Patricia Black

Biography

I am the strategic lead for postgraduate taught courses in the School of Pharmacy. I have overall responsibility for the design, development and delivery of a portfolio of postgraduate Master’s courses for health professionals working in or with the NHS, principally pharmacists working in the key areas of the profession, and also medical and non-medical prescribers.  The courses are delivered principally using distance learning methods. My areas of expertise include open, distance and flexible learning, and the use of structured reflective learning portfolios for professional practice development.

My research publications in relation to reflective learning demonstrate the positive transformational effect that my work has had on learners.

I have made a significant contribution to three of the major national policy and professional practice areas for Pharmacy that emerged in the last decade, i.e. non-medical prescribing, practitioners with special interests, and advanced professional practice. I led the Keele teams that developed the first Supplementary and Independent Prescribing Preparatory Courses for Pharmacists to be accredited in the UK. I also led the development of Keele’s Advanced Professional Practice and Doctorate in Pharmacy (DPharm) programmes. I was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2011 by the Higher Education Academy.

Research and scholarship

ISTM Research theme: Sustainable Pharmacy

Most of my academic career has been spent collaborating with other academic colleagues on projects that have been funded by the NHS or health professional regulators to provide answers to questions that will help inform the future development of health services or the education of health professionals.

Projects over the last 4-5 years have covered Pre-Registration Pharmacy Training; Foundation Year Doctor Prescribing; Care Closer to Home/Practitioners with Special Interests; Medicines Management for End-of-Life Care.

My own area of particular interest is the use of structured reflective learning portfolios in the workplace for advanced and specialist practice, such as pharmacist prescribing and practitioners with special interests.

I have published a new conceptual multi-dimensional model of reflective learning for professional development that attempts to show that learning for professional development is complex and sophisticated: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14623941003665810.

My research publications in relation to reflective learning demonstrate the positive transformational effect that my work has had on learners.