What is your current role? 

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

What is your field of research?

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

Research question: 

Research summary: 

What is your current job title and current role?

I am an Advanced Podiatrist working for Salford Care Organisation, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

Professor Jo Dumville

Mr Adam Haque

What is your field of research?

Prevention and management of diabetic foot ulcers

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

We are a team of about 40 podiatrists in Salford and I head up our department research team. This may involve small scale clinical evaluations or being local P.I. on larger  funded projects. This is all new learning to me on the job and it has given me appreciation of what it is I don't know necessarily, which has made me want to improve for my own sake but so I can develop the research capability of the team. 

Why are you interested in research and this ARC Pre-doctoral fellowship?

I have a real interest in understanding the 'why' we do what we do. This stems from working in a few different trusts and trying to comprehend why access to treatment can vary so much within a field of practice, this essential generates my interest in research. The ARC-GM pre-doc appealed to me as it offered a combination of the protection of time coupled with the right organisation and people to help me progress further my research interest.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

I am undertaking the Critical Appraisal and Evidence Synthesis Masters Module with University of Manchester, I also intend to use the opportunity to review content of research design in quantitative and qualitative reseach.

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

• Professor Heather Iles-Smith - Professor of Nursing, University of Salford and Northern Care Alliance NHS Group.
• Dr Amy Mathieson - Research Associate NIHR ARC-GM, Implementation Science Theme.
• Professor Paul Dark - NIHR Deputy Medical Director, Professor of Critical Care Medicine, University of Manchester

What is your field of research?

Consent to Research Participation in Critically Unwell Adults Lacking Mental Capacity

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

As a research delivery nurse I am screening, approaching, consenting and randomising patients into research trials on a daily basis. I collect data and samples required as per protocol and submit these to trial sponsors.

Once approvals are in place I am engaged in trial setup for my organisation, and training of staff where required. I am responsible for data clarification and queries, and the close out and archive of completed trials.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

I have always been interested in clinical research, ever since completing my undergraduate nursing degree in 2005. As a staff nurse I soon came to realise how essential evidence based practice was, because it provided a way for me to ensure that the care I was providing to my patients had demonstrable benefits or advantages.

After working in critical care for many years I became a research nurse in 2014, as I wanted to be more involved in research activity within my role.

The ARC-GM Pre-Doctoral Fellowship is a fantastic opportunity which provides time and funding for me to pursue my own research interests; to undertake the training I need to transition from being a research nurse to a Nurse Researcher, and to put me in a much stronger position when applying to complete my project at doctoral level.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

In semester 1 I am completing the Level 7 Module 'Critical and Appraisal and Evidence Synthesis' at the University of Manchester. In semester 2 I am planning to audit the Module 'Qualitative Design and Analysis'.

Research question: Are the current processes used when recruiting critically unwell adults who are lacking mental capacity into clinical trials acceptable to patients, their families, and the HCP's who are involved in this practice? Do variances in practice occur between organisations and staff when recruiting critically unwell adults who are lacking capacity into clinical trials?

Research summary:  A significant proportion of patients on a critical care unit (CCU), by the very nature of their illness, cannot communicate with their healthcare professionals and thus may lack the capacity to consent or decline to any of the care they receive.

When a patient is lacking capacity to make decisions about their treatment, healthcare staff can apply the Best Interest principle, as set out in the Mental Capacity Act (2005) to make decisions about treatments and therapies a patient will receive.

If a critically unwell patient is eligible to take part in a research project, but is lacking capacity to provide consent to this research participation, the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations (2004) provides a legal framework which offers alternatives to patient consent such as nominated consultee consent, and personal consultee consent.

These all allow the patient to be entered into the study until such a time that the patient recovers capacity sufficiently enough to be able to provide retrospective consent or decline to ongoing trial participation.

It is acknowledged in the literature that the language used to describe the consent process is inconsistent between protocols. Furthermore, in my experience, the practice of obtaining consent for research participation in this patient population is also inconsistent between hospitals. My project seeks to hear the perspective of patients, their family members, and HCP's who act as personal and nominated consultees to see how acceptable current practice is to them, and explore the possibility of improving this process, which in turn would lead to improve recruitment rates into critical care trials.

What is your current job title and current role? 

I am a clinical specialist physiotherapist specialising in heart and lung transplantation. I lead a small team of therapists who care for patients from assessment for transplant, throughout their recovery in critical care and rehabilitation as an inpatient, to providing long term follow-up as an outpatient.

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

• Professor Chris Todd
• Professor Helen Hurst
• Dr Gill Norman

What is your field of research?

Frailty throughout the lung transplant pathway, in particular how it is assessed and treated before lung transplantation.

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

Previously I have been involved with service evaluation projects and data collection for case series and retrospective studies.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

I am keen to use evidence based treatments in my role, ensuring that our patients are receiving the most appropriate interventions. Working in such a rare specialist field such as transplantation, there is little evidence to inform our practice and I am keen to learn more about how my team can contribute to the evidence base. I had wonderful support from the ARC-GM during my internship and was therefore keen to continue my research learning journey within this supportive environment. I have started to develop my own research ideas and projects and the pre-doctoral fellowship will give me the time, support and structure to continue to learn and produce my own research projects.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

Research design and Qualitative Design and Analysis MClin Res modules at The University of Manchester. Good Clinical Practice training.

Research question:  What is the evidence for how frailty is assessed, monitored and modified for patients awaiting lung transplantation?

