This is an opportunity to study a fully-funded PhD in both Australia and the UK, and to work with internationally recognised researchers in child health and neurodevelopment. The studentship includes a monthly stipend for the duration of the programme.

Deakin home studentship funding is open to Australian domestic students only. If you are an Australian or New Zealand citizen or you hold an Australian permanent visa, you are classified as a domestic student. If you do not fall into one of these categories you are considered an international student, and will not be able to apply for this project.

The Aston-Deakin Cotutelle PhD is a partnership program between Aston University (Birmingham, UK ) and Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) .

All studentship projects will be jointly supervised across the two institutions, offering an excellent opportunity for students to undertake research training in an international, collaborative environment, learning new skills and developing valuable networks. Students will be primarily based at their home with a period of at least 6 months spent studying at their host institution.

Details of the Project

This project is based in Deakin University (Australia)

This programme of work will involve the development, piloting and feasibility-testing of a brief intervention to reduce stress and improve wellbeing amongst hospital-based healthcare shift workers and their families. The intervention would likely focus on key domains to reduce psychological distress and improve wellbeing, including, physical activity, nutrition and sleep. Many interventions already exist, though they haven't always been evidence-based or theoretically informed and are rarely assessed well in their target population and context. Uniquely, the intervention will be adapted to meet the needs of healthcare families and involve systemic engagement to enable it to be embedded within healthcare practices and family lifestyles.

Objectives

1. To co-produce a brief intervention to improve stress and wellbeing among hospital-based healthcare shift workers and their families
2. To feasibility-test and evaluate the intervention with healthcare shift workers and their families

Research will involve a literature review of systems-based interventions to improve stress and wellbeing among hospital-based shiftworkers. Exploratory qualitative work with shiftworkers and their families will be undertaken to understand current practices around sleep, nutrition, physical activity; identify challenges associated with shift working; to establish effective strategies within families for managing wellbeing. This will involve inclusive, creative methods (e.g. photo voice, social mapping, artwork, creative play) to gather experiential data from children and young people living with healthcare shift workers.

Co-production work with PPIE groups using evidence reviewed and gathered and psychological theory to develop an intervention. This will involve consultations with hospital management and government policy to provide the regulatory and management contexts within which hospital staff work. Alongside this, key stakeholders representing healthcare staff, shift allocation staff, family members of healthcare staff, and practitioners in the fields of nutrition, physical activity and sleep will be recruited to establish the PPIE co-production team.

The intervention is likely to include physical activity, nutrition, sleep, wellbeing. It may explore possibilities for a digital intervention but with caution that wearable technology is not designed for those with unusual sleep patterns, i.e., shift workers.

Piloting and feasibility-testing will involve identifying appropriate outcomes and measures for a larger-scale evaluation. Likely measures will include: Self-report perceived stress, Self-report health-related quality of life, Self-report anxiety symptoms, Self-report depression symptoms, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, actigraphy, sleep diaries, Physiological measure of stress, heart rate (e.g. with wearable technology).

Supervisor: Jade Sheen, Anne Turner and Rachel Shaw, Georgie Agar

Academic requirements

For full details of the academic requirements, please visit Aston-Deakin Cotutelle PhD Program (IHN) | Aston University

Contact information

For queries about the project please contact Jade Sheen on [email protected]

For admissions enquires please contact [email protected]

Submitting an application

We can only consider applications that are complete and have all supporting documents. Applications that do not provide all the relevant documents will be automatically rejected. Your application must include:

1. English language copies of the transcripts and certificates for all your higher education degrees, including any Bachelor degrees.
2. A Research Statement detailing your understanding of the research area, how you would approach the project, and a brief review of relevant literature. Be sure to use the title of the research project you are applying for. There is no set format or word count.
3. A personal statement which outlines any further information which you think is relevant to your application, such as your personal suitability for research, career aspirations, possible future research interests, and further description of relevant employment experience.
4. Two academic referees who can discuss your suitability for independent research. References must be on headed paper, signed and dated no more than 2 years old. At least one reference should be from your most recent University. You can submit your references at a later date if necessary.
5. Evidence that you meet the English Language requirements . If you do not currently meet the language requirements, you can submit this at a later stage.
6. A copy of your passport . Where relevant, include evidence of settled or pre-settled status.

Apply for this position here