PhD Scholarship: Enhancing patient-clinician communication in women’s healthcare

PhD Scholarship: Enhancing patient-clinician communication in women’s healthcare

College / Management Unit: College of Science

School / Unit / Institute: Computer Science

Post Title: PhD

Post Duration: 4 years

Reports to / Principal Investigator: Dr. Camille Nadal ((opens in a new window)camille.nadal@ucd.ie)

Summary:

Effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients is crucial for achieving accurate diagnoses, ensuring adequate pain management, empowering patients to make informed health decisions, and ultimately delivering high-quality, person-centred care. Yet, in women’s healthcare, gender-related barriers commonly hinder effective communication between patients and clinicians, which can lead to a lower quality of care. One of the main longstanding problems encountered by women patients is the normalisation of pain, including (but not limiting to) during menstruation and when giving birth. Furthermore, women with intersectional identities typically face additional difficulties in communicating their ill-health experiences due to racism (e.g., assuming that Black people feel less pain than do White people), classism (e.g., talking down to patients based on their race/ethnicity or health insurance status), ableism (e.g., refusing pregnancy care to disabled women), ageism (e.g., dismissing older women’s sexual health concerns), and hetero-cissexism (e.g., fostering an environment where women feel unsafe to disclose their queer or transgender identity).

The project aims to explore how technology can improve communication between healthcare professionals and women patients to deliver better-quality person-centred care. As part of this project, the PhD candidate will begin by investigating the existing barriers that women face in effectively communicating with clinicians, as well as the challenges clinicians encounter in understanding women's experiences of ill-health. Building on these insights, the PhD candidate will be expected to design a technological intervention aiming to improve clinician-patient communication in this context.

The PhD candidate will be based in UCD’s School of Computer Science. Hybrid working arrangements are possible.

Scholarship

The scholarship value is about 114,000 Euro and includes a 4-year tax-free stipend (22,000 Euro annually), registration fee, a travel budget for international travel to conferences (3,000 Euro) and a new computer. In addition, all doctoral candidates will do some demonstration and/or teaching assistant hours in the School as part of their career development. These teaching activities are also an additional source of income for PhD candidates and can significantly complement the offered stipend.

Selection Criteria

Mandatory:

The candidate should hold an undergraduate or postgraduate degree (2.1 grade or equivalent) in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology and Computing, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Engineering, or a similar technical discipline. Some programming ability is required.

The candidate should also demonstrate experience in qualitative research, and have knowledge of mixed-method approaches to research.

The candidate should possess excellent interpersonal skills and be willing to conduct fieldwork, such as interviews and focus groups, on sensitive health topics. They should also be comfortable collaborating closely with healthcare professionals.

Excellent English communication skills are required. Non-native English speakers should have an IELTS with a minimum total score of 6.5 (with at least 6 in all components) or equivalent (further details on equivalence of tests are available here). Please note that there is no IELTS requirement for non-native English speakers who have graduated from a degree in Ireland or in English.

Desirable:

Programming and prototyping skills are strongly desirable, as well as a knowledge of creative methods for Human-Computer Science research.

Knowledge of feminist theories is not required but the candidate should have an interest in feminist technology design.

How to Apply

Applicants should send a CV, cover letter, transcripts evidencing a 2.1 grade (or equivalent) and contact details of 2 referees to Dr. Camille Nadal ((opens in a new window)camille.nadal@ucd.ie) by November 16th 2024 AOE. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview in the following weeks, expecting a commencement date in January or May 2025.