PhD Students

Background
William has been a trainee doctor in North Yorkshire since 2012, currently working at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. William has had a growing interest in patient safety and healthcare improvement/quality improvement (QI) science. Having undertaken many QI projects he completed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Improvement Coach Program in Boston in 2016. William is an Improvement Fellow with the Improvement Academy and member of Q (The Health Foundation).

William is interested in all areas of patient safety and healthcare improvement, and particularly in building capacity and capability in frontline healthcare staff. He has developed training programmes for junior doctors and other frontline staff/teams (mutli-disciplinary).

William is an honorary lecturer for the Hull York Medical School, teaching 3rd and 5th year medical students (Bedside/Seminar/Simulation).

William’s PhD is supported by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (https://www.yorkhospitals.nhs.uk/)

PhD overview
William is interested in how we respond to errors and adverse events within healthcare; when and how we should investigate, how we decide what to do with the findings of an investigation and how we design, test and implement changes. His PhD is about how we produce more effective safety strategies from adverse incident investigation, but also more broadly how we respond to the findings of investigations.

Research interests
Patient Safety; Quality Improvement in Healthcare; Human Factors.

Background
Daisy graduated from Newcastle University with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology in 2016. She then went on to study an MSc in Health Psychology at Northumbria University (2017). Daisy is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Leeds and Bradford Institute for Health Research funded by THIS Institute.

Whilst completing her MSc degree, Daisy worked as a Psychological Assistant at a Maggie’s Cancer Care Home in Newcastle. Since graduating, Daisy has worked as a Research Assistant at Manchester University and a Research Project Manager at a company providing a digital solution for the NHS: Digital Diabetes Prevention Programme.

PhD overview
Daisy will use bottom-up methodology to better understand what procedures, practices and interventions do not contribute towards patient safety in the NHS. The research will initially focus on identifying a target ‘low-value’ safety practice before working with healthcare professionals and patients to develop a behaviour change intervention to stop the embedded practice from being carried out.

Research interests
Daisy is interested in the use of psychological theory to develop behaviour change interventions that improve health. She is also interested in improving patient safety through qualitative research methods.

Background
Emily is from a Psychology background, receiving her BSc (Hons) from University of Leeds in July 2019. She is currently carrying out a PhD between University of Leeds and the Bradford Institute for Health Research, which is funded by NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. Emily’s PhD research comes under the workforce engagement and wellbeing theme. Emily did not have any time out of education and came straight from undergraduate Psychology to PhD study however throughout university has worked part time in several NHS settings including domestic, administrative and data management teams.

PhD overview
The project aims to understand uncertainty as a concept in the emergency department amongst junior doctors and patients. It will firstly focus on the management or tolerance of uncertainty and use findings from studies to inform interventions with the hope of enhancing it. The necessity to develop tolerance of uncertainty in the NHS is evident from its links with burnout, anxiety, loss of confidence and inappropriate admissions, to name a few.

Research interests
Uncertainty in medicine; patient safety in the emergency department.

Background
Caitlin is a paramedic by background and has worked for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust since qualifying in 2012. She has worked mainly as a frontline paramedic on the emergency ambulance but has also completed a 12-month secondment as a research paramedic on the NIHR funded Paramedic Acute Stroke Treatment Assessment trial in 2017. Following her paramedic DipHE qualification at Edge Hill University and top-up BSc(Hons) degree at the University of Cumbria, Caitlin was granted an HEE/NIHR Master of Clinical Research Studentship. This enabled her to undertake an MSc in Clinical Research Methods at the University of Leeds in 2015/16. Currently, Caitlin is undertaking a PhD at the University of Leeds/Bradford Institute for Health Research funded by the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre under the Workforce Engagement and Wellbeing theme. Caitlin continues to work one shift per week as a paramedic to ensure her research remains relevant and can be translated into clinical practice.

PhD overview
The overall aim of this PhD is to explore whether pre-hospital feedback improves patient safety by enhancing paramedic decision-making and promoting ambulance staff engagement and wellbeing. The initial mapping phase will include a systematic scoping review of pre-hospital feedback literature alongside a comparative case study of existing pre-hospital feedback schemes. Following this, two research studies will be conducted: a diary study to capture paramedics’ unanswered (feedback) questions and a national cross-sectional survey of work-related well-being, staff engagement, patient safety & current feedback provision in UK ambulance services. The later phases of the PhD will involve developing a feedback intervention/framework in collaboration with ambulance staff, patients and stakeholders, as well as evaluating this intervention in a quasi-experiment alongside qualitative process evaluation and health economics.

Research interests
Pre-hospital care, patient safety, staff wellbeing, evidence-based practice, decision-making.

