NPA Medicine Counter Assistant

(Blended Learning)

Overview

IPU NPA Medicine Counter Assistant Course is a course geared for all staff working on the pharmacy medicines counter; including full-time, part-time and Saturday staff. The course is delivered by blended learning and will increase medicine counter assistants’ product knowledge and begin to develop the skills needed to work in pharmacy.

The time span is six to twelve months. The course consists of two parts, each containing five modules. Each part is sent out separately for the assistant to work through at their own individual pace. The IPU Professional Academy has provided a separate booklet for Republic of Ireland students, which highlights the differences between Irish law and practice.

Course Content

The course covers the following topics:

• Pain
• Coughs, Colds & Hay Fever
• Indigestion, Heartburn & Constipation
• Women’s Health, Child Health & Family Planning
• Holiday Healthcare & First Aid
• Skin & Feet
• Mouth, Eyes & Ears
• Healthy Living, Natural Remedies, Vitamins & Minerals
• Pet Medicines

Course Delivery and Methodology

This blended learning course is designed for pharmacy counter staff of all types and runs over six to twelve months. It’s divided into two parts with five modules each, sent out individually for flexible, self-paced study.

Republic of Ireland learners receive an additional booklet from the IPU Professional Academy highlighting local legal and practice differences.

Course Schedule

The course is available for enrolment year-round and can be completed over a flexible period of 6 to 12 months, allowing learners to study at their own pace.

Assessment

The course is available for enrolment year-round and can be completed over a flexible period of 6 to 12 months, allowing learners to study at their own pace.

Course Fee

The cost of this course is €260 for learners working for IPU members; or €330 for learners working for non-members. Up to €1,270 per pharmacy, per year, is reimbursable for training from the PCRS under the Pharmacy Training Grant Scheme. For further information on claiming the grant go to www.ipu.ie> IPU Professional Academy > IPU Training > Training Resources.

How to Enrol and Pay

1. Go to www.ipu.ie.
2. In the top menu, click on “IPU Professional Academy” and then select Training Courses.
3. If you want to browse first, just click View Course to read the details.
4. From the Training Courses page, you can add courses to a shopping cart by hovering over the course you want and clicking Add to Cart. You will be able to increase the quantity at the Checkout point. You can continue adding other courses to the cart, or when you are done, click View basket on the last course you added, or, if you are viewing a course, click on the basket icon in the right-hand corner and click View Basket.
5. From here, you can increase the quantity but make sure to click Update Basket if you do so.
6. Please, make sure you click on the green button ”Members Login” and log on if you are a member, so the system will show the member price.
7. Click Proceed to Checkout when you are happy with your booking (s) and enter your billing and pharmacist details.
8. You can then scroll down to enter the student details. For example, if you are intending on booking one student on one course and then two students on to a different course, you will see three student bookings appear in the Checkout, since you are booking three slots. The name of the course (s) you have selected will appear at the top of each slot so you can enter the details of the appropriate student to the selected course. You would then repeat the same for the next two student slots.
9. After entering all the required information, enter your card details and click Place Order to pay for all of the bookings in one go. This eLearning course is available to purchase 24/7 and is placed on the IPU Professional Academy Learning Management System (LMS).