The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Contact Us The School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Panoz Institute
Trinity College Dublin
The University of Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
D02VF25

View the contact page for more contact and location information

pharmacy@tcd.ie
Duration Approximately 12 weeks part-time, incorporating reading weeks. Time commitment: 100-125 hours.
Closing Date  6th January for February intake
Course Co-ordinator Asst. Prof. Theo Ryan
Course Administrator Helen Thornbury
Email cardioclinpharm@tcd.ie

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Ireland. As a result, the Health Service Executive has placed a high priority on tackling this issue and has put a national strategy in place, with clinical care programmes specifically designed to address the key areas of concern.

The aim of this module is to equip pharmacists with the requisite knowledge and skills to optimise management of cardiovascular patients in both the hospital and community settings and in doing so improve patient safety and pharmaceutical care of this patient group.

  • The course is intended to help pharmacists to:
  • Identify and critically assess the relevant factors for the management of patients with cardiovascular disease.
  • Optimise drug therapy in patients with cardiovascular disease
  • Integrate drug therapy into an overall cardiovascular disease management plan.
  • Provide appropriate advice to patients and other healthcare professionals regarding disease prevention, risk reduction and disease management, including drug therapy.
  • Manage drug therapy for a broad range of cardiovascular conditions in both hospital and community pharmacy settings.
  • Satisfy requirements for Continuing Professional Development.

The course is primarily delivered online by distance-learning (via podcast lectures in Trinity's online learning environment), with evening online workshops at the start and end of the programme. It was developed in collaboration with pharmacists and doctors from hospital and community backgrounds and carries 5 credits under the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).

The course is structured as follows:

No. Topic
  Initial online workshop: Orientation and introduction
1 Hypertension
2 Lipid lowering therapy
3 Ischaemic heart disease
4 Acute coronary syndromes (ACS)
5 Anticoagulation
6 Cardiac arrhythmias - focus on atrial fibrillation
7 Stroke and transient ischaemic attacks (TIA)
8 Heart failure
9 Practice dilemmas Part 1: Pharmaceutical care of cardiology patients in the community 
10 Practice dilemmas Part 2: Integration and application – dealing with patients with multiple co-morbidities.

Final online workshop: Summary drawing on all the above topics with emphasis on applying principles to practice

Students undertake all topics, for each of which there is a podcast lecture (with lecture slides), directed reading material, online activities and guidance for practice.

Assessment 

Assessment is on a continuous basis, through:

  • Online assignments (multiple choice questions, case studies etc.)
  • Casework (including online discussion fora)
  • Reflective e-portfolio

Entry Requirements

Applicants must:

  • be registered (or eligible to be registered) with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland
  • Work on a regular basis in community or hospital pharmacy practice (full/part-time).

Fees

EU students: €640.
Non-EU students: €1290.
For EU/non-EU classification, see: 
https://www.tcd.ie/academicregistry/feesand-payments/eu-eligibility-fees/


Full fees must be paid in advance of course start date.

Application

The link to the application form can be found here: February 2027 intake: Cardiology in Clinical Pharmacy Practice Course Application Form    – Fill out form

Further information

Email: CardioClinPharm@tcd.ie