Current PhD Students (K-Z)
Andy Mercer
Title: Role transition and the Nurse Practitioner: An investigation in to the experience of Professional autonomy
This research project explores nurse practitioners’ experiences of role transition and professional autonomy, aiming to gain a new understanding of how nurse practitioners experience their role, and seeking new insight into the potential of the nurse practitioner role in the ever changing arena of health care delivery. The study addresses the concept of professional autonomy, and the boundaries of professional practice, and links this to the legal, ethical and epistemological foundations of nursing practice in general, and more specifically to the professional role of the nurse practitioner.
First supervisor - Prof. Les Todres
Second supervisor - Prof Immy Holloway
Oma Morey
Title: Lifeworld-led Care: exploring an innovative strategy for disseminating phenomenological research findings to people who use health related services/ Stories about caring for someone with dementia: The use of research-based theatre in medical education
This multilayered dissertation is guided by phenomenology particularly using the work of Gadamer. The first part of the study utilizes descriptive phenomenology based on the work of Giorgi and heuristic research following Moustakas. The second part of the study will rely on arts-based research and performative social science. In particular, I will be developing a research-based theatre production. Lastly, an educational tool, “minute paper,” will be used to evaluation the impact of the play on audiences which include healthcare professionals and students and the general public. Patients often criticize physicians’ lack of empathy. Although medical schools implement educational initiatives to increase empathy, empathy continues to decreases as medical students progress through their education. Most interventions are skills-based, teaching the physician/student how to respond empathically to a patient. What is missing, however, is the affective understanding of empathy. There is much written in the medical humanities literature about the positive role literature plays in helping students and physicians develop and maintain the emotional component of empathy. Among the humanities, drama offers a particularly potent and intimate experience. The stage’s complex interplay of voice, movement, costume, props, lighting, and sound allow the audience intuitive insight into the real lifeworlds of the characters. Qualitative researchers are increasingly using research-based theatre to make health research more significant and relevant to healthcare consumers and professionals. In research-based theatre a playscript is created from transcripts of interviews. Although the resulting play is based on interview data, its goal is also to entertain. Therefore, the result is an entertainingly informative experience that is aesthetically sound, intellectually rich, and emotionally evocative. By focusing on both the emotive and cognitive dimensions of empathy, a dramatic performance is also a catalyst for self-reflection into the audiences own emotions and the use of an imaginative perspective to develop insight into how best to convey compassion, caring and empathy to patients, patients’ family members, peers, self and others. In spite of what appears to be a valuable tool to assist in the learning of the affective dimension of empathy, there is virtually no literature on emotional impact of research-based theatre on an audience. Many of those who write about ethnodrama or research-based theatre emphasize the importance of portraying characters as close to the “real” research participants as possible. Much time is spent on explaining the process of developing the script, but they neglect to devote equal time to explaining how an audience perceives and makes meaning of final production. The few studies on research-based theatre that have mentioned the audience speak mainly of minimal evaluation data collected through standardized evaluation formats using likert scales and open-ended questions. Comments to the open-ended questions, however, have focused primarily on the audience’s interest and enjoyment of the play and/or their resonance with the material that was presented. Even turning to the theatrical literature on audience response, most of the focus has been on cultural and historical perspectives of the audience with little attention paid to their meaning making.
The aim of this study is to expand our understanding and describe the impact of an evocative theatrical production, based on a phenomenological study of informal carers for people with dementia, on an audience of physicians, medical students, informal carers and community members. It will be conducted in three phases: 1) interviewing informal family carers of people with dementia, 2) writing a play script about theses carers experiences based on the analysis of the interview data, and 3) producing the play and investigating the audience’s emotional experience and meaning-making process.
First supervisor - Prof. Les Todres
Second supervisor - Prof. Kate Galvin
Liz Norton
Title: A grounded theory of female adolescent behaviour in the sun: comfort matters
The aim of the research was to explore the experiences of young women in the sun in order to generate a grounded theory to explain their behaviours. The study was qualitative and exploratory by design and utilised Glaserian grounded theory method for theory generation. Twenty female participants, aged 14 – 17 years old were interviewed in a group and one- to- one semi-structured interviews about their experiences in the sun. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method of data analysis, concordant with Glaserian grounded theory method. Five explanatory categories emerged from the data; Fitting In, Being Myself, Being Physically Comfortable, Slipping Up and a core category of Being Comfortable. The theory derived from the categories, proposes that when in the sun, young women direct their activities toward meeting physical and psychosocial comfort needs. Comfort matters to them because it has implications for their wellbeing. The study contributes to the literature about the behaviours of young women in the sun. It also adds to the body of knowledge related to the primary prevention of skin cancer with teenaged girls in the United Kingdom (UK) by increasing understanding of the factors that influence them.
Jennifer Roddis
Title: An exploration of factors that influence families' understanding of an increased risk of colorectal cancer: a grounded theory study
This study aims to explore and explain perspectives and perceptions of genetic information by members of families with inherited thrombophilia. The term thrombophilia encompasses a number of conditions which can be defined as ‘disorders of the haemostatic mechanisms which are likely to predispose to thrombosis’ (Walker et al, 2001; p512) or, in lay terms, ‘a predisposition to form clots inappropriately’ (Khan and Dickerman, 2006; p15). Although thrombophilia may be acquired during an individual’s lifetime, it may also be inherited, meaning that members of an affected individual’s family may also be at increased risk of thrombosis. Information about inherited thrombophilia may be obtained through haematology departments, through primary care, from family and friends, through the popular or specialist media or via the internet. It may be provided verbally, in writing or in diagrammatic form. However, there is much evidence to suggest that genetics is not easily understood by the general public. This study will therefore explore information about thrombophilia genetics, including how it is obtained, preferred formats, and how it can be absorbed and transformed so that members of families with thrombophilia can reach a level of understanding they feel to be relevant. A constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) will be used throughout this study. This will be based around the view that the gene is a social construct; therefore, understanding of thrombophilia genetics results from not only the views of scientists and health professionals, but also the media, family and friends. Interviews will be undertaken with participants and observations of consultations between consultant haematologists and participants undertaken. Both interview and observation data will be analysed using the procedures and techniques described by Strauss and Corbin (1998).
Richard Shipway
Title:
An ethnography of distance running
The experiences of sports participants remains an area that has received limited scholarly coverage. Existing sports studies are largely rooted in the positivist tradition. This study explores the social world of distance runners. An ethnographic research design has been adopted using a combination of interviews, observation and participant observation. The study suggests that the dominant positivist, scientific model of research in sport studies fails to understand or capture the real nature of social settings, and in order to really understand the distance running culture, research needs to be qualitative in its nature. Emerging from the data are a series of linked themes exploring the social world and culture of the distance runner, and in doing so, this study is contributing towards a deeper understanding of their experiences.
First supervisor - Prof Immy Holloway
Second supervisors - Ian Jones (SM)
