KESS2 East PhD in Public Health: Evaluation of errors in the delivery of care to patients with eye-related problems

Outline

This PhD scholarship represents an opportunity to train to become a Public Health academic.

The outcome of this collaborative project on eye-related patient safety will be to investigate and identify priority patient safety challenges in eye care and inform recommendations for improvements in services and patient safety reporting by optometrists. The student will also gain the practical experience of working in partnership with the professional body, Optometry Wales.

Background

The World Health Organization defines healthcare-associated harm as “harm arising from or associated with plans or actions taken during healthcare provision, rather than an underlying disease or injury”. Unsafe healthcare is an internationally recognised public health concern.

To improve the quality and safety of care received by the public, policymakers have deployed preventive strategies such as patient safety campaigns and patient safety incident reporting and learning systems to tackle the problem. However, these preventive efforts and related research and development have predominantly focused on medical specialties and in-hospital settings.

Eye-related patient safety is under-reported in the academic literature and underrepresented in health-related policy. Yet, internationally, public health bodies have highlighted the critical importance of addressing unsafe care of patients with eye health problems and the necessity to improve the quality of health care by learning from previous errors. The nature and severity of eye-related safety incidents is currently unknown.

The PhD offers an ambitious and motivated candidate the opportunity to carry out seminal research in the field of patient safety and eye health improvement.

Project aims and methods

This fully-funded PhD studentship aims to characterise the nature of eye-related patient safety incidents reported to a national repository of patient safety incidents and to explore the perspectives of optometrists and health authority representatives regarding patient safety incident reporting.

Initially, the PhD will involve literature reviewing and critical appraisal of current evidence, followed by mixed methods analysis of patient safety reports. It will also include qualitative interviewing of clinicians and health authority representatives and large-scale surveying of clinicians.

In this project the student will join a multi-disciplinary research team that represents a collaboration between the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences and the School of Medicine. The ideal candidate will have a background in healthcare, psychology, public health or relevant area.

The student will also spend time at the external partnership organisation, Optometry Wales, in order to gain insight to the profession, observe activities such as negotiation meetings with the Welsh Government, and receive training into how research findings can translate to policy change.

What is funded

For more information on what is funded in this studentship please visit: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/funding/view/kess2-east-phd-in-public-health-evaluation-of-errors-in-the-delivery-of-care-to-patients-with-eye-related-problems

Duration

3 years

Eligibility

For more information on eligibility for this studentship please visit: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/funding/view/kess2-east-phd-in-public-health-evaluation-of-errors-in-the-delivery-of-care-to-patients-with-eye-related-problems