FAQ Category: 4th Year

If you are sick or unavoidably unavailable at times when you are expected to engage in online activities related to your academic online modules, you should contact your Module Coordinator (for RCSI or UCC students) or your College Tutor (for Trinity students).

If possible, students are asked to arrange meetings or calls with placement providers outside of scheduled teaching activities. Interviews can take place face-to-face, via telephone or video call. However, your Schools of Pharmacy wish to support students in making the best placement matches possible and understand that students may in some cases be absent from lectures to meet with potential placement providers. Where this is unavoidable, please ensure that you inform the relevant people within your School of Pharmacy before any planned absence.

Students can choose to include references on their CV, or state that “references are available on request”.  In either case, please ensure that you have informed those providing references that they may be contacted by a placement provider to verify your reference.

Wednesdays are reserved, within the placement timetable, for academic online modules, designed and assessed by the three Schools of Pharmacy. There is an academic requirement of 10 hours directed study and 10 hours self-directed study every week for 4th Year students. Students who wish to have part-time jobs are encouraged to do so on weekends and evenings.

The legislation precludes students from undertaking a placement in a Training Establishment or under the supervision of a Trainer if they have certain family member connections with either the training establishment or the trainer. In addition, legislation precludes students from undertaking their 5th-year placement in the same Training Establishment in which they undertook their 4th-year placement.

Outside of these legislative requirements, there is no legal impediment to students undertaking a placement in a Training Establishment in which they have previously been, or are currently, employed or in which they undertook their 2nd-year placement. However, students are encouraged to increase the breadth of their placement experience by undertaking placements in new Training Establishments, where possible. This will allow students to gain a broader experience of the pharmacy profession.

Placements are timetabled by APPEL and attendance during placement hours is mandatory.  If students are unable to attend due to illness or emergency, they must notify both their Training Establishment and their Practice Educator as soon as possible. Furthermore, they should make their Practice Educator aware of any anticipated nonattendance well in advance of the placement.

The online modules/learning activities will be applicable to all practice settings.

Preceptors in each training establishment will undertake competency appraisals which will assess students’ competence against defined behaviours. You will also be assessed by academic staff using tools such as online assignments, group forums etc.

This placement is defined in law as being ‘at least four months in duration’. For this reason, if you are unable to attend your placement due to illness, emergency or any other reason, you are required to contact your Training Establishment and your Practice Educator at the earliest possible opportunity. Furthermore, you should make your Practice Educator aware of any anticipated non-attendance well in advance of the planned absence.

Although 100% attendance is expected from students while on placement, to comply with the statutory requirements, non-attendance will be managed by Schools of Pharmacy in accordance with their policies and procedures on attendance. If additional placement hours/days are required as a result of non-attendance, the School of Pharmacy will request APPEL to make the necessary arrangements.