Positions vacant
UNSW Medicine - phd scholarship
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Telehealth psychological support for distressed families of children diagnosed with cancer
Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine & Health, UNSW Sydney is proud to offer a new PhD position dedicated to researching psychological distress and support needs of families affected by childhood cancer. The PhD scholar will contribute to the development of a specialised telehealth psychological intervention to support parents as they navigate the challenges and complexities of modern childhood cancer care.
Project description:
Families experiencing childhood cancer face a challenging journey that profoundly impacts family life and carries the potential for long-lasting psychological consequences and poor outcomes. Precision medicine, a novel and promising approach to understanding, diagnosing, and treating childhood cancer, can introduce new complexities and uncertainties for families. Parents may struggle to understand difficult concepts related to precision medicine and genetic/genomic testing, and, particularly in the case of poor prognosis cancers, may face difficult decisions regarding the use of experimental treatments for their child. Recognising and assisting distressed parents as they navigate precision medicine is crucial to mitigating the adverse impacts of cancer on the family unit. Unfortunately, parents often encounter difficulty in accessing psychological support when most needed due to the complexities posed by childhood cancer. These include managing their child’s complex care demands, time constraints, financial strain, and geographical barriers.
Understanding barriers to accessing support and providing tailored support services that are flexible, sensitive, and effective for parents of children with cancer will help them to receive the holistic care they need to navigate their difficult journey. Despite the clear need for such support, the options available to parents remain limited. Additionally, there is a need to enhance the skills of healthcare professionals to ensure they have the skills to support distressed families effectively.
This PhD project is linked to a larger national program that will offer precision medicine testing to all children with cancer. The PhD project centres around developing and piloting a new telehealth psychological support service for parents of and patients with childhood cancer identified as experiencing clinically significant emotional distress and unmet support needs. The project will examine the acceptability, uptake and impact of clinician-initiated telehealth psychological support and care navigation.
The PhD scholar will be a UNSW student, based on the UNSW main campus and at the Kids Cancer Centre. The student will receive the full support of the Behavioural Sciences Unit (BSU) in the Kids Cancer Centre. The Behavioural Sciences Unit (BSU) is a part of the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital and the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW. The BSU is recognised as one of the largest paediatric psycho-oncology research groups and is supported by a multidisciplinary team with representation from psychology, dietetics, paediatric oncology/haematology, social work, nursing, bereavement counselling, behavioural sciences, exercise physiology and international collaborators.
Description:
A full-time postgraduate scholarship is available for a suitably qualified candidate with a minimum of an honours or master’ degree, or equivalent research training. The research will be conducted under the supervision of the Dr Kate Hetherington (Ethics and Genetics Team Leader, Clinical Psychologist), Dr Ursula Sansom-Daly (Director of the Behavioural Sciences Unit, Clinical Psychologist) and Dr Brittany McGill (Postdoctoral Researcher, Clinical Psychologist).
Eligibility criteria:
Our ideal candidate will have:
Scholarship details:
The successful candidate will enrol as a student at UNSW beginning Term 1 2024 (some flexibility in start dates available). They will receive an annual stipend of $32,192 (Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) equivalent) which will be renewed for up to 3 years pending satisfactory progress. The successful candidate will be required to prepare a 2-page project proposal (with the support of the supervisors) for submission to UNSW. While the stipend offered is guaranteed, the candidate will be encouraged to apply for external, competitive, stipends over their candidature.
To apply:
Applications should be sent direct to Dr Kate Hetherington ([email protected]) and cc Dr Brittany McGill ([email protected]). Applications should include a cover letter addressing the eligibility criteria, a curriculum vitae, a copy of an academic transcript and the names and contact details of at least two referees. Interviews for the position will be held the week following the closing date.