Background
Daniel graduated from the University of Durham/University of Newcastle with a Masters in Pharmacy (MPharm) in 2018, with a dissertation title “Clinical Practice Guidelines for older patients with multi-morbidities – what are the implications for deprescribing”. He then underwent his pharmacist pre-registration training at University College London Hospitals, providing pharmacy support in multiple clinical rotations. Daniel became a registered Pharmacist in August 2019. He is currently undertaking a PhD funded by NIHR Patient Safety and Translation Centre Yorkshire and Humber and the University of Leeds.

PhD overview
It has been documented that polypharmacy, the use of 5 or more medicines concurrently, is on the rise. With this comes the risk of patients receiving potentially inappropriate medication leading to adverse drug reactions. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has started a campaign known as “Medication Without Harm” looking to reduce avoidable medication-related harm by 50% in the next 5 years. Deprescribing of inappropriate medication may help to achieve this. Furthermore, pharmacists are routinely involved in the management of patient medication at the primary care level. Daniel will explore and study the role of a pharmacist within current primary care practice, explore the feasibility of a deprescribing in primary care practice model and investigate whether pharmacists can feasibly be utilised in deprescribing of inappropriate medication. The research will focus on deprescribing as a service within the NHS and will consider the pharmacist role in medicines management and optimisation.

Research interests
Deprescribing, medicines optimisation and management, pharmacy, patient safety

Publications
Okeowo D, Patterson A, Boyd C, Reeve E, Gnjidic D, Todd A. Clinical practice guidelines for older people with multi-morbidity and life limiting illness: what are the implications for deprescribing?. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety 2018.

Background
Darci graduated with a BSc in Psychology and Counselling from Abertay University in 2018, followed by an MSc in Psychological Research Methods (with a specialism in Cognition and Neuropsychology) from the University of Stirling in 2019. During both of the previous degrees Darci volunteered as a research assistant on a variety of psychological projects (Growth Mindset, Laterality and Facial recognition and processing). Her MSc project sparked an interest in applied health research; she investigated the awareness of alcohol consumption as a risk factor of cancer amongst adolescents in the UK, using Cancer Research UK funded data. Darci is currently undertaking a PhD, funded by NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Centre.

PhD overview
The aim of the project is to explore, document and understand how patients and their families support the safety and quality of cancer care. In particular, the project will focus on the role of ‘invisible labour’ undertaken by patients and their families across the cancer pathway. 

Research interests
Patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare generally, but particularly in cancer care and mental health settings.

Background
Olivia graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from De Montfort University, followed by an MRC awarded scholarship for an MRes in Inflammation: Cellular and Vascular Aspects. During both degrees Olivia became particularly interested in research communication with patient, public and healthcare staff and equity in health research, which lead to a five-year career as a Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Specialist within NHS research.

She is currently conducting a PhD research project at the University of Leeds, funded by NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre within the Workplace Engagement and Wellbeing theme.

Olivia works one day a week as a PPIE Research Fellow within the Partners at Care Transitions research programme to maintain her involvement expertise and sustain relationships.

PhD overview
Despite an increasingly diverse NHS workforce, workplace mistreatment reported in the NHS Staff Surveys remains persistent for racial and ethnic minority healthcare staff. In addition, both experience of, and observation of incivility in healthcare has been reported to have an effect on the wellbeing of the individual, wider team performance and ultimately staff experience has been shown to be associated with patient care.

Olivia aims to explore how racial and ethnic minority healthcare workers conceptualise, perceive, experience and attribute rude and disrespectful behaviour at work (often described as incivility) from both colleagues and patients, the contextual factors, triggers and potential consequences/ implications for patient care. The project aims to inform potential avenues for an intervention to improve the experience of racial and ethnic minority healthcare staff in the NHS.

Research interests
Incivility, negative workplace behaviours, equity, healthcare staff wellbeing, patient care

Publications
Hague, C., Foran, B., Hall, E., Guild, S., Joseph, O., Moule, R., Nutting, C., Parsons, S., Prestwich, R., Slevin, N. and West, C., (2018). Patient Involvement in the Design of a Phase III Trial Comparing Intensity-modulated Proton Therapy and Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy for Oropharyngeal Cancer. Clinical Oncology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clon.2018.01.018

Holmes, L., Cresswell, K., Williams, S., Parsons, S., Keane, A., Wilson, C., Islam, S., Joseph, O., Miah, J., Robinson, E., & Starling, B. (2019). Innovating public engagement and patient involvement through strategic collaboration and practice. Research Involvement and Engagement, 5(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-019-0160-4

