Mental well-being/psychological health of children with life-limiting conditions and their families

The Department of Health Sciences, University of York, is inviting applications for a funded PhD studentship, available on a full-time basis to start in October 2017. The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr Lorna Fraser and Professor Bryony Beresford and will be part of the newly launched Martin House Research Centre, a multi-disciplinary centre for research on the care and support of children and young people with palliative care needs, their families and the palliative care workforce.

Applicants are encouraged to develop a research proposal under the following research area: Mental well-being/psychological health of children with life-limiting conditions and their families. This is just one example of the sort of project that might be available in this research group. Others could include Perinatal/Neonatal palliative Care or Children with life-limiting conditions who are in the care system. The precise project will be decided upon in consultation with the supervisor.

Research proposals concerning other topics related to the care and support of children with life-limiting conditions or children’s palliative care are also welcomed. Proposals which utilise both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are encouraged, but this is not an essential requirement.

Applicants will normally need to hold, or expect to gain, at least an upper second class honours (2:1) degree or equivalent in a health or social sciences related subject.

Applicants are required to submit a short research proposal (max 500 words) outlining their ideas for their project design. Applicants will not be considered if a proposal is not submitted. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the supervisors to discuss proposal ideas before applying (contact details under Informal Enquiries below).

For students whose first language is not English there is a minimum requirement of an IELTS score of at least 6.5 in each component of the test and an overall score of at least 7.

A Masters in a health-related subject with a strong element of research methodology is highly desirable.

Applications should be received no later than Thursday, 20 April before 16:00h UTC. Applications will not be considered for the studentship after this date.

Applications should be made using the Department of Health Sciences on-line application process (follow link below).

When completing the electronic form, applicants will need to state that they are applying for the advertised scholarship and include ref: PhD2017MH under the ‘How studies will be funded’ section, in order to be considered for the scholarship.

Shortlisting: Shortlisting will take place as soon as possible after the closing date and successful applicants will be notified promptly.
Start date: October 2017.

Individuals with the strongest academic record, experience, and research proposal will be shortlisted and invited to interview on Monday, 8 May. Interviews will be conducted face-to-face or via Skype or similar communication tools, if required.

For informal enquiries please contact Dr Lorna Fraser or Professor Bryony Beresford

The Department of Health Sciences includes over 280 academics, teachers, researchers and support staff engaged in delivering research, professional development, education and training. Our core aim is excellence in research and teaching, while contributing to improving health and healthcare through the application of our research to policy and practice. We are a multidisciplinary department, involving clinicians from a range of health professions including medicine, nursing and midwifery alongside disciplines such as statistics, health economics, health services research, psychology, sociology and epidemiology. In the most recent assessment of research quality in the UK (the 2014 Research Excellence Framework), the Department was ranked equal first nationally for its research environment and all aspects of our research environment was judged to producing research of world-leading quality in terms of vitality and sustainability.

Our research activity is organised around seven core themes: mental health and addiction; trials and statistics; public health and society; cancer epidemiology; cardiovascular health; health services and policy and nursing and midwifery research. Within the Public Health and Society Research Group, Dr Lorna Fraser is leading a programme of research into children’s palliative care including a new partnership initiative with Professor Bryony Beresford (SPRU, University of York) funded by Martin House Children’s Hospice.