Paradox of care: displaying agency as a care home resident (PolandU17SF2)

This PhD will investigate the paradox of care focused on older peoples’ involvement in their medications management. Older people with complex needs, including those living with dementia, who might most benefit from inter-professional working and creative, stimulating environment are most often socially excluded. Care homes social structures can limit means to meet complex needs, or opportunities for older people to be active decision-makers in their care. Medications management affects their everyday wellbeing within care. The NIHR Applied Programme CHIPPS is developing an intervention which introduces prescribing pharmacist expertise (a PIP role) into primary care teams and care homes. This may affect relationships and understandings of medications management issues in practice. Such changes may offer opportunities for residents’ greater agency in medications management and new support relationships. Enhancing understandings may increase residents’ compliance with treatment and care plans. How may embedding person-centred care concepts in care systems have meaning for the ‘person’ their family and staff delivering medications-related ‘care’ within resource limits?

The mixed methods design includes: i) a systematic review of care homes residents’ involvement in medications management ii) a scoping review of care homes relationships in medications management iii) Ethnographic study of two small purposively-sampled groups of residents recruited to PIP (5 involved and 3 not involved in the PIP intervention) to explore: older residents’ agentic involvement in care decisions deploying social and economic capital affects their interactional and health outcomes. Fieldnote data on homes settings, everyday routines and relationships will contextualise medications management with perspectives of non-technical lay and health and social care qualified staff. Finding will provide unique insight into residents’ perspectives on a specific aspect of their care, These will also inform the impact of CHIPPS findings. Supervisors (Poland, Birt and Twigg) bring expertise in care homes, ageing, care work and community-based pharmacy practice.

Application deadline is 31st July 2018.

For more information on the supervisor for this project, please go here: https://www.uea.ac.uk/health-sciences/people/profile/f-poland
Type of programme: PhD.
Start date of project: Flexible.
Mode of study: Full-time.

Acceptable first degree: Health Sciences, Pharmacy, Sociology, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Gerontology.
The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1 or above.