Nicholas, O. J., Joseph, O., Keane, A., Cleary, K., Campbell, S. H., Gwynne, S. H., Crosby, T., Radhakrishna, G., & Hawkins, M. A. (2020). Patient and Public Involvement Refines the Design of ProtOeus: A Proposed Phase II Trial of Proton Beam Therapy in Oesophageal Cancer. The Patient – Patient-Centered Outcomes Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-020-00487-8

Background
Daniel graduated from Durham University with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Psychology (2019). After which, he remained in Durham for another year, receiving a distinction in MSc Cognitive Neuroscience (2020). Daniel is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Leeds, funded by NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

PhD overview
The project aims to identify, understand, and measure stressors associated with the in-hospital environment. This will be accomplished by exploring factors such as susceptibility to these stressors, and their impact on patient outcomes (i.e., post-hospital syndrome). The PhD will conclude by producing a tool to assess in-hospital stress; designed and evaluated by Daniel.

Research interest
Patient safety; patient outcomes (particularly, post-hospital syndrome); in-hospital stress.

Publications
None as of yet.

Background:

Debbie qualified as a Nurse in 1998 and has spent most of her clinical career working within Critical Care at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Debbie completed a B. Med Sci in Critical Care Nursing in 2004.

Since 2008, Debbie has worked at Sheffield Hallam University, most recently as a Principal Lecturer in Adult Nursing. Debbie completed an MSc in Healthcare Education in 2016. Whilst working within education Debbie has focused upon enhancing patient safety, human factors, and quality improvement within pre and post registration nurse education.

During her lecturing career, Debbie has enjoyed a secondment with the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Academy which allowed her to work with the team to support regional work on Human Factors education and collaborated on a Health Foundation funded safety project: The measurement and monitoring of safety framework (Vincent, 2013)

Debbie is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Leeds funded by THIS Institute.

PhD Overview:  

Debbie’s PhD is concerned with exploring how and in what circumstances a flexible approach to safety management supports safety. The work aims to understand how, when and if ‘work arounds’ contribute to safe care and will explore the impact of using Safety II approaches within healthcare.

Initially a scoping review will be used to map the when, why and what type of standards are work round within healthcare. A focused ethnography within a range of different healthcare settings with then be conducted to observe adherence to or deviation from specified standards. This data will then be used to inform a series of stakeholder workshops to try and establish safe parameters for when workarounds could be used. The safe parameters (work as done) will then be tested against the exemplar standard (work as imagined) in a simulated environment to explore the impact on pre-determined outcomes such as efficiency and safety.

Research Interests:

Patient Safety, Human Factors, Critical Care

Publications:

The Introduction of “Safety Science” into an                                                                  

Undergraduate Nursing Programme at a Large University 

in the United Kingdom 

Nick White, Deborah Clark, Wayne Robson, Robin Lewis

Int. J. Nurs. Educ. Scholarsh. 2016; 13(1): 1–8

Teaching patient safety and human factors in undergraduate nursing                        

curricula in England: a pilot survey

Wayne Robson, Debbie Clark, David Pinnock, Nick White and Bryn Baxendale

British Journal of Nursing, 2013, Vol 22, No 17

Background:

I have studied at undergrad and masters level at the University of Bradford in psychology. I am currently in my third year of my PhD. Prior to obtaining the role of Researcher in Patient Safety on the AI Command Centre project, I worked for 5 years across the NHS. Most recently in Information Governance at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
PhD overview: An examination of Twitter communications between organisations and their patrons in an attempt to understand how listening can be demonstrated. This will be done using a dialogic framework of listening and the data will be subject to qualitative analysis in the form of reflexive thematic analysis and dialogical analysis.
Research interests: Patient safety, organisational listening, social psychology, social media, communication

Publications:

Ethical Considerations in post-GDPR social media based research, Qualitiative Methods in Psychology Bulletin 2021 (passed peer review and in print) Authors; Joshua Granger (Principle author), Dr Peter Branney, Dr Paul Sullivan, Dr Steven McDermott

Beyond hearing: An application of Bakhtinian Dialogism to understanding listening, History & Philosophy of Psychology Periodical, Volume 22, Number , 2021, Author: Joshua Granger

Background:

I graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology in 2018. After working in inpatient mental health services for some time I returned to Leeds to study MSc Psychological Approaches to Health (2021). I am currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Leeds, funded by NIHR.

PhD overview:

The project will explore clinical and non-clinical care practices patients consider to be low-value. In particular, the research will focus on care in mental health services. Mixed methods will be used to identify targets for de-implementation and an intervention will be developed alongside patients to reduce, replace, or stop low-value practices.

Research interests: Patient safety, low-value care, mental health care.

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