Advanced Practice

As patients’ health needs become increasingly more complex, advanced pharmacist practitioners who can manage and prescribe medicines safely and effectively have a clear role to play in their holistic treatment and care, particularly in the current challenging economic environment.

NICPLD has collaborated with colleagues in the Schools of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and Ulster University (UU) to develop an MSc in Advanced Pharmacy Practice. Both courses are based on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Core Advanced Pharmacist curriculum, which encompasses the four pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research. They are open to patient-focused pharmacists working in NI who have completed the NICPLD Post-registration Foundation Programme (or an Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) portfolio) and a GPhC-accredited Independent Prescribing course, and prescribe regularly in their day-to-day practice.

The format, content, and duration of the QUB and UU Advanced Pharmacy Practice (APP) MSc courses are the same. The MSc stage (60 credits) is delivered over 2 years as follows:

Year 1 (30 credits):

• Advanced Practice Development (APD) - a joint 20-credit module delivered by NICPLD:
  • Module codes: QUB: PMY7107 (Advanced Practice Development) / UU: PHA748 (Advanced Pharmacy Practice Development)
  • Schedule: September to December – workshops/webinars; May – portfolio submission; May/June – oral interview assessments
• Research Methods - a 10-credit module delivered by QUB/UU:
  • Module codes: QUB: PMY7041 (Research in Advanced Practice) / UU: PHA749 (Research Methodologies for Advanced Pharmacy Practice)
  • Schedule: January/February – workshops/webinars; March/April – research proposal submission

Year 2 (30 credits):

• Research Project - a 30-credit module delivered by QUB/UU:
  • Module codes: QUB: PMY7009 (Service Evaluation & Development) / UU: PHA750 (Research Project in Advanced Pharmacy Practice)
• Schedule: September to December – data collection; January/February – writing up; March/April – paper/poster submission

Applications for the 2026/7 MSc in Advanced Pharmacy Practice at QUB and UU closed on 1^st May 2026. Applications for 2027/8 will open on 3^rd March 2027 with a closing date of 24^th March 2027. Please note that 2027/8 will be the final APP MSc intake. A new Advanced Practice credentialing pathway will be launched in 2028/9.

Additional resources:

• APD lecture handout