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School secures two NIHR doctoral research fellowships

Rebecca Verity and Catherine Oakley from the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King's College London have both been successful in securing NHS National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Fellowships. The Fellowships offer three years full-time funding (or 4 or 5 years part-time) to undertake a PhD and is aimed at individuals, of outstanding potential, early in their research careers. It aims to fast-track them through a customised research training programme in an environment reflecting their individual talents and training needs.

Catherine, a Chemotherapy Nurse Consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, will investigate the reporting of the life threatening blood infection neutropenic sepsis which can develop as a result of cancer chemotherapy and the reduction in white blood cells. There is growing concern amongst healthcare professionals that patients often delay reporting signs of neutropenic sepsis which can result in longer and more costly hospital stays and may increase the risk of death.

Catherine’s research aims to understand patients’ knowledge of risk of neutropenic sepsis during chemotherapy and how this impacts on their behaviour should they become unwell. Data will be collected from patients, informal carers and healthcare professionals. This research aims to inform models of care to assist early reporting of neutropenic sepsis.

Rebecca’s project will aim to develop and pilot test a complex intervention to meet the needs of informal carers who support patients receiving chemotherapy. She will utilise a mixed method design following the first and second phases of the Medical Research Councils (MRC) framework for development and evaluation of complex interventions.

Catherine and Rebecca will be supervised by Professor Emma Ream in conjunction with Dr Theresa Wiseman and Professor Sarah Cowley respectively. Both Catherine and Rebecca will be affiliated with the Supportive Cancer Care research group at the School.