Doctorate in professional Practice (Dprof)

Rafia Jamil, University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Developing a research portfolio has been part of my career development plan since I started developing my advanced practice portfolio. Where I have undertaken service evaluation and quality improvement projects but I have not undertaken a research project yet. This has partly been because I wanted to develop my skills on research methodologies before undertaking a PhD. During my Academi Wales Leadership Summer School I came to know about Doctorate in professional practice and after having number of discussions with the course lead it became evident that this course meets my learning needs in terms of developing research skills as well as undertaking critical appraisal and my own reflective portfolio.  

This course also offers me opportunity to apply my learning to practice by developing a research proposal as well as undertaking a work-based project before embarking upon my research journey in the second part. During the course of part 1 we are also expected to publish our work which is another area I want to develop on. Although I had done audits and projects but did not go ahead with publishing any of it.   

The most important aspect of this course for me is that my research will be in my area of professional practice. The course expects the research to directly benefit current or future practice hence adding value on practice basis. As a result, I am working closely with my head of pharmacy to explore the research project that will be beneficial for the department.  

This also means that I will be leading by example and inspire more pharmacists to undertake formal research training and qualification. Following the completion of the course I will have research skill and knowledge which I can bring to life in my job by continuing to undertake more research and making Research and Development as part of pharmacy practice. The bursary will cover the fee for modules in part 1 which means I will not have to face financial burden for rest of the year and next year.