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

Research

The University of Bradfords Education, Innovation Research and Development research groups vision is to put the University of Bradford at the centre of Innovative Pharmacy Education. At the core of this is improving the student experience. 'Student centred learning for patient-centred care'

Projects include: 

Evaluation of the ‘Making Time’ project. A study developed to explore pharmacists working with carers and service users who have learning disabilities. The project offered one-to-one monthly meetings between these parties to help to support service users and their carers with their medicines and health education. 

Development of Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity amongst Healthcare Professionals, academic staff and students to enhance patient-centred care. 

Using the techniques of Motivational Interviewing (MI) to enhance student learning. Developing a portfolio-based approach to encourage continuing professional development (CPD) in undergraduate pharmacy students. 

Using a ‘communities of practice’ approach to coaching and mentoring community pharmacists in developing their CPD. Developing evaluation methods for curriculum review. Developing educational and practice supervisors (DEPS) in the pharmacy workplace. 

Using peer-assessment as a tool to promote student learning and reduce the burden of summative assessment. My current research includes Educational Evaluation of the MPharm programme using Team-Based Learning as a whole of curricula educational intervention. 

Principal supervisor of a Doctoral fellowship student in the UoB’s Dementia Doctoral Training Centre which focuses on transitions in care setting and disease/life stages. 

Co-supervisor of a Doctoral student investigating an invention to improve self-efficacy in diabetes care.

Teaching

Philosophy for teaching and research could be described as 'student-centred learning for patient-centred care'.  I am interested in how individual student potential can be maximised to best effect and having a Team-Based Learning whole of curriculum approach enhances and developed students.

The areas of teaching that I enjoy the most are concerned with challenging students pre-conceptions and seeing every questions with a black and white answer:

Ethics
Developing and enhancing professionalism
Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
Clinical reasoning
Decision-making
Behaviour change
Pedagogical Approaches to Learning and Teaching
Social and Behavioural Pharmacy
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

That said, I enjoy applying these interests to practical problem-solving teaching on most subjects including:

Responding to Symptoms
Medicines Optimisation
Communication and Consultation Skills
Health Promotion and Public Health
Interprofessional Education

Professional activities

Publications