PhD Students

Michelle Edwards
In May, Myfanwy Davies and Adrian Edwards appointed Michelle Edwards to a 4 year doctoral studentship funded by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness. Michelle is from Cardiff and is a mature student at UWIC. The studentship will examine the construction, evaluation and use of information for a specified range of conditions among people from a range of ethnic groups and from middle-class and working class backgrounds. It will also explore GP's perceptions of infomation provision to these various groups. We will use simulated consultations with actors showing various styles of information provision and use in order to prompt both sets of participants during semi-structured interviews. Findings produced by the study will feed into a wider programme of research on social and cultural contexts of information use in primary care settings.

Mohammed Al-Sulaiti
Mohammed Al-Sulaiti is studying for a PhD titled 'Non-conveyance of 999 callers: risk, views and decision-making'. This project is sponsored by the Welsh Ambulance Services Trust, the School of Medicine at Swansea University, and the Overseas Research Student Awards Scheme (ORSAS). ORSAS helps postgraduate research students who have outstanding merit and research potential to undertake research. The aim of this research is to explore current practice and its consequences in the ambulance service in relation to non-conveyance of 999 callers. He is using a mix of quantitative, observational and qualitative approaches to examine what happens in those cases when an ambulance is called out but the patient does not end up being taken to hospital. He will examine outcomes, in terms of whether these patients are placed at any increased risk, and also processes of decision-making. Mohammed recently won first prize for a poster on his research project in Swansea University's annual poster competition for post-graduate students in all schools. Mohammed is based with AWARD Mid and West Wales, supervised by Prof Helen Snooks. Contact Mohammed Al-Sulaiti