A university is helping its pharmacy students improve their approach to inclusive healthcare after commissioning film students to produce vignettes showing “complex patient interactions”. 

The University of Reading film, theatre and television department asked students to produce four vignettes to “help pharmacy students recognise and respond to non-verbal cues they may encounter in practice”. 

Read more: Pharmacy technician receives fellowship for mental health pharmacy work 

The project is in response to feedback from MPharm students at Reading, who said they wanted interactive, film-based learning to help them work through these “potentially sensitive scenarios”. 

The vignettes feature deaf patients, a trans patient, an elderly patient, and patients from different cultural backgrounds. 

The pharmacy school’s Dr Atta Naqvi led the project, and said the vignettes reflect “real-world scenarios in ways traditional teaching cannot achieve”. 

He said research had identified “specific challenges – from interacting with patients from the d/Deaf community to recognising when cultural norms affect how someone reports pain. These vignettes allow students to observe and reflect on real-world scenarios in ways traditional teaching cannot achieve." 

Read more: Pharmacist honoured for clean drinking water research 

He told C+D the school plans to expand the initiative by producing vignettes that “address a wider range of cultural issues, with the long-term goal of creating a dedicated vignette library”. 

“Each year, we review student feedback to inform continuous improvement and to guide decisions on future directions for the vignette project,” he added. 

The vignettes have been seen by over 200 students who fed back they had an “increased confidence in interpreting cultural cues”. 

Read more: Pharmacy reopens after hard fought student campaign 

A research study is underway to formally evaluate the educational impact, and Naqvi told C+D the vignettes had already been used by the Global Academy department at Reading.  

While the project was funded by the university’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Projects (TLEP) scheme, it is seeking funding to support further filmmaking and other potential commercial and collaborative opportunities. 

It comes as the University of Liverpool announced in October it will open a new school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences in September 2026 to “meet this growing demand” for pharmacists.