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| Veterinary Pharmacy Education Programme |
| 2009 |
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There is an ever growing number of companion animals (including horses) in the community, all of which require regular prophylactic treatment in order to control and contain many naturally occurring internal and external parasites: both for animal welfare and public health reasons.
It has been estimated that at least one in four of a community pharmacy’s patients and customers has a cat or a dog and numbers continue to rise. Correspondingly, the UK market for companion animal health products is even conservatively valued at over £180 million. The cat population of 7.7 million now exceeds that of dogs by almost a million. There are about 750,000 horses – mostly in urban paddocks, – about 10 million racing and show pigeons and 2 million other small animal pets, which includes a growing number of rabbits and ferrets!
Many aspects of veterinary pharmacy are analogous to main-stream human oriented pharmacy, though of course major pharmacological differences occur between animal species and must be taken into account. Diagnosis and therapeutic treatments are the main prerogative of the veterinarian for animals under their care but disease prevention and prophylactic control is not so limited however, recent changes in the Veterinary Regulations allow pharmacists and Suitably Qualified Persons to prescribe certain veterinary medicines.
Pharmacists are in a key position to act as a link between pet and livestock owners, and other health professionals as appropriate. Professional cooperation with veterinary surgeons and their practices is of paramount importance and is of especial benefit to the animal ‘patient’ and animal owner.
Some areas in which the pharmacist can contribute include:
Veterinary Pharmacy Education Programme
The Certificate in Companion Animal Health Care is studied mainly by distance learning. Candidates take two modules (1 and 2 below) based on the Course textbook and gain the Certificate on successfully completing a workbook, information file and four assignments (guidance given). Attendance at a study day is also required.
The Certificate in Livestock Health Care (Modules 3 and 4 below) is based on a one-week intensive course of lectures and Livestock Unit visits plus 75 hours recorded relevant practical experience and CPD. There is a 3-hour written examination.
Pharmacy Technicians and Veterinary Pharmacy Support Staff are eligible for the award of these two certificates as part of a Suitably Qualified Person training programme.
The Diploma in Veterinary Pharmacy (DVetPham) is available to pharmacists and other statutorily registered health professionals. It requires successful completion of the two certificate programmes detailed above plus a dissertation and oral examination. Guidance is given on dissertation writing.
Certificates of attendance are issued for CPD record purposes.
Course content
Module 1 Companion Animals and Public Health
Module 2 Companion Animal Health Care
Module 3 Veterinary Pharmacy
Module 4 Livestock Health and husbandry
While primarily concerned with cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, where relevant, reference is made to deer, goats, game birds etc.
Guidance is also given to facilitate personal study of some more minor topics, for which time does not permit inclusion in the intensive residential programme.
Course fees
| Diploma | £1925 includes all costs (no extras!) |
| Certificate in Companion Animal Health Care | £575 includes study day costs |
| Certificate in Livestock Health Care | £999 includes all residential costs |
If during the study of modules 1 and 2, a person wishes to proceed to transfer to the Diploma programme the additional fee will be £1300. If a candidate wishes to defer their studies beyond the agreed completion dates, there will be an extra charge of £50 for modules one and two and £100 for modules 3 and 4.
The fees include:
Certificate in Companion Animal Health Care – all course materials (workbook and supplementary materials), marking of assignments and workbook, attendance at study day.
Certificate in Large Animal Health Care – all course materials, attendance at residential week (including 5 nights full board and Course Dinner), marking written examination and attendance experience record/CPD.
Diploma – all specified above under both certificates plus examining dissertation and oral examination
Course documentation
Course documentation will be supplied in electronic form from the website and by email as far as possible.
Course Textbooks
The main textbook on which the course is based is
Kayne SB, Jepson M (Eds) Veterinary Pharmacy London, Pharmaceutical Press 2004.
ISBN 0 85369 534 2 [£39.95]
The following resources will also be of use
Time commitment
Personal study is likely to about 80 -120 hours for each module. Most people allocate 5-10 hours a week depending on their target date for completion.
Career opportunities
Pharmacists with the Diploma have taken up career opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory affairs, government departments and agencies such as the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA), as well as widely in specialist veterinary pharmacy practice especially in the UK and Ireland, the Commonwealth and mainland Europe. Opportunities also exist in academia.
The programme is relevant to pharmacists and other health professionals in whatever sphere of practice they operate and especially to those at the core of primary health care. Increasingly, pharmacists are finding that the concerns and worries of patients and public often include and relate to food, its origins, farming practice both nationally and world-wide, public health matters and shortcomings in public and personal hygiene. All these factors can impinge on the broader issues of inclusive good health, which naturally includes farm and feral animals, pets and the environment.
Further details of the course programme may be obtained by e-mail from
2009/v4/SBK
©VPEP 2008
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