PhD Studentship - Exploring the Safety Risks and Benefits of Virtual Wards

Project Supervisors: Dr. Beth Fylan, Professor Rebecca Randell, Dr. Raabia Sattar

Project Description:

Do you want to do cutting-edge research and develop a career in health services or patient safety research?

Do you want to join vibrant research collaboration focusing on improving the quality and safety of care?

We are inviting applications to commence study in February 2024 for a PhD based within the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC). This prestigious NIHR-funded award provides an exciting opportunity to pursue postgraduate research in health services and patient safety.

Virtual wards offer time-limited, hospital-level care at home for people with an acute condition or an exacerbation of a chronic condition (British Geriatric Society, 2022). Managed by hospital teams and offering technology-enabled acute care, monitoring, and treatment away from inpatient settings (NHS England 2023), they are intended to support patients who would otherwise be in hospital to receive treatment in their own homes. Remote monitoring on virtual wards allows clinical staff to track the patient’s condition, for example heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen levels, temperature and blood pressure. This informs decisions about ongoing treatment or care escalation.

There are potential patient safety benefits in providing care remotely, such as a reduction in rates of nosocomial infection and post-hospital syndrome, however there is a lack of evidence about the safety risks faced by patients through receiving care at home (Harrison and Manias, 2022). For example, each patient’s home is unique and so the design and implementation of safe work systems for those environments represents a complex challenge. In addition, how patients and carers make decisions to escalate concerns needs to be explored, and there are likely to be safety inequities for patients in the availability of suitable home environments, use of technology and the availability of positive social support.

Work is therefore needed to understand the safety benefits and risks involved in virtual ward care to underpin safety and sustainability. The aims of this study, therefore, are to:

• Explore the safety risks and benefits of care on virtual wards, working in partnership with clinicians and patients to understand their experiences and perspectives.
• Identify opportunities to support equitable clinical decision making about which patients to offer virtual ward care to, and to develop safety metrics specific to home care environments.

This project is predicted to use a variety of methods and the successful candidate will be supported to develop capabilities in: systematic / scoping review, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and co-design methods.

Funding notes:

This project has full funding for UK students, which will cover tuition fees, a tax-free stipend of £18,622 per year for living costs, and a Research Support Grant.

Funding for: UK Students

Enquiries email name and address:

For informal enquiries, please contact research@bradford.ac.uk

How to apply:

Potential candidates should apply directly online through the online application portal.

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