Please note we do not have specific funding available, as this is usually sought on a case-by-case basis.
This online module will enable you to develop critical skills in implementation science so that you can lead change in key advanced and chronic care issues such as shared decision-making, advance care planning, and medication management.
You can take the module on its own or as part of a postgraduate research degree (MSc, MD, or PhD).
We have a number of students at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre working towards their PhDs. Please see their details further down this page.
Funded PhD Training Fellowships/PhD studentships, when available, are listed on our funded opportunities page.
We also work with suitable students to support applications for national or regional PhD funding. This is highly competitive, so potential students will need to have a track record of interest or involvement in palliative care research already. Please email either Professor Miriam Johnson or Professor Fliss Murtagh to enquire about postgraduate research programmes.
We are pleased to have a number of Academic Trainees in our Centre. Please see our people page for their details.
If you are interested in short-term visits or attachments, further information is also available on our visit with us page.
Title: Body-Mind approaches for living better with chronic breathlessness
Funder: The University of Hull/UKRI
Supervisors: Professor Miriam Johnson and Dr Mark Pearson
Aim
Following a realist approach, to develop the theoretical groundwork for a body-mind intervention (BMi) enabling patients with advanced disease to self-manage frightening/disabling breathlessness.
Summary
To understand the links between emotion (dys) regulation and breathlessness-related distress in people with advanced chronic lung disease. Building on clinical experience as a therapist in palliative care, to develop a Body-Mind self-management intervention to support emotion self-regulation for patients and a training/support tool for healthcare professionals.
Title: Roles and experiences of informal carers of adults living with HIV/AIDs in Sub-Saharan Africa
Funder: University of Hull
Supervisors: Dr Joseph Clark and Professor Fliss Murtagh
Aim
To explore the roles, challenges, and experiences of informal caregivers providing care to adults living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Summary
Sub-Saharan Africa was home to two-thirds of global new HIV infections and an estimated 470,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2020. In the absence of professional services, informal caregivers play a vital role in providing care to people living with HIV/AIDs. However, the challenges faced by carers and impact of providing care is poorly understood.
This mixed-methods project will develop understanding of the pivotal roles played by informal caregivers providing care to adults living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan African. A systematic review will be conducted to explore the roles, challenges, and experiences of informal caregivers. Findings from the systematic review will be used to develop research questions for qualitative data collection from caregivers and other stakeholders. By combining systematic review and primary research findings, the study will generate evidence to inform policy and intervention development to address the specific needs and challenges faced by these caregivers.
Title: Exploring ‘the domestic’ in contemporary hospice architecture: a critical examination of the architecture and design of in-patient palliative care facilities in England
Funder: Wellcome Trust
Supervisors: Dr Ruth Slatter, Professor Miriam Johnson and Dr Elsbeth Robson
Aim
To examine the palliative care facilities currently in use in England and develop recommendations for policy makers on inclusive hospice design
Summary
Although 40 million people worldwide need palliative care annually, there is a lack of understanding about how the architecture and design of palliative care environments helps or hinders this care. This study will examine English hospice architecture and explore how palliative care design affects the experiences of patients, visitors and staff.
Title: Effect of physical activity on quality of life in cancer survivorship: an online delivered, tailored physical activity programme.
Funder: Yorkshire Cancer Research
Start date: October 2019
Supervisors: Dr Cindy Forbes (primary) and Dr Mark Pearson (secondary)
Aim
To develop and assess the feasibility of an online web-based tailored exercise program for lung cancer survivors.
Summary
Within the last 40 years lung cancer has shown little improvement with only 5% of individuals surviving more than 10 years.
Developing on online evidence-based tailored exercise program could improve functional capacity and quality of life while overcoming exercise related barriers within lung cancer survivors
Title: Values and value-based healthcare: what do these mean in advanced illness?
Funder: The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute
Start date: September 2023
Supervisors: Professor Fliss Murtagh and Professor Jonathan Koffman
Aim
To co-produce a conceptual model of value-based palliative care through exploring understanding and prioritisation of patient and carer values and their influence on healthcare and choices.
