Dr C Wallace
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Midnight 19th March 2017 (Interviews will be held w/c 20th March 2017)
Here is an exciting opportunity to study an integrated information system which could lead to entirely new approaches in health and social care service delivery and outcomes.
This is a funded MRes, including a generous stipend and tuition fees, with well-resourced circumstances for a successful scholarship.
The selected candidate will apply their knowledge and skills of health and social care services and ambition to develop business and analytical skills. This study will evaluate the impact of a national electronic patient care record across both health and social care, it will allow the student to develop transferable knowledge and skills in this most exciting and active field of Evaluation research.
This Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS) project will be held in the Faculty Life Sciences and Education at the University of South Wales. KESS is a programme funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) awarded by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) in the Welsh Government. The MRes will be associated with Cwm Taf and Aneurin Bevan University Health Boards and their associated local authorities. The project will focus on investigating these two geographical regions, since this will help to support the further roll out of the programme across Wales and to help in identifying its impact upon patients and the staff caring for patients.
The project is backed by NHS Wales Informatics Service, who in partnership with NHS Wales organisations, deliver the national information and technology services needed for modern patient care.
Programme of research:
The World Health Organisation (2015 p2) Global Strategy for Integrated People Centred Health Services 2016-2026 identifies a shared electronic record as a potential policy option and intervention within its Strategic Goal 4, Coordinating Services. In Wales, the Community Care Information Solution (WCCIS) has been developed to be used jointly by University Health Boards and Local Authorities. The Realistic Evaluation approach used in this study attempts to ask ‘what works for whom in what circumstances?’ This is important so that commissioners and providers can make a judgement on which functions might work elsewhere. Or indeed which functions do not work or are not proven.
Realistic Evaluation considers that there is an interrelationship between the context (for example Cwm Taf community services and its external and internal constraints) and mechanism (WCCIS attempt to achieve a change) which then results in an outcome (C +M=O). The outcome is the intended or unintended consequences of the change, e.g. the difference it will make to person-centred care, the level of care coordination. This is called a CMO configuration. Therefore it seeks to understand the theory and evidence for how the WCCIS functions work and in what environment or situation. It assumes that innovative programs such as WCCIS and its initiatives will work only in particular circumstances and so there is a need to find the evidence for those key conditions in order to replicate it elsewhere. The aim of this study is to investigate the introduction of an integrated health and social care computer system for Wales (WCCIS); and its impact on health and social care professionals on their practice and the citizens and communities that they serve in two geographical areas in Wales.
This will be achieved through undertaking a literature review using the realist framework into agreed project themes, using a realist theory driven strategy to understand how, why and when the WCCIS case studies work to achieve change; and providing ongoing formative feedback to NWIS, and study partners.
The position is available from 1 April/Oct 2017.
Funding Notes
The study is funded by the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS) programme and will be based in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Education at the University of South Wales. KESS is a programme funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) awarded by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) in the Welsh Government.
The studentship will cover the fees for a 1 year full time MRES programme and pay a stipend of circa £11k p.a. There is also around £3k project support costs available for consumables, travel/conference attendance, minor equipment, training (including the KESS Grad School) and conference attendance.