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As a current PhD student in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ (ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ), I have developed my skills in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches as a requirement of my project. A particular example of my research skills is indicated by my master’s thesis research. During this research project, I conducted a cross-sectional pre-COVID-19 work-related stress in a Spanish Public Hospital under the supervision of professors from the University of Oviedo. I have analysed and managed the data using SPSS Version 25. The final scores of the thesis defence were 10/10 (Excellent grades) by following the ECTS grading. Currently, I am doing a mixed-methods study of care for people living with dementia admitted to intensive care units as part of my PhD study. This research will contribute to the body of knowledge by discussing the understanding and experiences of ICU staff and family members who look after people living with dementia who have/had any ICU admissions. The results of this study will contribute to the knowledge that may help other patients in the future by providing an initial and original exploration, the findings of which will guide future Patient and Public Engagement and other research projects. This will also guide clinicians and ICU staff to decide if ICU and dementia are compatible.

I have a strong sense of leadership and communication skills. As evident from my working experience, I have worked with a diverse group of people nationally and internationally. I have managed a team of various cross-cultural stakeholders from across the world while working in Medtronic (one of the world’s largest healthcare companies). Being the Specialist of the Integrated Health Solutions in Medtronic Pakistan, I collaborated and communicated with partners and stakeholders to enhance the quality of patient care, providing healthy solutions with advanced technology, and introducing new equipment/therapies by commercially advertising them to the partners. Thus, being one of the employees of the company, I have learned business and customer awareness skills through training and seminars. These skills were demonstrated in day-to-day operations with the stakeholders of the partner institution. In the end, the customers were satisfied and continued the partnership with the company. Moreover, having more than three years of clinical care experience in the critical care areas as a Registered Nurse at the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi, Pakistan, provided me exposure of how to respond to emergency and critical care situations when patient’s conditions get worse. Recently I got registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in the UK, and I will hopefully contribute my skills and knowledge to NHS in England.

I also have a good grasp of internet and Information Technology and Communication (ICT) skills such as outlook, MS office (Word, Power Point Excel, Ms Teams) and social media skills. A specific example of my ICT skills would be when I received the email from DSU for elections 2021. I decided to run for elections for the voluntary part-time role as Postgrad Officer. Using my social media skills, and communication skills I campaigned amazingly which enabled me to hold a position in the Student Union as a postgrad Part-time Officer at ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ, which is a voluntary position to speak for other fellow students and to collaborate with the DSU for students' wellbeing.

My achievements in research by securing a fully-funded doctoral college research scholarship at ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ has provided me an opportunity to learn from professors at ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ. ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ is one of the UKs Universities securing a gold award in Teaching Excellence Framework Results. My curiosity for data management and storage, combined with all working experiences and diverse academic history has given me an understanding of being a good researcher in my academic career. Additionally, with a keen interest in publications, literature reviews, data collection, data analysing, data management, and evaluation, I believe that this university will provide me opportunities in shaping my academic career, which will enable my professional conduct, and academic knowledge to be utilised best to produce excellent results of the project.

Institute of Health, Health Policy and Social Care

Mixed methods research; Intensive Care; Critical Care; Dementia; family caregivers of older people and people with dementia; Critical Care Healthcare providers looking after patients living with dementia; End of Life/Palliative care; Advance Care Planning (ACP)

Bsc Nursing
Msc in Critical Care and Emergency Nursing

ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ Doctoral College Scholarship 2020-2023
Erasmus Mundus Masters in Emergency and Critical Care Nursing Scolarship 2018-2020

Presented a cross-sectional study of pre-COVID-19 work-related stress amoung critical care area nurses in a Spanish public hospital in DOCTORAL CONFERENCE, STRATEGY GOVERNANCE, INNOVATION & INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 2021

Title

A mixed-methods study of care involving ICU staff and familymembers for people living with dementia admitted to intensivecare units.

PhD project abstract

Background

The number of people living with dementia has been increasing worldwide and dementia costs billions to the UK economy. The evidence shows that admissions to hospitals for older people diagnosed with dementia have increased near the end of their lives. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, people with dementia have limited access to invasive treatments because some healthcare policymakers have recommended that Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions to this patient category may worsen their cognitive abilities and physical health. However, there is very little research on the experiences and understanding of care among ICU staff and family members for patients with dementia who undergo ICU hospitalisation.

Aims and objectives

The study aims to gain an understanding of the experiences of ICU staff and family members of patients living with dementia who have been admitted to ICU settings. This study will explore the experiences and understanding of family members and ICU staff about the care of patients who have current or past ICU admission.

Methods

A mixed-methods approach, consisting of an exploratory qualitative design using open-ended, face-to-face, or online interviews and a quantitative design adopting two questionnaires, will be used in the study. This study has two phases. The first phase will encompass a qualitative design by interviewing the ICU staff from the Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) and Glenfield Hospital, and family/carers of people diagnosed with dementia who have/had been admitted to ICUs in the East Midlands within the last five years. Family members will be recruited through local charity groups. For the qualitative data, 15 to 20 ICU staff and 15 to 20 family members will be interviewed.

The second phase will explore ICU staff attitudes toward people with dementia and explore the perspectives of ICU staff on whether dementia and ICU are compatible. This phase will use two questionnaires: The Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire, and Are Intensive Care and Dementia Incompatible? Questionnaire (AICDIQ). For the quantitative data, questionnaires will be sent to two ICUs in the Royal Infirmary Leicster (LRI) and Glenfield Hospital. In total, there are three mixed medical and surgical ICU beds in LRI, and 3 mixed medical and cardiac ICU beds in the Glenfield hospital. The staff to patient ratio is 1:1, and 1:2 depending on the criticality. A total number of 100 questionnaires will be sent out and a response rate of 55 is anticipated.

The qualitative data will be auto-transcribed if using MS Teams to interview, and face-to-face or telephonic interviews will be transcribed manually. Thematic analysis will be undertaken, and data will be managed using NVivo. The quantitative data will generate descriptive and comparative statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS, version 25). 

Professor Kay De Vries
Professor Karen Harrison Dening