Dr Christine Hirsch

Dr Christine Hirsch

School of Pharmacy
Honorary Associate Professor in Pharmacy

Contact details

Address
Institute of Clinical Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Christine is Honorary Associate Professor in Pharmacy. Christine has wide experience of teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is a registered pharmacist.

She has a keen interest in interprofessional learning, and is committed to evidence based practice in education. She also works with the College of MDS group ‘Involving People in Healthcare Education’ supporting patient and public involvement in healthcare education. 

Her other areas of research interest include medicines use and prescribing in palliative care.

Qualifications

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 2018
  • Practice Certificate in Pharmacist Independent Prescribing 2011
  • PhD ‘Anticholinergics in treatment of oropharyngeal secretions at the end of life’ 2007
  • Advanced Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Teaching 1993
  • Member of the College of Pharmacy Practice (MCPP) 1991
  • MSc Hospital Pharmacy 1988
  • MRPharm S 1983
  • BPharm 1982

Biography

Christine Hirsch gained a BPharm (Hons) from U.W.I.S.T in Cardiff in 1982, completing her pre-registration year at the Royal London Hospital in 1983. After registration as a pharmacist she joined the pharmacy department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham in 1984 developing the cytotoxic reconstitution service for oncology.

In 1988 she gained an MSc in clinical hospital pharmacy and in 1989 returned to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Medicines Information and managerial roles.

In 1997 Christine moved to a palliative care post in the West Midlands, based at St Mary’s Hospice, Birmingham and later Compton Hospice, Wolverhampton and in 2007 she completed her PhD.

In 2011 Christine joined the College of Medicine and Dentistry as a lecturer in clinical pharmacy as part of the team to assist in development of new pharmaceutical initiatives.

Christine was co-chair of the Interprofessional education (IPE) steering group from August 2021 to 2023. She is part of the management group for Involving people in Healthcare education.

Christine became Honorary Associate Professor in Pharmacy in December 2023 in which role she continues to mentor students and to undertake educational writing and research.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Christine has provided supervision in the following areas:

  • Palliative care
  • Pharmacy education including inter-professional (IPE) healthcare education

Research

Christine’s main research interests have been in Palliative and End of Life Care and Pharmacy and Interprofessional (IPE) Healthcare Education.

Healthcare Education

Recently she has been working with a group including students and academics, looking at the impact of student led IPE initiatives in the transition to the working environment.

End of Life Care

Recent collaborative projects with NHS and Hospice partners have focused on prescribing choices for patients at the end of life.

Her PhD (2007) focussed on the use of anticholinergic agents to treat excessive oropharyngeal and tracheal secretions at the end of life in palliative care.

Publications

Hirsch C, McKenna M.(2011) ‘Medicines management in palliative care’. In  Nicholson A, Faull C. (eds) Handbook of Palliative Care. 3r Ed . 2011 In Press

Hirsch C, Morrison H, Boulstridge L .Ed .West Midlands Palliative Care Physicians. Palliative Care, Guidelines for the Use of Drugs in Symptom Control. 2007.

Selected Conference Abstracts

Availability of Palliative Care Medication provided by ‘Just in Case’ boxes. Sacharewicz K, BlackwellS, Hirsch C. Poster. Palliative Care Research Conference. Belfast. 2011.

Teaching and learning applied clinical pharmacy skills – piloting virtual patient case scenarios in an IT based learning environment. Hirsch C and Marriott J F. e-learning in Health Conference. Warwick University. 2009

Access to palliative care drugs ‘out-of-hours’ - a preliminary evaluation of two West Midland’s models. Hirsch C A, Hayer B, Salih Z, Marriott J F. British Pharmaceutical Conference. 2009

View all publications in research portal