Involving community pharmacists in the provision of palliative care medicine services

School of Health Sciences

PhD Studentship: Involving community pharmacists in the provision of palliative care medicine services

Applications are invited for a full-time 3-year PhD studentship, funded by the School of Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham to commence at the end of September 2016 or January 2017. The academic supervisors are Dr Kristian Pollock, Principal Research Fellow, and Dr Asam Latif, Clinical Academic, from the School of Health Sciences. This project will be of interest to students with a background in community pharmacy and/or social science.

The studentship will be centred on involving community pharmacists in the provision of palliative care medicine services with the aim to understand the current engagement of community pharmacists in supporting patients, carers and health care professionals to manage palliative care medicines, and explore how this can be extended in the future

The topic will be of interest to students from a wide range of academic disciplines who have an interest in medical sociology and anthropology and the study of palliative and end of life care as well as the practice of pharmacy. The following research questions will be explored:

• How are community pharmacists in England involved in supporting medicines management in community settings for patients referred for palliative care?
• What are the views of community pharmacists and community pharmacy policy leads on palliative care medicine services and how these can be further developed and extended?
• What are the inter-professional barriers to integration of community pharmacists within community palliative care services and how can these be overcome to improve medicines management in palliative care?

The successful candidate is invited to consider the use of qualitative, mixed method or other appropriate methodology to answer these questions.

Applicants should have a first- or upper-second-class honours degree or equivalent and some experience of research. Ideally they will have completed a relevant Postgraduate Masters’ degree, preferably an MSc, to a high academic standard.

Further details care be found here: http://jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/MED1388X1

How To Apply

Applicants should email the following to [Email Address Removed]

1. A detailed CV
2. Personal Statement / short report (max 1000 words) indicating how your qualifications, background and experience to date have prepared you to undertake PhD level research, specifically in relation to this topic. Your report should contain your initial methodological ideas about how the study might be carried out.

Interviews are expected to be held at the University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre on Wednesday 31st August and the studentship will start at the end of September 2016 or January 2017.

More information about the School and its research can be found here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/healthsciences/index.aspx

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Asam Latif email: [Email Address Removed]. Applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

Closing date for application is Monday 22nd August (11.59pm).