The Dunhill Medical Trust has partnered with the British Geriatrics Society to co-fund three three-year Doctoral Training Fellowships to support front-line health professionals with an interest in developing a research career.
The first recipient of this award was Adeela Usman, University of Nottingham. Her fellowship project is entitled Developing a Quality of Life Tool Around Resident and Family Priorities Which Can Be Used Routinely to Support Quality of Care in Care Homes.
Quality of life is considered an important outcome and measure of care quality by care home residents, their relatives and staff carers. However, currently used tools have a number of limitations.
On completion of my undergraduate degree in pharmacy at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Sudan, l obtained a Masters of Public Health from the University of Nottingham, UK. Following my masters, l worked as a researcher in ageing at the University of Nottingham and the University of Manchester. Through my work, on the Proactive Healthcare of Older People in Care Homes (PEACH) study at the University of the Nottingham, l developed a strong interest in care home research. This led to my PhD project. Supported by the Dunhill Medical Trust, British Geriatrics Society and Nottingham Vice Chancellor’s scholarship, my PhD aims to develop a person-centred quality of life tool for routine use in older people’s care homes. Quality of life is considered an important outcome and measure of care quality by care home residents, their relatives and staff carers. However, currently used tools have a number of limitations. To overcome this, l will work with care home residents, their families, staff carers and health and social care professionals to design a tool that is easy and practical to use routinely in care homes, incorporates the priorities of care home residents and their relatives and includes domains that staff carers can reliably comment on to help improve care quality. Therefore, this tool has the potential to improve the quality of life and care provided to over 400, 000 older people living in UK care homes.
