Doctoral Candidates

Kathryn Bamforth, Clinical Research Team Leader, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust 

'The WELLBEING Study: Exploring the psychological wellbeing of healthcare professionals'. Global concern over the psychological wellbeing of healthcare professionals has escalated following the COVID-19 pandemic. The wellbeing of healthcare professionals is largely described through its absence rather than its presence, with a focus on stress or burnout.  Current interventions appear to have a limited effect. This suggests an ongoing gap in our knowledge on what psychological wellbeing at work means to healthcare professionals and what this in turn means for patients’ experiences of their care. The WELLBEING Study uses experience-based co-design to explore patient and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of staff psychological wellbeing at work and develop possible models to support wellbeing.

Aimee Emmett, Stroke Specialist Nurse and Team Leader, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 

The SPEED-AF Study (Stroke Prevention with mobilE tEchnology Detecting-Atrial Fibrillation). Greater insights into the understanding of healthcare professionals’ experiences and attitudes to the use of technology in the community is anticipated. These will inform and contribute to the development of a comprehensive research agenda with respect to the implementation and spread of technology in community nursing and healthcare. The aim is to inform and evaluate practice change and the wider use of mobile ECG technology in all community settings, including the ‘housebound’ population and those living in nursing and residential homes who have more limited access to community services for routine health checks, especially during and beyond COVID-19.

Pollyanna Kellett, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust 

'The creation and maintenance of resilience in nurse medication administration practice'. The complex/changing environment in nursing has consequences for medication administration safety and patient outcomes. How nurses respond to the need to manage risk has an impact on patient safety. Their ability to adapt, anticipate, and learn, has implications for an alternative view of nurses’ safety strategies where the nurse is proactive in saving the system. Yet there is some tension between nurses’ resilience (adaptive) practice and nursing professional standards and policy, which demand accountability and working within protocols to promote reliability, conformity and safety. An aim is to evaluate the creation/maintenance of strategies nurses use to adapt their practice, and how they could contribute to new ways of working during medication administration to support safety.

Harriet Hughes, Physiotherapist, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

'The RAINCOAT Study: Everyday walking in children with cerebral palsy'. The purpose is to learn more about crouch gait during everyday walking. We want to find out how factors such as knee muscle strength impact on crouch gait. This will help inform phase two which is trialling the use of Functional Electrical Stimulation in crouch gait treatment. This is a small pocket device which enables muscle strength training during everyday walking activities. We want to apply FES in a different way to see if it can help improve the degree of knee bend in children/young people with crouch gait and, improve their ability to carry out every day walking activities such as slopes and steps. If you are interested in taking part, please email Harriet Hughes or visit https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/raincoat-study for more information.

Stephanie Janka-Spurlock, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust 

'How can we improve social interaction for People Living With Dementia (PLWD) whilst in an acute hospital?'. This study aims to explore the experiences of social interaction for PLWD, their carers and healthcare staff whilst in the acute hospital and to co-design interventions to transform care and outcomes for PLWD using an experience based co-design method.

Corinne Lindsey, Staff Nurse, Totnes Community Hospital, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust 

'The Culture Study' uses ethnographic methods to understand how integrated care, the latest model of health and social services provision in the NHS, might be affecting nursing culture and nurses’ sense of identity.