Research Assistant

Are you a mixed methods researcher, keen to make healthcare education more accessible, inclusive and representative?

About the role:

As a Research Assistant within the Peninsula Medical School (PMS) anatomy team, you will:

• Be part of a team that works collaboratively to make anatomy education more accessible, representative, and effective for all learners.
• Contribute to qualitative and quantitative research studies.
• Support data collection and analysis.
• Collaborate on academic publications and funding applications.
• Have optional teaching opportunities and the potential to gain Associate Fellowship from Advance HE.

You will be reporting to Dr Siobhan Moyes, Anatomy lead for PMS.

Research projects: Inclusive Healthcare Education

The widespread Eurocentric normalisation of a ‘normal’ body, perpetuated through education and research, excludes the global majority and often fails to acknowledge the significance of healthy variation. Not only is this exclusionary from a moral standpoint, but, when training health professionals, it can also affect healthcare outcomes for minoritised groups. 

We aim to better understand how this underrepresentation in healthcare training affects; healthcare professionals’ confidence in treating diverse patients, the patients’ experience, and their outcomes. We can then co-create solutions and policy change to support educators and health professionals to address these gaps. 

Our initial research has led to the following publications, with three further under review:

Evans, L., et al., (2025) https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991251313878

Moyes, S.M. et al., (2025) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81795-3_5

Future work will investigate strategies for successful anatomy outreach in schools. This study will look at embedding anatomy outreach into the current national curriculum and how different resources benefit different age pupils. 

Stiver, M.L., https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.70019

For more information about the job and the person specification, please refer to the job description or more information on Peninsula Medical School please visit our dedicated webpage at https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/schools

For this role, you will need to be on site 2 days a week. Although we can accommodate working from home for this role, flexibility to be on-site will be expected due to business needs.

The successful candidate may be required to obtain an ATAS Certificate prior to this research being undertaken.

For an informal discussion to find out more about the role then please contact:

Siobhan Moyes; by email at siobhan.moyes@plymouth.ac.uk

This is a part time, fixed term role working 22.2 hours per week until 31^st July 2027.

Application Process:

Please apply online, demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the knowledge, qualifications, training, skills and experience elements of the job description in your supporting statement.

Following the closing date of the vacancy, you will be notified on the outcome of your application in due course.

Closing Date: 2^nd August 2026 – 12 o’clock midnight

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