Professor Sharon Haughey PFHEA
Background
Sharon qualified as a pharmacist in 1999, spending her early career as a community pharmacist working across the island of Ireland. She returned to QUB as an academic member of staff in 2001 teaching across the Master of Pharmacy degree and postgraduate courses. She served as a Director of Education (DE) in the School of Pharmacy for seven years (2014-2021). With a recent promotion to Chair within the School (2023), she is developing and delivering new teaching for a modernised MPharm degree and exploring new opportunities for learning as an interprofessional simulation champion.
When asked to reflect on “what does being a Principal Fellow mean to you?” Professor answered:
"The application process, although initially daunting is a powerful tool for reflection. It helped me to critically evaluate the impact of my teaching, leadership and scholarship. It also gave clarity to and consolidated my love of teaching, aspirations for our healthcare students and the future of my profession through education and role development.
Putting together the application helped me to realise the impact of my collaborations with colleagues across the healthcare family from the power of interprofessional learning in our new KN Cheung SK Chin InterSim Centre to the full development of pharmacists as prescribers. Helping learners to develop and grow to deliver optimal patient care was a clear thread throughout. Outcomes were informed by research findings and scholarship, particularly with the growth of experiential learning, assessment and pharmacists working as prescribers within the multidisciplinary team. Being awarded Principal Fellow has encouraged me to keep doing what I do, nurturing those relationships and networks, supporting others but also to stretch further with new collaborations through student and patient co-design in education.
I had fantastic support from Karen Fraser and others who reviewed my application and offered sage advice and words of encouragement. The supporting statements from colleagues were affirming and at some points I was overwhelmed by their words . I am determined to spend time now supporting others in the same process."