Dr Alison Bravington

Summary

I originally qualified in English literature and worked in book publishing as a writer and editor for fifteen years. I requalified in psychology in 2008 and subsequently took a Masters degree in social research and evaluation. My research career began at the University of Huddersfield within an applied psychology team using innovative approaches to theory-driven qualitative research. This focused on multidisciplinary collaborative working and patient and caregiver experiences in specialist palliative care evaluation, health care students’ experiences of multidisciplinary care during practice placements, and assets-based approaches to the evaluation of community health initiatives. At Huddersfield, I took an active role in the development of the Pictor technique – a diagramming method for qualitative interviews which facilitates in-depth reflection on health and social care practice.

This experience created a drive to develop expertise in diverse qualitative methodologies, with a particular focus on visual methods. I joined Hull York Medical School in 2012 to undertake my PhD, using photo-elicitation, situational analysis and constructivist grounded theory to explore how social context mediates recovery from primary cancer treatment. After four years working on cancer-related multi-site studies for the Academy of Primary Care using interviewing, stakeholder consultation, observational and survey methods, I moved to the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre in 2019.

My current work is with practitioners, patients and caregivers experiencing and managing malignant bowel obstruction (MBO), working with Dr Jason Boland and collaborators at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre at Cardiff University to develop a patient-relevant core outcome set, and with Professor Miriam Johnson to explore person-centred decision-making in MBO treatment.