Research Fellow

Applications are invited for the post of Research Fellow for the PARITY (Prehabilitation for Cancer Surgery: Quality and Inequality) study. This is an NIHR-funded study [NIHR134282] that will run for 30 months until November 2024.

Prehabilitation can be described as ‘the practice of enhancing a patient’s functional capacity before surgery, with the aim of improving postoperative outcomes.’ A wide variety of prehabilitation programmes are available, often involving dietary, exercise, and psychological interventions. However, because these interventions require engagement, time and access to facilities, they may not be acceptable or accessible to all. The PARITY study aims to make a major contribution towards addressing these problems of variation and inequality in prehabilitation before cancer surgery. This will involve working with patients, carers and healthcare professionals to find ways to describe, measure and assess the quality of services. We will map these criteria on a national scale and identify and share best practice examples of how services are developed, funded, and delivered, as well as ways to address health inequalities.

Reporting to the principle investigator, Dr Cliff Shelton (Senior Clinical Lecturer in Anaesthesia), the appointee to this exciting new post will play a key role in the study, being responsible for study coordination, participant recruitment, data collection (including fieldwork for case studies), data analysis, project governance and writing up the research findings for publication. The post holder will primarily be located at Lancaster Medical School, though some travel (within the UK) for fieldwork will be required. The post holder will work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team of co-investigators comprising Jennifer Logue (Professor of Metabolic Medicine), Lisa Ashmore (Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences), Chris Gaffney (Lecturer in Integrative Physiology), Andrew Smith (Professor of Anaesthesia), Andrea Partridge (Patient Representative) and Jo Rycroft Malone (Professor of Implementation Research). On a day-to-day basis they will work closely with a Research Associate and will be supported by a Project Administrator.

The Lancaster University Faculty of Health and Medicine provides a working environment that strongly supports the individual needs of each employee, promoting a healthy work-life balance and providing family-friendly and flexible working policies. The Faculty holds an Athena SWAN Charter Silver Award, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in higher education. We are willing to discuss flexible working arrangements, including working week and days/hours worked and flexible start and finish times.

The post is available to start immediately and this is a fixed term post for the duration of the project, which finishes at the end of November 2024.