Professional Doctorate in Health Practice (DHealth) at Birmingham City University

Programme overview

The Professional Doctorate in Health Practice (DHealth) is a part-time multi-professional programme leading to a doctoral award. It will enable you to advance your skills, knowledge and practice through research engagement. You will be an experienced practitioner seeking to develop your research capacity, transform practice and make a direct contribution to knowledge in your professional environment.

Faculty: Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences | Department: Nursing and Midwifery, Health Professions | Duration: 4-7 years part-time | Study mode: part-time | Intake: September 2027 | Location: Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

What you will study

This course is designed for experienced practitioners seeking to develop their research capacity, advance their practice and influence service improvements in their work environment. You will study alongside your professional role. Your current ‘professional practice’ may be in the university (as a health practitioner educator). Modules include Research Practice.

Career pathways

After you've completed this course, you will be able to make informed judgements on complex issues in specialist fields, often in the absence of complete data, and be able to communicate your ideas and conclusions clearly and effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Official programme page

Application information

Entry requirements

UK students. Essential. Professional doctorates are designed for mid-career and senior professionals who have previous higher level study, and significant professional experience. The emphasis is on developing links between theory and professional practise through an extensive process of reflective and reflexive learning. Professional doctorates are not designed as a teaching qualification; rather they provide evidence of advanced study and research in a relevant education area. 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?

Intake: September 2027

Duration: 4-7 years part-time

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