Sarwar Shah - our very own pre-registration pharmacist - has been hailed as outstanding by the Yorkshire Royal Pharmaceutical Society and received a standing ovation from students! He has gained recognition for all his hard work in supporting Bradford university student pharmacists through their MPharm training.

Sarwar and his colleague Nabeel Hajazi at Bradford Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust have devised a peer-support programme to help pharmacy students prepare for their final year exams - and it has gone down a storm!

Sarwar said: "PharmaSense has a strong emphasis on peer-assisted learning which is based on our own experiences which is an initiative that has not been done previously for pharmacy students. We are taken back by the tremendous feedback and support that we have received. It is brilliant to know that our work has not gone unrecognised with our colleagues & peers nominating us for this prestigious award from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society!”

Sarwar also went on to state that he too would have benefitted from this initiative had it been available to him and his peers during their undergraduate studies. 

The PharmaSense OSCE sessions consisted of OSCE scenarios & role play to facilitate the learning & development of students consultation skills. These sessions instantly gained a brilliant reputation as they attracted more than 80% of the cohort that they was tailored for.

The feedback they received was outstanding, with 98% of students rated their sessions as 5 out of 5 for usefulness and relevant content and 100% of students saying they would attend future sessions. Students made the effort to attended these sessions (non-compulsory) on days that they did not have any compulsory teaching sessions at the university.

Other aspects included a PharmaSense WhatsApp support group for these students which included clinical case studies, multiple choice questions (MCQs) and real-life OSCE scenarios which varied in complexity. They have been involved in providing explanations and rationale to students alongside coaching them to the correct answer choice.

They also took the initiative to create and share fact sheets and MCQs to engage with the wider pharmacy profession through the use of social media. This includes platforms such as Instagram & Twitter (@Pharma_Sense).

Their social media outreach has resulted in  pharmacy societies from various universities reaching out and inquiring about conducting future PharmaSense sessions for undergraduate students!