King's College London

About Us

King’s College London is a leading University with nine Faculties. As part of King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for health care interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development.

The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) placed King’s applied and allied health research 1st for: overall proportion of research rated 4* (world-leading, the best mark possible), research papers rated 4*, impact rated 4*, environment rated 4*(joint), Grade Point Average and Power.  REF2021 rated as world-leading: 100% of our environment, 86% of our impact and 70% of our research overall. Over 95% of our research overall was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. 

For the last six years, King’s has been number 2 in the world and number 1 in Europe for Nursing (QS world rankings). King’s produces more highly cited research outputs (top 1% citations) on palliative care than any other centre internationally (SciVal), and is second in the world on the same metric for nursing and midwifery. King’s is the largest provider of health care education in Europe.

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) is based in the heart of central and south London. It includes the Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams.

Our applied clinical and health multidisciplinary research transforms therapies, the healthcare experience and outcomes for patients and those important to them, wherever they are cared for. Our award-winning NMPC education programmes span pre-registration nursing and midwifery, and multidisciplinary post-graduate taught and research programmes.

We are committed to staff development, and offer opportunities to identify and access appropriate training and professional growth.

About the role

We are really pleased to offer this excellent opportunity to join our team in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care as Research Assistant with PhD opportunity. 

You will be one of two research assistants supporting the delivery of a five-year programme of research in diabetes distress in adults with type 1 diabetes. Over the project duration you will support work package leads and trial managers to undertake literature reviewing and evidence synthesis, co-designing interventions with diabetes community stakeholders, supporting a realist process evaluation using qualitative and survey research methods, and the delivery of a feasibility and a main trial. The programme will be undertaken in collaboration with 24 geographically dispersed NHS sites in England which will require approx. monthly travel including occasional overnight stays. The programme combines innovative stepped wedge clinical trial design with a realist process evaluation and will offer the opportunity to develop research skills from methodological research leaders in these designs. The programme draws in expertise in diabetes distress from international leaders and a wide network of UK NHS clinical innovators who have a strong desire to improve patient experience of diabetes care. The programme is hosted within the Research Division of Care for Long Term Conditions (current Head of Division is Prof Jackie Sturt). The division has four strong research groups in diabetes, gastroenterology, mental health and older people. The post holder will join the Clinical Research in Diabetes group. The clinical research groups, the faculty offers an active staff and Post Graduate Research student community supporting seminar programmes, training, professional development, seed-corn funding opportunities, under-grad and post-grad teaching experience.

We are seeking someone committed to developing their career in diabetes distress research in the UK by enrolling in a part-time PhD at King’s (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/nmpc/postgraduate-research) alongside their research assistant role on the programme. The post is funded 100% FTE of which a 30% contribution of time will be allocated to the conduct of a part-time PhD. It is expected the D-stress programme and the PhD will align to maximise the value of the award to the funder and opportunity for the doctoral candidate. Part-time tuition fees are NOT included in the package. Applicants must assume they will be responsible for self-funding doctoral tuition fees https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/areas/nursing-research-with-option-of-joint-phd-with-hku-or-nus or be bringing funding with them to the application. Tuition fees contributions may be available to the post holder from year to year depending on subsequent collaborative research award opportunities and funding success developed between the post holder and academic members of the D-stress programme team. Funding for PhD-related conferences, research costs and research training is competitively available within the Division and the Faculty.

This is a full time post, and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30 April 2029.

About you

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

Essential criteria

1. Bachelor’s degree in nursing, sociology, psychology, or other healthcare discipline at minimum of 2:1 or equivalent
2. Postgraduate qualification in nursing, sociology, psychology, or other healthcare discipline awarded with minimum of Merit or equivalent
3. Prepared to register for doctoral training when tuition fee funding is available
4. Experience of working with people with diabetes through education, policy, research or lived experience
5. Experience in a range of health research methods such as recruiting participants, interviewing, research ethics applications, quantitative survey methods, patient and public involvement and clinical trial experience
6. Demonstrates a commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for staff, public contributors to research and to participants
7. Excellent written, verbal and digital communication skills, in all formats, face to face, presentation, email, reports, written and for teaching
8. Excellent administrative and organisational skills, underpinned by strong interpersonal skills and personal effectiveness, able to deliver high quality work and projects to deadlines, work efficiently and prioritise appropriately, and take individual responsibility for planning and undertaking work. Good attention to detail and high standards of accuracy in all aspects of work

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working within the NHS or 3rd sector
2. Experience of writing and presenting reports or papers for publication
3. Funding for part-time PhD tuition fees
4. Willing to travel occasionally within the UK flexibly to accommodate the needs of the project

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. 

We are not 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.