Medical Institute and Keele University Awards
Staff and students from Keele attended a prize giving event at North Staffordshire Medical Institute to formally receive grant and performance awards.
Staff awards went to Dr Bernadette Bartlam, Dr Linda Machin and Professor Julius Sim who are developing work identifying vulnerability in grief. Their work touches on some of the most important issues in research being pursued with the Research Institutes for Social Sciences and Primary Care and Health Sciences.
People who are vulnerable in their grief (by whatever cause) are significant users of health and social care services. The effective identification of such individuals and the appropriate targeting of interventions and resources are crucial, therefore, to both high quality care and cost efficent services. This innovative research seeks to validate the Adult Attitude to Grief Scale, devised and developed by Dr Machin, as a measure providing evidence of such vulnerability. The importance of this work was acknowledged in the award of a development grant by NSMI of £4,500.
Dr Sue Sherman and Professor Michael Murray, RI for Social Sciences, with colleagues from University Hospital of North Staffordshire, were awarded £9,703 to “identify and promote best practice in communicating to patients the results of cervical screening history reviews following diagnosis of cervical cancer”.
Many women who develop cervical cancer will have had cervical smears. It is a national requirement that all women are offered the results of a complete review of their cervical screening history following a diagnosis of cervical cancer. However, up to 20% of patients can have incorrectly reported screening tests, which may have prevented the earlier detection and treatment of their cervical cancer. Despite the potential for these review meetings to cause distress or conversely to be an opportunity for transparency, this is the first research to be conducted exploring patient’ experiences.
Two medical students were also presented with awards: 2011/12 Year 2 Medical Institute Prize for Best Performance in the Summative Assessments Eleanor Johns; 2011/12 Year 4 Medical Institute Prize for Best Performance in the Year 4 OSCE Assessments Laura Davis.