Research summary: During the pre-doctoral period I am planning several projects to help answer my research question

1. A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to modify physical frailty for lung transplant candidates.
2. A UK wide survey of adult lung transplant centres to discover if frailty is being assessed before lung transplantation and if any interventions are used to try and improve it whilst patients are on the waiting list.

What is your current job title and current role? 

Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Ketogenic Diet Therapies

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

• Dr Sorrel Burden
• Dr Sean Gavan
• Dr Natasha Schoeler

What is your field of research?

Ketogenic diet therapy

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

• Co-chair of Ketogenic Dietitians Research Network
• Associate research champion for allied health professionals and the childrens hospital.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

My clinical role is demanding, but I am deeply committed to pursuing a clinical academic career and have undertaken research in my own time to help realise that ambition. The NIHR ARC-GM pre-doctoral fellowship has enabled me to ensure that a component of my job plan is dedicated to research, which has allowed me to plan my research and develop my PhD proposal.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

Aberdeen University - short course in Health Economics

Research question: Is ketogenic diet therapy a cost effective treatment option for children and young people with drug resistant epilepsy?

Research summary:  Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological condition in childhood, affecting 112,000 children and young people in the UK, of which 30% are drug-resistant.Alternative treatment options for children with drug-resistant epilepsy are limited. Ketogenic diet therapy (KDT) is an important management option for drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) in children and adults. They are a group of complex diets that are high in fat and low in carbohydrate, with the aim of inducing the metabolic state of ketosis, which has been shown to be beneficial in reducing seizures with a relative risk of 3.16 of achieving seizure freedom, and 5.80 of ≥50% seizure reduction in children compared to no change in treatment. In 2021, the NICE guidelines were reviewed and NICE evaluated the cost-effectiveness of KDT and highlighted that there is a significant gap in health economic research, with no relevant cost or cost effectiveness data for the UK. A research recommendation was made by NICE to determine ‘What is the short-term and long-term clinical and cost-effectiveness of ketogenic diets in adults and children with drug-resistant epilepsy.'

With a view to addressing this research recommendation and the absence of data, I plan to complete a preliminary project to estimating the cost of implementing KDT as part of my fellowship. The next step will then be to complete a clinical and cost-effectiveness analysis of KDT compared to care as usual as a PhD.

What is your  current role? 

Advanced Clinical Practitioner – Nursing

I have a diverse background working in Emergency Medicine and my current role in an ACP led community urgent response team. The ethos of the team is to prevent hospital admission, by assessing and treating patients in their usual residence, where appropriate.

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

• Dr William Whittaker
• Dr Fay Bradley
• Dr Sarah Ramsey

What is your field of research?

The primary focus of my research and PhD proposal is admission avoidance.

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

Service improvement with long term sustainability is a key focus of my role, recently spearheading a transformation project to facilitate early discharge from ED. I am now involved in expanded this project into a hospital at home service. My objectives are to explore the impact of hospital at home on outcomes pertinent to patient satisfaction and admission avoidance.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

I have a keen academic interest in admission avoidance in urgent and primary care. My overall aim is to maintain and advance care standards to achieve a common goal as evidenced by the local and national drivers focused on community compassionate care.

The focus of the ‘Organising Care’ theme is aligned with my research proposal and was the theme of my ARC-GM internship.

The theme seeks to inform effective, efficient, and equitable provision of health and care. These are all elements of focus for the evaluation of the hospital at home service. Furthermore, the theme employs a mixed-methods approach to most projects, which also aligns to my proposed PhD study.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the hospital at home service has the capacity to produce outcomes that can alter the future of primary and secondary care integration. Improving patient pathways, facilitating early discharges for overcrowded ED’s, preventing admission to ED and improving patient satisfaction.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

My pre-doctoral fellowship is over a 2-year period. I am currently undertaking the Mary Seacole Programme during this first year with a plan to undertake additional M level research modules during the second.

What is your current job title and current role? 

Respiratory Speech & Language Therapist in the Manchester Airways Service

Who are your Pre-doc supervisors?

• Prof. Jo Patterson
• Dr Sue Greenhalgh
• Dr Amy Mathieson

What is your field of research?

Upper airway dysfunction in swallowing difficulties

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?

I am actively involved in national research projects and in building research capacity through mentorship of other early stage career researchers. I am also involved at a local level in developing research knowledge and skills.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC-GM Pre-doctoral fellowship?

The pre-doctoral fellowship has provided me with the time to expand some of my existing research skills and focus these skills to be able to propose a well thought out research question and methods. This has been developed with the support of supervision and mentorship, through a range of research activities, such as a scoping review, a PPIE engagement event, and a masters module in qualitative research design.

What research training courses/modules are you accessing as part of your Fellowship?

Masters module in qualitative research and design at the University of Manchester

Research Question

What is the role of laryngeal hypersensitivity in swallowing dysfunction?

Research Summary

Through discussion with clinicians, researchers, and patients, it has come to light that awareness and understanding of laryngeal hypersensitivity in swallowing dysfunction has had little attention in the literature, leading to variability in patient experience of care and outcomes.

My research question has significantly changed since starting the pre-doctoral fellowship as I began speaking with key stakeholders about their perceived research priorities and areas in need of further exploration and development.

The first step of my research is a scoping review looking into the terminology and assessment tools we use when managing laryngeal hypersensitivity with concurrent swallowing dysfunction. A PPIE event will help shape the key research priorities in this field for future research planning,