Medway School of Pharmacy

Medway School of Pharmacy

Shot of an pharmacist working at the prescription counter.

Skills for MURs

Qualify to provide Medicines Use Reviews as an Advanced Service under the 2013 community pharmacy contract for England

Skills for MURs is a PSNC-endorsed course for the provision of the Medicine Use Reviews Advanced Service. The Medicines Use Review (MUR) and Prescription Intervention Service consist of accredited pharmacists undertaking structured adherence-centred reviews with patients on multiple medicines, particularly those receiving medicines for long-term conditions. National target groups have been agreed in order to guide the selection of patients to whom the service will be offered.

Skills for MURs at the Medway School of Pharmacy is a distance-learning course delivered via an online portal. It consists of Learning Materials and Online Assessment. Once you have successfully completed the assessment you will be awarded a certificate from the Medway School of Pharmacy. It is worth five academic credits at master’s level. These credits can be used towards achieving a Postgraduate Certificate in Medicines Management within the Medway Short Course Pathway.

The Learning Materials

The Learning Materials are designed to give community pharmacists the knowledge and practice skills to provide MURs. These can be purchased for viewing online or as paper copies to be sent in the post.

The Learning Materials are in two parts:

Part 1: The MUR Handbook is a comprehensive “how to”guide, which sets out the service requirements and the key skills pharmacists need to possess to successfully deliver an MUR service.

It is divided into 14 sections:

  • Course introduction
  • Course assessment
  • What is the Medicines Use Review Intervention Service?
  • MUR service specification
  • Preparing to provide MUR
  • Selecting patients for MURs
  • Preparing to conduct MURs
  • The MUR consultation
  • Conducting MURs
  • Prioritising in MURs
  • Reflecting on MURs
  • Providing feedback to GPs
  • Self-assessment questions
  • Answers to self-assessment questions

Part 2: A series of 20 clinical modules covering therapeutic areas you are likely to encounter when conducting MURs. You will need a current issue of the BNF and internet access to work through the modules.

Both Parts 1 and 2 of the Learning Materials contain self-assessment questions so you can check your understanding of the subject areas. The clinical modules also feature self-assessment case studies, identified as “MUR in Focus” to help you apply your learning to practice scenarios. The answers to the self-assessment questions and case studies are given at the end.

Online Assessment

To pass the online assessment students must successfully complete three case studies. Each case study is timed and must be completed within 30 minutes. You have the opportunity to take five case studies.

You do not have to complete all the case studies at one time. You can log off the site having completed one case study and log on later with your User Name and Password. This means you can complete case studies when you choose to do so.

You have 12 months from the date of registration to start the online assessment. Once you have started your first case study you have six months to complete and pass three case studies.

In each case study you will:

  • Be provided with a patient history (PH), patient medication record (PMR) and an MUR worksheet.
  • See a five-minute video clip of a pharmacist carrying out part of an MUR consultation.
  • You will also be able to see the transcript of the MUR consultation.
  • You will be asked to complete seven multiple choice questions (MCQs) based on the case study. The pass mark for the MCQs is six out of seven.

A student can pay for and attempt the Skills for MURs assessment three times. A student who has failed the assessment on three occasions will not be permitted to register for the assessment again.

Further Information

Online assessment: £75 (for each overall attempt)

Learning materials: £45 on screen or £55 printed copy

Entry Requirements

MPharm graduates with pre-registration or full registration with the GPhC.

Apply

We are currently undergoing site maintenance. If you wish to be added to a mailing list for when the module is available again please contact MSOPPGTAdmin@greenwich.ac.uk