Improving patient outcomes in an acute care setting

Project Outline:

The project will be situated within a program of research on the prevention of hospital acquired complications and will align with the Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards and Western Australian Sustainable Health Review that aim to protect the public from harm and improve the quality of acute health service provision.
Patients who are admitted to hospitals are extremely sick, have high acuity levels, are frail, often older, with multiple comorbidities and are extremely vulnerable to acquiring a hospital acquired complication. Recent Australian data shows that one if every nine patients will develop a hospital acquired complication costing the Australia’s health system at least $5 billion per year (Grattan Institute, 2018). This vulnerable group of patients will be exposed to highly invasive procedures and despite the frequency of these procedures there is a paucity of research guiding the best evidence-based research practice.
Depending on the student’s background and preference, the PhD project will be in one of the following areas:

1. Vascular access
   1. Peripheral vascular access
   2. Haemodialysis vascular access
2. Indwelling urinary catheter management
3. Prevention of pressure injury

Other topics related to improving patient outcomes in an acute care setting may be considered.

Desired skills: Experience with statistical analysis and related software (e.g., Stata, SAS, R, SPSS)

Project Area: Safety and Quality in Healthcare

Supervisor(s): Dr Linda Coventry, Professor Lisa Whitehead

Project level: PhD

Funding: School scholarship available

Start date: From 2023