Summary
People with advanced illness often do not seek technological interventions with limited benefit to themselves, they frequently value quality-of-life over quantity, yet this may be overlooked or unheard because they are older, ill, or frail. Healthcare providers need to focus on providing services which accord more closely with the values and priorities of people with advanced illness and their families. However, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the personal values which different patient populations hold in relation to their healthcare.
This PhD will therefore explore personal values and value-based healthcare in the context of advanced illness and determine whether a value-based framework can be developed to improve care.
Title: The development of cancer pain education resources for patients from ethnically diverse communities in Humber and North Yorkshire and the health professionals caring for them
Funder: University of Hull PhD scholarship
Start date: September 2023
Supervisors: Professor Jonathan Koffman, Dr Jamilla Hussain
Aim
To create a logic model for cancer pain education resource for ethnicity diverse communities with advanced cancer.
Summary
This study is aimed at specifically examining the ethnic minority population in England suffering from cancer pain to understand their palliative care needs and develop an educational program for both patients and healthcare professionals caring for them.
Title: Person-centred care for people with dementia: Improving recognition of symptoms and needs in the acute geriatric environment
Funder: Office and technical support is being provided by Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), along with self-funding by the student. Further funding applications are currently under review.
Supervisor: Professor Fliss Murtagh
Aim
The aim of this PhD project is to provide a validated person-centred outcome measure to assess and monitor symptoms and needs in people with advanced dementia, which is acceptable and feasible to use for nurses and relatives in the acute geriatric setting.
Summary
Symptom assessment and recognition of needs is challenging in people with advanced dementia. Symptom and needs recognition can be aided and improved by using a person-centred outcome measure, completed by nurses and relatives in the primary care setting.
However, a holistic and easy to use person-centred outcome measure is not yet available for people with advanced dementia in Switzerland. Therefore, the IPOS-Dem, as the only holistic and person-centred outcome measure available for people with advanced dementia, will be fully validated following testing its acceptability in the acute-geriatric setting to inform implementation.
Title: Identification and assessment of chronic breathlessness in primary care.
Funder: University of Hull
Supervisors: Dr Joseph Clark and Professor Miriam Johnson
Aim
To explore how chronic breathlessness is identified and assessed in primary care and to understand the impact this has on patients’ and carers’ psychological wellbeing.
Summary
During this project, literature will be searched to see how chronic breathlessness is identified across health care settings. Then a survey will be developed to identify frail older adults suffering with chronic breathlessness in primary care. Finally, interviews will be conducted with these individuals, their carers, and their health care professionals to gather experiences of chronic breathlessness in the primary care environment.
Title: IPOS-Liver Validation Study
Funder: University of Huddersfield
Supervisors: Professor Fliss Murtagh and Dr Lynsey Corless
Aim
To develop and validate an Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS) that is tailored to meet the unique needs of patients with Advanced Liver Disease.
Summary
The IPOS is widely used in palliative care to support all patients at the end of their lives. It supports patients with advanced disease to express their symptoms, or needs, to healthcare professionals. However, the symptoms and needs of patients with Advanced Liver Disease are still being researched. This is because patients with Advanced Liver Disease are often referred late (or not at all) to palliative services, despite the increasing prevalence of Advanced Liver Disease in the UK. Development of a liver specific IPOS (the IPOS-Liver) will facilitate and support care for this unique set of patients and reduce the health inequalities that they currently face.
Title: ‘No-one talks about death and dying’: Developing and evaluating a serious game to enable Voluntary, Community & Social Enterprises to engage and work with communities about advanced illness
Start date: September 2023
Funder: University of Hull PhD scholarship
Supervisors: Dr Mark Pearson (primary) and Dr Steven Forrest (secondary)
Aim
The aim of this research is to develop and evaluate a 'Serious Game' that enables Voluntary, Community & Social Enterprises (VCSEs) to engage with communities about advanced illness, facilitating conversations, signposting, and forward-planning regarding dying and death, ultimately improving VCSEs' ability to provide advice, support, and care to individuals with advanced illness in the community.
Summary
To improve VCSEs’ engagement with communities about palliative care, this research project will develop a ‘Serious Game’ game to support conversations, signposting, and forward-planning concerning advanced illness, dying and death. The Serious Game will then be evaluated to assess the impact of VCSEs delivering the Serious Game, explore how context constrains/enables delivery, and identify modifiable aspects to retain effectiveness but increase wider adoption.
