King's College London

About Us

The School of Life Course & Population Sciences is one of five Schools that make up the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London. The School unites over 400 experts in women and children’s health, nutritional sciences, population health and the molecular genetics of human disease. Our research links the causes of common health problems to life’s landmark stages, treating life, disease and healthcare as a continuum. We are interdisciplinary by nature and this innovative approach works: 91 per cent of our research submitted to the Subjects Allied to Medicine (Pharmacy, Nutritional Sciences and Women's Health cluster) for REF was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. We use this expertise to teach the next generation of health professionals and research scientists. Based across King’s Denmark Hill, Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Waterloo campuses, our academic programme of teaching, research and clinical practice is embedded across five Departments. 

More information: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/slcps

About the role

You will be an individual with clinical experience in maternity care and extensive research experience, who will support a research project evaluating the implementation of the Tommy’s National Centre for Maternity Improvement’s Clinical Decision Support Tool as part of the NIHR funded PARTNER cluster randomised controlled trial.  This follows an implementation evaluation of the Tool in four early adopter NHS Trusts (ISRCTN13498237).  The Tommy’s National Centre for Maternity Improvement is a collaboration between the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the research and information charity, Tommy’s, King’s College London, Universities of Bristol and Sheffield, St George’s University of London, and the PROMPT Maternity Foundation charity. The Tommy’s Clinical Decision Support Tool was developed by the Centre to more accurately predict risk of preterm birth and placental disorders that can lead to preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth.

Duties will include: assisting in the management of Workstream 2; identification and recruitment of participants; data collection, analysis and preparation of reports and publications.  The post holder will possess experience in mixed methods women’s health research and ideally possess expertise in the development and implementation of digital decision support tools as well as an understanding of implementation science.  They will use their in-depth clinical knowledge of maternity care and research experience utilising digital health records. The post holder will be responsible to the Senior Research Fellow and will also work with the Bristol Trials Centre (who are responsible for the overall management of the PARTNER trial), the Tommy’s National Centre for Maternity Improvement, stakeholders, NHS commissioners, providers and with individual clinicians. They will represent the KCL Department of Women & Children’s Health at regional and national meetings. Key responsibilities include:  undertaking the PARTNER trial implementation evaluation (workstream 2) including site initiation visits, training and ongoing support; identification and recruitment of participants, with support of local CRN research midwives; qualitative data collection through interviews and focus groups with women and healthcare professionals, face-to-face, telephone and virtual; quantitative and qualitative data collection through online surveys (Qualtrics) and aggregate data from intervention sites (electronic maternity records and Tommy’s Tool data) and control sites (electronic maternity records) through the Bristol Trials Centre; qualitative data analysis (Framework approach) using NVivo data management software; writing reports and publications.

Whilst working within the framework agreed with the post holder’s line manager/s, the post holder is expected to manage their own workload and is expected to be flexible in anticipating and responding to shifting and competing demands on their and the wider team’s time.  It is expected that the post will work with minimum regular supervision but will refer to their line-managers for advice on issues which fall outside existing regulatory or policy frameworks.

This is a part time post (21 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31 July 2025.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. PhD in Midwifery or Women’s Health or similar or with extensive equivalent research experience
2. Experience in mixed-methods health research or related discipline, including qualitative and quantitative methodologies
3. Clinical experience in maternity care
4. Good understanding of NHS maternity services and the importance of implementation science
5. Evidence of writing high quality papers for peer review publication or reports and presenting research at meetings or conferences
6. Experience in designing, developing and managing research projects including leading or supporting the development and submission of grant applications and funding proposals
7. Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in the development and implementation of digital health and/or decision support tools
2. An understanding of NHS research ethics and governance issues

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on w/c 1st July 2024.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.