Professional Doctorate in Health Practice - DHealth

Research Interests 

Research in health-related practice in our Faculty is led by the Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research (C-SCHaRR).

There are four designated clusters within the C-SCHaRR centre representing cross-cutting research themes of relevance for more than one area of professional practice:

• Knowledge2Care –concerned with knowledge mobilisation, co-creation, patient and public involvement and engagement, implementation science (all DHealth students benefit from insights from this cluster, as its researchers lead on the Critical Perspectives 2 module)
• Family, Gender & Health –gender and health; children and young people’s health; family and health experiences
• Person-Centred Ageing -research to support and improve quality of life for older people and those with dementia; work with and on all settings including community, hospital, care homes, prisons.
• The Elizabeth Bryan Multiple Births Centre – a partnership with the Multiple Births Foundation (MBF) which carries out research on all aspects of multiple births.

Here are some examples of current or recent work that has significance for health practice, undertaken by researchers in C-SCHaRR:

• MR imaging to predict neurodevelopmental impairment in preterm infants (Prof Merryl Harvey)
• Communicating endometriosis: health professionals’ experiences (Dr Annalise Weckesser)
• Eczema mindlines (Prof Fiona Cowdell)
• Enhancing dementia care and support in prison populations (Prof Joanne Rybacka-Brooke)
• Investigating burnout in nursing-home nurses (Catharine Jenkins)

Entry requirements

UK students

Research proposal

As part of your application, you are required to upload a personal statement / proposal. Due to the developmental nature of this course, there is no need to provide a comprehensive research proposal at application. However, you must outline your practice and research interests in one-two pages:

• Current area of practice: Describe your professional role and –if relevant – how it has developed. Identify the setting in which you currently work.
• Research interests: what aspect of your role / practice are you interested in investigating? What experience or involvement in research activities have you had?

Download the research proposal template

Course structure

You will be introduced to an array of new techniques and emerging philosophies that are available to develop your ability to critically analyse practice and the relevance of theoretical concepts which underpin them. Furthermore you will investigate the relevance of digital technologies as a means to deepen your understanding of the mobility of people, ideas, networks and meanings derived from multiple geographical and historical origins.

A major outcome will be that you will enhance your own professional skills and be in a position to influence others in the development of your organisation. At the same time and notwithstanding national policy requirements and professional practices, you will recognise a global reconfiguring of social relationships largely disconnected from national origins.

Central to this will be the need to engage in reflective and reflexive practice in order to understand the potential consequences of actions and plan for professional change in the context of the global circulation of educational ideologies, discourses and practices.

The framework of the programme incorporates components intended to develop research skills and a willingness to adopt an approach which is explicitly enquiring and involves the critique of existing practice and encourages challenges to established theory. Assessment strategies will provide you with opportunities to develop and demonstrate a range of doctoral level skills including multi-model approaches (visual and verbal) in addition to the more traditional forms of critical writing.

You will be awarded a professional doctorate on successful demonstration of the following:

• The creation and interpretation of new knowledge and contribution to professional practice through scholarly research of a quality to satisfy peer review, extend the forefront of the subject and merit publication;
• Significant development in key aspects of professional practice;
• A systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of an area of professional practice;
• The general ability to conceptualise, design and develop a project for the generation of new professional knowledge, and to modify and influence practice in the light of contextual considerations, as appropriate;
• A detailed understanding of applicable techniques for both research and advanced academic enquiry.

The DHealth programme is undertaken in three phases.

Phase 1 - you will undertake the first two Critical Perspectives modules through which you are introduced to key concepts in educational research methodology within the policy and political contexts of educational practice.

Phase 2 - in the second phase you will extend your experience of research methodologies and engage with a range of contemporary and experimental approaches and undertake a pilot project in an area of your choice. In phase 2 you will also undertake the university-wide PG Certificate in Research Practice which provides the opportunity to discuss and write a research proposal for the DHealth thesis.

Phase 3 - you will complete a 50,000 word thesis in an area of your choice.