Closing date: 28th January, 2024
Further enquiries:
Dr Kate Hetherington ([email protected]) and cc [email protected]
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Women’s and Children’s Health, UNSW Sydney
Team leader, Ethics and Genetics team, BSU, Sydney Children’s Hospital
Project description:
Families experiencing childhood cancer face a challenging journey that profoundly impacts family life and carries the potential for long-lasting psychological consequences and poor outcomes. Precision medicine, a novel and promising approach to understanding, diagnosing, and treating childhood cancer, can introduce new complexities and uncertainties for families. Parents may struggle to understand difficult concepts related to precision medicine and genetic/genomic testing, and, particularly in the case of poor prognosis cancers, may face difficult decisions regarding the use of experimental treatments for their child. Recognising and assisting distressed parents as they navigate precision medicine is crucial to mitigating the adverse impacts of cancer on the family unit. Unfortunately, parents often encounter difficulty in accessing psychological support when most needed due to the complexities posed by childhood cancer. These include managing their child’s complex care demands, time constraints, financial strain, and geographical barriers.
Understanding barriers to accessing support and providing tailored support services that are flexible, sensitive, and effective for parents of children with cancer will help them to receive the holistic care they need to navigate their difficult journey. Despite the clear need for such support, the options available to parents remain limited. Additionally, there is a need to enhance the skills of healthcare professionals to ensure they have the skills to support distressed families effectively.
This PhD project is linked to a larger national program that will offer precision medicine testing to all children with cancer. The PhD project centres around developing and piloting a new telehealth psychological support service for parents of and patients with childhood cancer identified as experiencing clinically significant emotional distress and unmet support needs. The project will examine the acceptability, uptake and impact of clinician-initiated telehealth psychological support and care navigation.
The PhD scholar will be a UNSW student, based on the UNSW main campus and at the Kids Cancer Centre. The student will receive the full support of the Behavioural Sciences Unit (BSU) in the Kids Cancer Centre. The Behavioural Sciences Unit (BSU) is a part of the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children's Hospital and the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW. The BSU is recognised as one of the largest paediatric psycho-oncology research groups and is supported by a multidisciplinary team with representation from psychology, dietetics, paediatric oncology/haematology, social work, nursing, bereavement counselling, behavioural sciences, exercise physiology and international collaborators.
Description:
A full-time postgraduate scholarship is available for a suitably qualified candidate with a minimum of an honours or master’ degree, or equivalent research training. The research will be conducted under the supervision of the Dr Kate Hetherington (Ethics and Genetics Team Leader, Clinical Psychologist), Dr Ursula Sansom-Daly (Director of the Behavioural Sciences Unit, Clinical Psychologist) and Dr Brittany McGill (Postdoctoral Researcher, Clinical Psychologist).
Eligibility criteria:
Our ideal candidate will have:
- An Honours or Masters degree (or equivalent experience in a research setting) in a health related area (e.g. psychology or other related discipline),
- In depth knowledge or understanding of genetics is not necessary but an interest and willingness to learn about the area is essential,
- An interest in pursuing a career in clinical research, behavioural medicine or psycho-oncology research,
- Experience working with children with a chronic illness or parents of children with a chronic illness (desirable but not essential),
- Training in both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis (desirable but not essential),
- Experience writing ethics applications and preparation of manuscripts (desirable but not essential),
- Excellent interpersonal skills, with an aptitude to show understanding of the psychosocial issues faced by families affected by cancer.
- The ability to meet deadlines and work in a self-directed manner,
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a high level of attention to detail and the ability to liaise effectively with a range of stakeholders.
- Enjoy working in a multi-disciplinary team,
- Experience working with software such as STATA, SPSS, RedCap, NVivo and Endnote,
- Valid Working with Children Check
Scholarship details:
The successful candidate will enrol as a student at UNSW beginning Term 1 2024 (some flexibility in start dates available). They will receive an annual stipend of $32,192 (Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) equivalent) which will be renewed for up to 3 years pending satisfactory progress. The successful candidate will be required to prepare a 2-page project proposal (with the support of the supervisors) for submission to UNSW. While the stipend offered is guaranteed, the candidate will be encouraged to apply for external, competitive, stipends over their candidature.
To apply:
Applications should be sent direct to Dr Kate Hetherington ([email protected]) and cc Dr Brittany McGill ([email protected]). Applications should include a cover letter addressing the eligibility criteria, a curriculum vitae, a copy of an academic transcript and the names and contact details of at least two referees. Interviews for the position will be held the week following the closing date.
Closing date: 28th January, 2024
Further enquiries:
Dr Kate Hetherington ([email protected]) and cc [email protected]
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Women’s and Children’s Health, UNSW Sydney
Team leader, Ethics and Genetics team, BSU, Sydney Children’s Hospital