IPN 2022 December

End of Year: APPEL

A Year of Marked Success for APPEL

APPEL would like to thank the pharmacy profession for their continued support of our work in 2022.

Written by Rachel Hamilton, APPEL Operations Manager

This year saw more students than ever completing experiential learning placements at different stages of their integrated M. Pharm programme. Over the 12 months, 545 pharmacy students completed placements in a variety of practice settings across the country, as

well as a small number of 4th-year students completing our firstever international placements in academic institutions in Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

We were also delighted to welcome many new placement providers to the programme as the value of offering APPEL placements has continued to be felt by pharmacies, hospital pharmacy departments, and other organisations.

APPEL’s team of Practice Educators and operations staff were on hand throughout the year to support both students and professionals involved in APPEL placements. Online clinics were organised to assist Trainers with the competency

assessment process and a special session was held to support any placements taking place in a hybrid working environment. Help and support were only a phone call or email away too as the team assisted with queries from students, Trainers, placement providers, and other stakeholders.

Emer Cooke – Executive Director of the EMA

The team also took on a number of quality improvement projects with APPEL Trainer Training being updated, new features being added to the website, new modules of training being developed, flexibility being added to the placement timetable, and the Standards for APPEL Experiential Learning Placements being overhauled to a new and more user-friendly format. A Strategic Advisory Group was also formed to share expert insight and advice for the future of APPEL.

The APPEL Network (APPEL’s webinar series) continued in 2022 with 4 new topics being covered – communication skills, a PRE information session, using your APPEL experience for CPD, and effective leadership. APPEL welcomed experts from the field to deliver webinars on these topics that were of particular interest to our Trainers. You can watch recordings of these webinars and more on the APPEL website here.

In October, the Future of pharmacIE event returned for its second year. This online careers event was a great success in 2021 and it was even bigger and better in 2022. Nearly 400 pharmacy students and professionals signed up to the event where they could build their professional network,

connect with peers, and learn more about different career opportunities in pharmacy. The event included a panel discussion with pharmacists in a diverse range of practice areas and welcomed back past students who were now supervising placements as registered pharmacists. APPEL was also honoured to welcome Ms. Emer Cooke (Executive Director of the EMA) to give a keynote speech on her career to date and take part in a discussion with Director and National Coordinator of APPEL, Ms. Joanne Kissane.

As the year draws to a close, we are so grateful to all our stakeholders for their ongoing engagement and support. We look forward to working together to help pharmacy students on their journey to practice in 2023!

If you would like to learn more about the APPEL programme, please check out our website (www.appel.ie) or contact us at ops@appel.ie.

1st panel discussion – Main image Ruth McCarthy (UCC Practice Educator for APPEL), from top; Leonie Clarke (IMVO), Fergus Nugent (Mater Private Cork), Rory O’Donnell (TotalHealth Group), Fionnual King (AHDMP), Noor Bajalan (Mater Private Dublin), Tomás Conefrey (Conefrey’s Careplus Pharmacy).