Module Objective: To develop a higher understanding of the principles of safe, effective and rational use of medicines in the clinical setting, in particular in palliative care; the mechanism of adverse drug reactions and drug interactions; medication errors and their prevention/reporting and the management of substance abuse.

Module Content: Pharmacokinetics, how drugs are handled in vivo and the clinical relevance of pharmacokinetics in practice; pharmacogenetics and its clinical applications. The use of pharmacovigilance to monitor drug safety in practice, the pharmacist's role in the area of drug monitoring and managing drug-related side effects, the various mechanisms of drug-drug interactions, the ways medication errors can occur and the pharmacist's role in minimising their occurrence. The pharmacist's role in the management of substance abuse and in the pharmaceutical care of the palliative care patient. The use of pharmaceutical care planning to ensure the rational use of medicines.

Learning Outcomes: On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Critically evaluate the benefit/risk evaluation of drugs in order to ensure the rational use of medicines
• Identify the mechanisms of adverse drug reactions, drug-drug, drug-disease and drug-gene interactions and how they can be prevented
• Analyse how medication errors occur, how they can be prevented and use pharmacovigilance to monitor drug safety in practice
• Discern the clinical relevance of pharmacokinetics, therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacogenomics in practice
• Describe harm reduction principles in terms of substance misuse and apply these principles when providing services such as opiate substitution treatment and needle exchange services
• Apply principles of safe, effective and rational use of drugs to pharmaceutical care planning and medication usage/review, in particular to the palliative care patient.