Senior Research Associate - Health Services Evaluation

at  University of Bristol

YOU SHOULD APPLY IF

• You have a strong background service/programme evaluation (including realist evaluation) and mixed-methods;
• You have a good working understanding of the structure and function of the NHS and its wider relationships;
• You have interests in or experience of working on health service research projects that explore urgent/emergency care, potentially avoidable hospital admissions, or initiatives to reduce these;
• You have experience of working with a range of stakeholders in community, primary or urgent care (including patient and public contributors) and of using these perspectives to support theory development;
• You are driven and self-motivated, and work efficiently to deadlines with a problem-solving approach.

THE ROLE

We are looking to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic, mixed-methods health services researcher with expertise in service evaluation and/or case-study analysis. This role is to support a theory-guided analysis of healthcare initiatives in the field of avoidable hospital admissions and community care, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
The ENHANCE project (EvaluatioN of Hospital Admission AvoidANCE Interventions) is drawing upon realist methods to understand why some initiatives aimed at avoiding unplanned hospital admissions work, and why some may not. The project will build on a recently completed evidence synthesis to develop and test candidate theories, taking a ‘case study’ approach, with several extant community-based initiatives that aim to avoid unplanned hospital admissions. Services in scope include hospital-at-home initiatives, case management strategies or interventions delivered as part of ambulance & urgent care. This post will specifically support the second work package of ENHANCE – a mixed-method rapid case-study analysis - and is offered part-time for an initial fixed term period of 12 months.

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING?

The successful applicant will have a key role in delivering the case-study analysis of several existing service models operating in the NHS aimed at avoiding/mitigating unplanned hospital admissions. An initial theoretical model has been developed, and the postholder will be working to gather and analyse real-world data to test and refine these theories. An understanding of realist theory/realist evaluation would be highly advantageous. The successful applicant will bring their own experience and flexibility across different evaluation methods to collect and analyse qualitative data (e.g. stakeholder interviews, service visits/observations, questionnaires), quantitative data (routine datasets and service metrics), and economic data (service cost estimates and cost-comparison models). They will be able to use their excellent communication skills and working knowledge of the NHS to rapidly build relationships with key service stakeholders. It is expected that the post-holder would take a lead on writing up the findings for a publication, supported by the PI and collaborators.