Title: Social Connectedness and Identity in Advanced Illness
Funder: University of Hull
Supervisors: Professor Fliss Murtagh and Professor Liz Walker
More people are living with advanced illness for long periods of time. Several factors including deteriorating health and caring responsibilities may negatively impact social interactions, connections, and participation in social activities. Literature and interventions have majorly focused on interaction with health and social care systems, with little attention on the social wellbeing.
Title: A mixed methods investigation of the screening and assessment of cachexia in primary care settings.
Funder: University of Hull cluster PhD studentship
Supervisors: Professor Fliss Murtagh and Professor Miriam Johnson
Aim
This study aims to enhance the knowledge of how the symptoms of cachexia are identified and assessed in patients with advanced chronic conditions and end-stage disease in primary care settings.
Summary
The main symptoms of cachexia are unintended weight loss and loss of appetite. It is associated with advanced diseases such as cancer, heart failure and chronic kidney disease. Cachexia can also be associated with frailty and malnutrition in elderly patients with chronic disease.
The aims of the study are to capture the views and experiences of such patients (and their family caregivers); and the views and experiences of general practice staff of how they manage unintended weight loss in frail elderly patients. An analysis of patient data will be also be used to describe this patient group and how their symptoms are assessed and managed by GPs and practice nurses.
Title: How do opioids affect older adults’ cognition
Funder: University of Hull (scholarship)
Supervisors: Dr Jason Boland and Professor Fliss Murtagh
Outputs and resources: ORCID
Aim
To improve our understanding of how opioid analgesics affect older adults cognition, and their carers, in a primary care setting using mixed methods.
Summary
To understand how opioids affect older adults memory and attention in primary care, this project will use the following three methods:
- A review of the existing literature on how opioid analgesics affect older adults’ memory and attention, as well as exploring which tools are used to identify and assess this.
- A survey to explore how opioid analgesics affect older adults’ memory and attention in primary care (including opioid use, side effects, quality of life and day-to-day living).
- Interviews with patients and carers to understand their experiences of taking opioids and how this affects their memory and attention. Their family carer will also be interviewed. Information and support needs on opioid therapy will also be discussed.
Mike is a Clinical Research Fellow in Nutrition, within the TRANSFORM group, for Transforming Cancer Outcomes in Yorkshire - funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.
Mike is currently undertaking a PhD focusing on parenteral nutrition and gastrointestinal decompression in malignant bowel obstruction.
Title: Supporting bereaved children and their families following the death of a parent.
Funder: Yorkshire Cancer Research
Supervisors: Dr Jason Boland and Professor Fliss Murtagh
Outputs and resources: ORCID
Aim:
To explore the experiences and psychosocial needs of parentally bereaved children and their surviving parent to explain how they can be best supported by each other and their existing networks following the death of a parent
Summary:
All bereaved children require a supportive response from their existing networks. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative interviews, the PhD will explore how children and their families are supported following the death of a parent by each other and those within their existing networks. The findings will help to develop a theory to describe a supportive response for children families following the death of a parent.
Title: CLinical OuTcomes, Symptoms and Quality of Life in cancer patients with i-PE. CLOTS-QoL study
Funder: Self-funded
Supervisor: Professor Antony Maraveyas (Clinical Sciences Centre) and Professor Miriam Johnson
Publications: View Naima's publications on ORCID
Aim
The overarching aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between incidental pulmonary embolism in cancer patients and performance status, symptoms, QoL and other key clinical outcomes such as venous thromboembolism (VTE) o(re)currence and haemorrhagic complications. A secondary aim is to identify clinical and demographic predictors of VTE o(re)currence, haemorrhage, QoL and PS.
Summary
Advances in medical technology have resulted in an increase in the detection of unexpected blood clots in the lung of patients with cancer. the study aiming to see the effects these blood clots may have on the survival and quality of life of these patients, when compared to cancer patients without blood clots. It is hoped that we can find a way to identify more quickly those patients who are deteriorating and are at greater risk of developing further clots.
