Dr Sue Jones

Biography

My underlying philosophy around learning is never to stop asking ‘why’.  This has kept my curiosity going and my approach to teaching, learning, assessment and research contemporary.  I have my little one-liners such as ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ and ‘I’m not psychic and don’t have a crystal ball’ Although I must have said the latter so many times that some of my previous students actually bought me one! 

Sue was born in Hull and is proud of her heritage.  Studying at the University of Brighton she returned to Hull to qualify and practice as a pharmacist.  Her interest in educating others was fuelled by the impact she could see she was having on patients who returned, often with their friends and family to speak to her. Her next challenge was leaving Hull to take up a Boots Teacher Practitioner (TP) post at King’s College London (KCL).  Law and ethics were the first lectures she had to give and having sat in them when she was an undergraduate, her big test was to make them interesting.  By interspersing the dry theory with Sue’s experiences of forged prescriptions, veterinary prescribing and daily supplies, students seemed to enjoy them. Working very closely with Boots the Chemists’ Head Office nationally and the London region locally, she came to realise the gaps in educational practice of tutors in the workplace and decided to leave her TP role to pursue an academic route and a PhD.  

This research was part of an EU funded project looking at pharmacists and dentists and the ability for them to be able to access continuing professional development (CPD) in the workplace using technology.  Her first podcast was in 2002 – at that time they were called ‘webcasts’.  Aligned with this research was a stream of teaching and project work around professionalism in undergraduate students. Post-PhD, she build upon this research by being seconded to the King’s Learning Institute (KLI), came up with an idea and jointly founded the Master of Arts in Clinical Pedagogy.  With module leadership in Intercultural Healthcare Education, Fundamentals of Pedagogy for Healthcare Professionals and Pharmacy in an Educational Context, this work cemented bringing an educational dimension to pharmacy.  It also harked back to developing workplace based tutors.  

Working with a team through King’s Health Partners led to the instigation of the ‘Statement of Teaching Proficiency’; aligned with the Academy of Medical Educator model, accredited by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) put developing tutors back on the agenda.  She was also Programme Leader for a successful MSc/PG Diploma in Primary Care and Community Pharmacy. 

Moving to Bradford brought new challenges of enhancing student experiences through Programme and Module Leadership together with being chair of the Education, Innovation Research and Development (EIRD) research group.  In 2017, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) gave a rare complement to the MPharm team:

'The outstanding team work demonstrated by the institutional leadership, senior team, staff and students. It was clear that colleagues in this school work in close partnership creating a strongly collegiate culture.' (1)

Later that year, Sue was team lead and awarded a prestigious ‘Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) from Advance HE. ‘Revolutionising a pharmacy curriculum through systematic team development with students & staff’ (2)

She enjoys gory horror films – especially vampires and zombies, walking her dogs, cacti and succulents, creativity and always has an eye on the latest tech.  

1.  https://www.pharmacyregulation.org/sites/default/files/document/bradford_mpharm_reaccreditation_2018_report_for_web.pdf 2.    https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/person/university-bradford-pharmacy-curriculum-team

Professional activities