The NIHR School for Primary Care Research studentship will fund tuition fees up to the value of UK fees. This will be an annual tax-free stipend normally of £18,622 and £6,000 contribution towards research and training costs. Students with overseas status are welcome to apply but will need to fund the remainder of their fees from alternative sources.
About the Centre for Academic Primary Care
The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) at the University of Bristol is one of the largest and most productive centres for primary care research in the UK. It provides high quality evidence to address some of the most important health challenges relating to NHS primary care.
Our main research themes are:
- Appropriate and effective care: Diagnosis and management of illness mainly treated in primary care, with a focus on cancer, cardiovascular disease, childhood health, depression and anxiety, domestic violence, eczema, infection.
- Organisation and delivery of care: The role of primary care within the health care system, with a focus on commissioning and quality, service delivery, avoidable hospital admissions, multimorbidity and long term conditions, prescribing, new technology and complementary therapies.
CAPC is a friendly and thriving centre with around 140 members, which includes academic GPs, primary care scientists, professional service staff, doctoral and post-doctoral students. There is methodological expertise in relation to qualitative and ethnographic approaches, development and evaluation of complex interventions, analysis of large primary care data sets, systematic review and evidence synthesis, mixed method studies, randomised controlled trials, and patient and public Involvement and stakeholder consultation.
CAPC is based in Bristol Medical School (BMS), and has strong links with the NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at the University of Bristol.
CAPC offers excellent training opportunities including a programme of short courses offered within the BMS. These cover a range of health services research and epidemiological methods, as well as generic and specific research skills. Short courses | Bristol Medical School | University of Bristol.
We have funding for one PhD studentship available from October 2024. We are proposing the following topic areas but would expect the candidate to bring their own interests and ideas to the PhD.
- The management of young people’s mental health in primary care (Dr Charlotte Archer, charlotte.archer@bristol.ac.uk)
- The benefits and challenges of prescribing by online pharmacies and doctor websites for patients and primary care providers (Dr Deborah McCahon, deborah.mccahon@bristol.ac.uk)
- How to make trauma-informed (TI) primary care culturally inclusive and responsive (Dr Natalia Lewis, nat.lewis@bristol.ac.uk)
| Tentative project title | Description | Methods might include | Primary supervisor |
| The management of young people's mental health in primary care | The pandemic adversely affected the mental health of young people, but it is not clear if this is reflected in increased numbers of young people consulting and being treated (prescribing & referrals) in primary care for anxiety and/or depression. |
1. Analysis of Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) to quantify GP-recorded mental health consultations and treatment in young people. 2. Qualitative interviews with GPs, young people, Children & Young Peoples talking therapies, third-sector organisations, schools to explore the role of GPs in supporting young people. |
Dr Charlotte Archer |
| The benefits and challenges of prescribing by online pharmacies and doctor websites for patients and primary care providers | Prescribing forms a key element of many of the growing number of online models of healthcare. We need to understand the benefits, disadvantages, and challenges of these new models of prescribing to ensure that these services are safe, high quality and integrate effectively within existing primary care. |
1.A review of the scientific and grey literature on the characteristics of online prescribing services, their consumers, the quality of their processes and products. 2. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with patients, GPs, pharmacists, regulatory personnel to explore views and experiences. |
Dr Deborah McCahon |
| How to make trauma-informed (TI) primary care culturally inclusive and responsive | TI organisational interventions incorporate knowledge about prevalence and impact of trauma into policies and practices to prevent re-traumatisation in services & improve experiences and outcomes for patients and staff. This study will explore barriers, facilitators to TI primary care being culturally inclusive and responsiverauma-informed (TI) primary care culturally inclusive and responsive |
1.Literature review of culturally inclusive and responsive TI interventions 2. Secondary analysis of qualitative interviews. 3.Qualitative study with professionals and patients from general practices that have a TI organisational intervention. 4.Integration of findings and co-production of recommendations. |
Dr Natalia Lewis |
Prospective candidates are strongly encouraged to contact the primary supervisors of the project/projects they are interested in, prior to their application. Candidates short-listed will be invited for interview.
How to apply
Please make an online application for this project here. You will be prompted to enter details of the fellowship in the Funding and Research Details sections of the form. For general enquiries linked to the online application process, please email brms-pgradmin@bristol.ac.uk.
The deadline for applications is 25 March 2024.
Candidate requirements
Candidates should have either an undergraduate degree OR a master’s degree. The PhD candidate will ideally have a background in applied health research or another relevant (social science or medical) discipline.
Funding
A fully funded three-year PhD fellowship that includes tuition fees and consumables as detailed above.
Contacts
Interested candidates should make any general enquiries around the funding and projects to Dr Alyson Huntley (alyson.huntley@bristol.ac.uk).