Students from the University of Porto (Portugal) and University College Cork (Ireland) have gathered at the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) to take part in an international Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), hosted by UCAM’s Faculty of Pharmacy. The initiative was spearheaded by academics in Pharmaceutical Care and Supervised Internships following Erasmus academic visits to partner institutions in Ireland and Portugal, with the objective of enhancing practical competencies in high-complexity pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Throughout the sessions, participants engage in immersive workshops involving a broad range of medical devices and analytical laboratory testing procedures. Cristina López-Anguas, principal investigator and project co-coordinator alongside Purificación Ballester, noted: “To ensure a genuinely enriching, international learning environment, activities are structured into mixed working groups featuring a student from each participating university”.

A central pillar of the programme is the implementation of mock practical examinations (Prácticum simulations), designed to test and advance novel formats for clinical skill assessment. The initiative draws upon Ireland’s established expertise, where this evaluative methodology is already firmly embedded. As Ruth McCarthy, lecturer at University College Cork, highlighted alongside Professor Fernando Fernández-Llimos of the University of Porto: “Running these international programmes is immensely rewarding, offering students an invaluable professional and academic development opportunity”.