GOSH’s ORCHID research centre celebrates success from the past year

The Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (known as ORCHID) is a research centre within GOSH.

Its focus is on conducting high-quality outcomes and experience-based research in the field of child health, specialising in inclusive research with hard-to-reach groups and collaborating on multi-disciplinary studies locally, nationally, and internationally.

They also have a significant role in influencing and helping to embed a strong research culture into the fabric of GOSH, and support NAHPs (Nurses, Allied Health Professionals) who are actively seeking to develop a clinical academic career, as well as supporting everyone to find ways to answer clinical questions.

Key successes from the past year include supporting 5 clinical academics in the successful application of NIHR’s PCAF award – the second year that they’ve had 100% success rate for the applicants they’ve supported.

The Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) Programme Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) scheme, run by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR), offers salaried time to develop a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake funded academic training. The scheme is open to early career researchers from the health and care professions who are committed to a clinical academic or practitioner academic career.

ORCHID is supporting 7 current PhD students and no fewer than 4 ORCHID-supported staff have completed their PhDs this year.

Congratulations Dr Elizabeth Bichard (Clinical Site Practitioner), Dr Emma Shkurka (Physiotherapist), Dr James Evans (Dietician) and Dr Phillip Harniess (Physiotherapist).

Dr Elizabeth Bichard took a different route to her PhD, mainly self-funding, which had additional challenges.

Dr Bichard did her PhD at the Institute of Health and Social Care at London South Bank University and is now a Clinical Site Practitioner at GOSH.

During her studies she continued to work as a PICU nurse and educator at GOSH, even suspending her studies so that she could support adult intensive care units during Covid.

Her PhD project was a two-phase project exploring the impact on siblings of having a brother or sister with congenital heart disease, recruiting UK-based siblings aged 8-17 years old for interviews and surveys. She used phase one to identify themes that affected these children and young people and phase two looked at approaches to improving their experiences. Her results suggest relationships, peer support, communication, information, and inclusion of siblings at home and in hospital were vital

Dr Bichard said: "Prior to starting my studies I was working full time on Paediatric Intensive Care Unit @GOSH. The PhD was awarded as a scholarship so I didn't have to pay tuition fees and was awarded a limited stipend, so still needed to work part time to support myself. I altered my position at GOSH to fit better with my PhD studies and took a job within PICU as a Lecturer Practitioner for the PICU course with some clinical shifts. All of this was a challenge to juggle for the duration of the PhD which spanned almost four years, including a brief interlude for COVID.

"Completing the PhD with limited funds and competing work, study and life was a huge challenge. I found that everything PhD related leeched in to evenings and weekends in addition to the allocated time and finding small pockets of funding for PhD related study funds was an extra challenge. I found that dissemination of my PhD along the journey really kept me going. I could not have done it without the fabulous support of our GOSH clinical academics and ORCHID, something we are so lucky to have. I look forward to supporting other clinical academics in the future.

One member of staff that has used ORCHID’s support to take their first steps into a research career is Dr Polly Livermore.

Dr Livermore was the BRC Clinical Academic Career Programme Lead for Nursing and Allied Health Professionals. She was awarded a competitive NIHR Clinical Doctoral Fellowship to obtain her PhD, taking time out from her role as Matron in the Trust.

Her research investigated the lived experience and psychosocial aspects of Juvenile Dermatomyositis (JDM), a rare, chronic health condition, in children and young people around the UK. Her PhD work highlighted the huge role that uncertainty and a perception of burden plays for those with JDM.

Dr Livermore has now successfully secured a prestigious NIHR’s Advanced Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (ACAF) which supports post-doctoral researchers to develop their academic career while developing their health or care career. She was the only nurse to be awarded the fellowship in 2023.

The funding is allowing her to carry out research into paediatric rheumatology where she is designing, developing, and testing a chatbot intervention for parents of children and young people with rheumatological conditions. This is a multi-phased, UK wide proof-of concept study and is inviting all paediatric rheumatology centres to be involved.

Dr Livermore said:

“The ACAF has given me a huge opportunity to make a difference to children and young people, and their families living with paediatric rheumatology conditions. The support we have had from families, charities and other rheumatology centres across the UK shows the huge need for this intervention. Interestingly, the findings we have found so far however are generally not specific to paediatric rheumatology, but instead fundamentals of paediatric health care experience, which means that our final chatbot intervention may be relevant to many other conditions and have the impact that is needed”.

Professor Jo Wray also had a very successful year, showing the importance of dissemination and sharing research widely. She published 22 papers from the breadth of her work as a Chief Investigator, co-applicant and collaborator on both UK and International studies.

ORCHID are excited to be able to share the successes and hard work of the team over the past year.

Explore ORCHID’s Annual Report 2023.