Title: Optimisation of the detection and assessment of malnutrition, cachexia and sarcopenia in the older cancer patient
Funder: Yorkshire Cancer Research
Supervisors: Professor Miriam Johnson and Professor Mike Lind (Clinical Sciences Centre)
Aim
To evaluate and improve the clinical diagnosis of malnutrition, to produce a single, validated, clinically relevant method of identifying elements of malnutrition, cachexia and sarcopenia in older cancer patients, to allow targeted and effective treatment.
Summary
This research aims to produce a screening tool to allow the medical team assess older cancer patients more effectively. The tool will help identify issues regarding poor nutrition and causes of weight loss, allowing the medical team to use the correct method of treatment to manage these symptoms.
Title: Psychological suffering and distress in women undergoing treatment for breast cancer in India.
Funding: Self-funded
Supervisors: Professor Miriam Johnson and Dr Chitra Venkateswaran
Publications: View Sunitha's publications on ORCID
Aim
- To determine the psychological concerns of Indian women undergoing breast cancer treatment.
- To explore the experience of distress/suffering in Indian women with breast cancer living in India with special focus on patients undergoing treatment.
- To investigate the cultural context of and general awareness of healthy volunteers about the impact of breast cancer on Indian women with the disease in the community.
- The project consists of 3 parts; systematic literature review on the psychological concerns of Indian women undergoing breast cancer treatment, qualitative interviews to assess the level of suffering women undergoing treatment for breast cancer in India and focus group discussion among healthy volunteers to investigate the cultural context of and general awareness of the impact of breast cancer on Indian women in the community.
Summary
The project consists of 3 parts; systematic literature review on the psychological concerns of Indian women undergoing breast cancer treatment, qualitative interviews to assess the level of suffering women undergoing treatment for breast cancer in India and focus group discussion among healthy volunteers to investigate the cultural context of and general awareness of the impact of breast cancer on Indian women in the community.
Publications
Daniel, S., Venkateswaran, C., Singh, C. et al. “So, when a woman becomes ill, the total structure of the family is affected, they can’t do anything…” Voices from the community on women with breast cancer in India: a qualitative focus group study. Support Care Cancer (2021). doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06475-4
Daniel, Sunitha, Chitra Venkateswaran, Ann Hutchinson, and Miriam J. Johnson. "‘I don’t talk about my distress to others; I feel that I have to suffer my problems...’Voices of Indian women with breast cancer: a qualitative interview study." Supportive Care in Cancer (2020): 1-10. doi:10.1007/s00520-020-05756-8
Daniel S, Clark J, Gnanapragasam S, et alPsychological concerns of Indian women with breast cancer in different national contexts: a systematic review and mixed-methods synthesisBMJ Supportive & Palliative Care Published Online First: 11 May 2020. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-002076
Title: Public perception of palliative care: A systematic review
Funder: NIHR
Supervisor: Professor Miriam Johnson
Aim
To ascertain:
- what the public understanding and perception of palliative care is
- whether this understanding and perception has changed over time
- if there is evidence that understanding and perception impacts access to palliative care
Summary
There is misperception that palliative care is just care of the dying whereas it is an approach that improves the quality of life of people facing life-limiting illness. This misperception may impact access to cost saving, quality care. We will review the evidence of the perception of palliative care.
Outputs: Prospero systematic review protocol
Title: A complex intervention study evaluating the effect of a digitalised, patient-centered comprehensive geriatric assessment on clinical decision making and patient experience when utilised by a head and neck cancer multidisciplinary team.
Funder: Yorkshire Cancer Research
Supervisors: Professor Mike Lind (Clinical Sciences Centre) and Professor Miriam Johnson
Aim
To develop, validate and implement a digitalised, cross-platform and integrated web and mobile service for undertaking comprehensive geriatric assessment in head and neck cancer patients.
Summary
To develop a website and mobile app to enable older people with head and neck cancer to get a complete assessment of their day to day functioning and overall health.
Title: After body donation for medical education: identifying good practice in the interactions between Medical School Anatomy Unit staff and families
Funder: University of Hull
Supervisors: Dr Trish Green, Dr Peter Bazira
Aim
To identify good practice in the interactions between Medical School Anatomy Unit staff and the families of body donors
Summary
Zivarna gained an integrated masters (MAnth) in Biological Anthropology from Durham University. Her thesis concerned engagement with the dead in public contexts. She has interests in public engagement with human remains, what is hidden and hidden work, death and the dead, and body donation for medical education.