Louise Cope

Profile

Biography

I graduated as a pharmacist from Bradford University in 1987. My pre-registration training was split between an independent community pharmacy based in Bradford, and York District General Hospital. Since then I have worked in pharmacy practice across all sectors of healthcare.

As a qualified supplementary prescriber since 2005, and an independent pharmacist prescriber since 2008, I have experience of prescribing as a non-medical prescriber within both general practice and out-of- hours care.

Currently I work in academia, and since 2008 this has been at Edge Hill University as senior lecturer in Medical Education for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I am the pharmacist programme lead for the University’s Non-Medical Prescribing Programmes and the Prescribing Medicines Safely Theme Lead for the MBChB Programme.

My interest in research arose after I started to work within the academic sector. My experience as a non-medical prescriber, and time spent teaching trainee non- medical prescribers generated my curiosity to explore the practice further. I obtained my MPhil from Manchester University in 2013 entitled: ‘Non-medical prescribing – successful models in community pharmacy’, and my PhD in 2022 entitled: ‘Patient Safety with Non-Medical Prescribing’.