The Point of Care Foundation announces Humanising Care Fellowships
01 October 2024
Alison Convey, Sinead Rothrie and Juliet Rayment begin Fellowships in October 2024
We are delighted to announce that Alison Convey, Sinead Rothrie and Juliet Rayment have been awarded Humanising Care Fellowships.
Starting in October 2024, Fellows will work for six months with the Point of Care team, embarking on unique projects to improve the way health and care services are delivered. The Fellows’ projects will explore diverse topics:
- Improving post-treatment care for patients with head and neck cancers
- Developing regulators’ role in supporting relationships between patients and carers
- Creating a unique piece of theatre to help train medical students and healthcare professionals
Interim Point of Care Foundation CEO Greg Allen commented: “Our Humanising Care Fellows come from three distinct parts of the health and care system, representing primary care, midwifery and speech and language therapy. All will be working to develop our understanding of how to provide human, person-centred healthcare. We’re excited to start this work and support them on their journeys.”
The Humanising Care Fellowships aim to advance the Point of Care Foundation’s mission to humanise care. The Fellowships are designed to support emerging leaders to develop and carry forward ideas about improving care. Alongside the project component of the Fellowship, Fellows will undertake a programme of professional development and learning, working with the Point of Care Foundation team.
The Fellowships were created to mark the 10th anniversary of the Point of Care Foundation as an independent charity in 2023/24. They are funded from a legacy bequeathed to the Foundation by Drusilla Harvey, an artist and teacher at the Royal College of Art.
About the Fellows
Alison Convey
Alison is a general practitioner, medical educator and theatre director. She has worked as a GP in practices across London and Oxford, caring for patients from a diverse range of backgrounds. Alison is currently Academic Lead for undergraduate courses in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and Associate Director of Clinical Studies, both at the University of Oxford. She has directed plays and worked as an assistant director on productions at Shakespeare’s Globe, in London’s West End, across the UK and on international tours.
Alison’s project
Every day as a GP, she sees the current challenges to achieving compassionate care faced by patients and professionals. She is excited to use her time with the Point of Care Foundation to develop a piece of verbatim theatre, putting patient testimony at the heart of the project. The play will be used in educational settings with healthcare students and professionals, to examine current primary care practices, raise awareness of health inequalities and promote humanised care.
Sinead Rothrie
Sinead has worked as a speech and language therapist for the past decade within a range of settings including community care, acute and tertiary inpatient/outpatient services. She currently specialises in care for patients with head and neck cancer and has published on the role of speech therapists within oncology and ways to improve care for those receiving follow-up treatment. Her recent Health Education England-funded work has explored patient follow-up and ongoing quality of life needs.
Sinead’s project
As treatments for head and neck cancer continue to evolve, more people are surviving their cancer. However, they can be left with long-term, complex and chronic difficulties which impact their day-to-day lives. Sinead will use her Humanising Care Fellowship to develop a deeper understanding of patient and healthcare provider partnerships to improve experiences of care, and will utilise patient experience in designing post-treatment services.
Sinead said: “I am excited about using my time with the PoCF to deepen my knowledge about how focusing on peoples experiences of healthcare can improve the services, treatment and outcomes for everyone.”
Juliet Rayment
Juliet has spent many years carrying out research in UK maternity services. She was previously a Research Fellow in the Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, City, University of London; the Re:Birth Research Fellow at the Royal College of Midwives; and worked as a freelance research consultant. Juliet now works in the strategy team at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Juliet’s project
Health professionals are most commonly referred to their regulators by patients or their families because of failures in care relationships; following experiences of a lack of kindness, compassion or communication. Like other regulators, the NMC tends to get involved after things go wrong. Through the Fellowship, Juliet aims to facilitate conversations between members of the public, regulators, and healthcare professionals about what regulators could do to support positive relationships at the point of care.