Professor Pauline Norris instituted the first postgraduate Social Pharmacy papers in Australasia.
Three long-standing School of Pharmacy lecturers have been instrumental in successfully developing its postgraduate programme, resulting in several “firsts”.
“They really have done great things. Each of them in their own way has done things which are extraordinary,” the School's Associate Dean of Research and Postgraduate, Professor Stephen Duffull, says.
“All three have been instrumental in making the Postgraduate Taught Programme successful as a way to train postgraduate pharmacists in New Zealand.”
He says Professor Pauline Norris instituted the first postgraduate Social Pharmacy papers in Australasia; Dr James Green taught a Research Methods paper combining qualitative and quantitative methods; and Mrs Adele Print developed the first postgraduate Pharmacist Prescribing Programme in Australasia.
Mrs Print was jointly appointed by the University of Auckland and University of Otago's pharmacy schools, in what Professor Duffull says was the first such joint pharmacy school project in New Zealand.
Otago's Postgraduate Taught Programme offers papers to practising pharmacists by distance learning. All three lecturers have been an integral part of this programme, until Mrs Print departed last year and Dr Green left in mid-July.
Professor Norris says she has worked at the School since September 2001. She has had many jobs, with her main role being Professor of Social Pharmacy from 2008 until 2018.
As part of the Postgraduate Taught Programme, she has taught the Research Methods paper almost every year since 2002. She taught Medicines and Culture for a couple of years and developed and taught a new course called Pharmaceutical Policy.
What is she doing this semester?
“That's the Research Methods paper for, I think, the 16th time!”
A range of health professionals take this multidisciplinary paper, including pharmacists, nurses, social workers and those engaged in health policy and planning.
Professor Norris conducts plenty of research herself and in June was awarded a $1 million Health Research Council grant for a randomised controlled trial of prescription charges to see whether removing these charges would improve people's health.
She has been on the Postgraduate Programmes committee since 2002 and for the past about 10 years, has been the School's Pacific Student Advisor.
She says that as well as supporting these students, she is part of trying to raise the profile of pharmacy among Pacific people, to encourage them to enter the profession.
Professor Duffull says that in addition to Professor Norris being instrumental in setting up several postgraduate Social Pharmacy papers, she has taught in the undergraduate programme and led active research.
Dr James Green taught a Research Methods paper combining qualitative and quantitative methods.
Dr Green is a Senior Lecturer and has worked at the School for 12 years. He will move to Ireland to work at the University of Limerick.
Professor Duffull says Dr Green has taught the Research Methods paper with Professor Norris.
“This is a paper which actively combines mixed methods of research,” Professor Duffull says. Papers combining qualitative and quantitative methods are “uncommon” and provide a good background for pharmacists entering research.
Outside of the Postgraduate Taught Programme, Dr Green contributed significantly to undergraduate student training and teaching, Professor Duffull says.
Mrs Print worked at the School from 2011 until 2017 and says she “really enjoyed” it. She trained and qualified as a pharmacist prescriber in the United Kingdom and as a practising pharmacist, was a Professional Practice Fellow at the School.
Her work was entirely with the Postgraduate Taught Programme and she worked from Auckland, providing distance learning.
The Pharmacist prescribing programme she developed trains New Zealand pharmacists to become pharmacist prescribers, she says. The Pharmacy Council of New Zealand established the accreditation for this year-long course, which runs every two years.
This course includes pharmacists being on a placement supervised by a doctor-mentor, to develop their prescribing skills and knowledge.
Mrs Adele Print developed the first postgraduate Pharmacist Prescribing Programme in Australasia.
Mrs Print now works in a variety of part-time roles, including being a practising pharmacist at Auckland City Hospital and assisting with pharmacist professional development; teaching a University of Auckland postgraduate course; carrying out project work for the Pharmacy Council; and working on a new Australian Advancing Pharmacy Practice scheme.
Professor Duffull says Mrs Print set up, led and taught the Pharmacist Prescribing Programme: “Massive amounts of Adele's time, and blood, sweat and tears went into making that work”.
The University of Auckland School of Pharmacy Head, Dr Jeff Harrison, says Mrs Print walks the talk as New Zealand's only credentialed advanced practice pharmacist.
“In all of her teaching Adele models person-centred consultations and shared decision making, the very essence of the modern clinical pharmacist.”
Article written by Sharon Fowler for the School of Pharmacy August 2018 Newsletter, V3I2