sources
Resources:

 Core Skill Statement: Integrate information from a range of sources and critically evaluate it
Assessment:
  • Assess student ability to critically evaluate published work on a given topic in a  journal club
  • Assess students written work (e.g. dissertation) which critically appraises literature
  • Provide students with information about chemical compounds and associated data and ask them to evaluate their potential as therapeutic agents
Resource:

 Core Skill Statement: Apply and interpret appropriate statistical tests correctly
Assessment:
  • Assess student analysis of final year project data
  • Provide students with a range of published papers and assess their ability to critically evaluate the statistical approaches used
Resource:

 Core Skill Statement: Use a common statistical software package
Assessment:
  • Computer-based exercises where students are provided with a specific statistical software package and have to analyse given data
  • Assess student preparation of laboratory reports where data is presented and analysed using a defined statistical software package
  • Preparation of a dissertation with data analysed using one or more statistical software packages.
Resource:
Pros and cons plus help guides for different statistical packages
 
 Core Skill Statement: Accurately record and reference source material
Assessment:
  • Assessment of any written piece of work (e.g. dissertation) that requires cited references
  • Student participation in workshops around citing and referencing appropriately
  • Preparation of “mock” manuscripts for certain publications strictly adhering to authors guidelines
  • Provide students with examples of poorly cited work and get them to identify the errors
Resource:

Core Skill Statement: Analyse and interrogate large data sets
Assessment:
  • Assess a journal club presentation that requires understanding of big data for example a Cochrane review
  • Student participation in an assessed workshop where large data sets are analysed
  • Provide a figure to students and ask them to analyse and write a figure legend
Resource:

Working practices

 
Core Skill Statement: Keep up to date with relevant literature and developments in pharmacology
Assessment:
  • Assess student contributions to a blog/discussion board of “breaking news” style short articles
  • Student creation of an e-portfolio of new findings and techniques gained throughout the year for presentation and discussion
  • Student participation in a journal club presentation of a recent research paper
Resource:
  • Students to access BJP and other suggested journals list compiled; Science/New Scientist/Nature/PNAS
  • BLOG examples:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/pharmacology/; https://www.news-medical.net/condition/Pharmacology; https://www.nature.com/subjects/pharmacology

Core Skill Statement: Perform research efficiently through good planning and management
Assessment:
  • Assess student literature reviews
  • Assess student experimental design plans for projects
  • Students develop research proposals / mock grant applications
  • Students demonstrate use of GANNT charts for projects / research strategies
Resource:

Core Skill Statement: Organise and accurately record information, for example, in a laboratory book
Assessment:
  • Assess student preparation of a formal laboratory report
  • Student completion of best practice laboratory record templates
  • Assess student record keeping during practicals and projects using a laboratory notebook and discussing the importance of this as a competency exercise
  • Students complete and record a practical exercise at beginning of year and are assessed repeating the exercise at the end of the year supported only by their notes.
 
Resource:

Core Skill Statement: Work independently
Assessment:
Many examples of assessments of individual work throughout the programme years. These include assessment of:
  • independent work in the laboratory to set up  tissue, dilute drugs, generate standard curve.
  • preparation of scientific essays, laboratory reports, final year projects and literature reviews.
Resource:
Any academic task involving independent work supports assessment here. Some examples:

Core Skill Statement: Work constructively in small groups or teams
Assessment:
  • Completion of group work to investigate repurposed drugs relating to a condition
  • Preparation of a patient information leaflet as part of a group
  • Participation in team based learning with in depth peer assessment
  • Development  of a website about a specific pharmacology area as part of a group
  • Assessing experimental design approaches in groups / teams
Resource:
Any group based activity would work here. Some examples include:

Core Skill Statement: Communicate effectively to scientific and non-scientific audiences (including written and oral forms)
Assessment:
  • Completion of a drug design task where patient information leaflet created (for non-scientific audience) and new drug is designed and presented (scientific audience)
  • Creation of posters for scientific or non-scientific audiences
  • Delivery of seminar presentations to scientific audience
  • Delivery of a research talk to a non-scientific audience
  • Preparation of a research project thesis and presentation to scientific and public audiences
Resource:


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