Aston University’s school of pharmacy has won a teaching award from higher education charity Advance HE after introducing simulation software to support their pharmacy placements.

The school’s Professional Experience Implementation Group (PEIG)  was awarded a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) as it expanded its placements for pharmacy students at a time where there has been “a shortage of placements in an under resourced, over stretched National Health Service (NHS)”, Advance HE said.

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Associate head of the school Natalie Lewis led the PEIG’s ten-member team who “expanded placements by 700% for students across pharmacy disciplines” as placements were supported “with simulations, medicines information training and campus-based student-led clinics”, the university said.

The awards celebrate “collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning and highlights the key role of teamwork in UK higher education”, it added.

Lewis said she is looking forward to “sharing our approach with other institutions and welcoming new partners through the endorsement of this award” and is “immensely proud of what we have been able to achieve”.

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The PEIG worked together external partners in community pharmacies, General Practitioner (GP) practices, and NHS trusts, as well as with academics, technical team members, and sectors leads.

Technology partner SimConverse® provided AI simulation software for placements which helped “to overcome some of the barriers to NHS placement delivery”, the university said.

Students practised key skills in tasks which interacted with an AI character programmed in a scenario “custom-built in response to partner needs”, and this increased their “willingness to host students on extended placements”, Advance HE said.

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Through setting up a campus-based NHS health check clinic and enabling NHS led medicines training to be completed on campus, the “approach is sustainable within the envelope of NHS placement tariff and represents a cost saving for both students and the NHS when compared to traditional training on placement”, it added.

Aston University deputy vice-chancellor Professor Osama Khan said he was “very pleased that the outstanding impact of the work of our teaching staff has been recognised” and wished “congratulations to the PEIG team”.