Call for participants 2023

The rEACH Summer School provides a unique opportunity for early-career researchers in the field of healthcare communication to develop their research skills, projects and ideas. It enables less experienced researchers to spend three days, in a friendly atmosphere, to progress their research development through interactive discussions with each other and expert academics.

The Summer School aims to prepare future leaders in healthcare communication research by facilitating the interaction between early-career and senior researchers and by helping to create an ongoing and supportive peer-to-peer network. The Summer School has been run successfully by rEACH for over 10 years.

Setting and format

The next rEACH Summer School will take place from 13, 14, 15 September 2023, with an online format.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to present their research projects and ideas and gain detailed personalised feedback from experts in the field of healthcare communication. Two senior facilitators (Prof. Alexia Papageorgiou  and Prof. Sarah.Peters) and two early-career facilitators will be present throughout the Summer School to ensure quality mentoring as well as a connection with the early-career network of EACH, yEACH.

The 3-day structure of the summer school aims to help participants to meaningfully progress and develop their research in a highly supportive and reciprocal environment. The diverse and interactive summer school agenda includes large group discussions and small group working, as well as time for individual working and personal reflection. Social activities also form an important part of the summer school and aim to facilitate connection and networking between participants and facilitators.

The activities will take place approximately from 10:00 to 16:00 CEST.

How to apply

We welcome applications from early-career investigators who are active in the field of healthcare communication research. We especially invite students planning to pursue a PhD, PhD students or those who have finished their PhD in the past two years. Previous applicants who were not selected may re-apply. EACH membership is required for Summer School acceptance and participation but is not required to submit an application (https://each.international/membership/).

Applications should include the following:

• A short letter (about one page) with:
• a brief synopsis of the applicant’s current research topic in healthcare communication;
• a statement about why the applicant wishes to be part of the Summer School and

what the applicant wishes to get out of the Summer School and what they want to improve.

• CV (maximum of two A4 pages);
• Letter of support from supervisor, including a confirmation that the applicant is proficient in English.

Applications should be sent to India Pinker (ihp2@st-andrews.ac.uk).  The call will close midnight 16 July  2023.(GMT)

Selection process General eligibility requirements include that the applicant:

• is a junior researcher in the field of healthcare communication;
• is currently researching a relevant issue in healthcare communication;
• has not participated in a previous rEACH Summer School.

Participant selection will be based on the following:

• the applicant’s motivation of how they wish to use the Summer School to enhance their research work;
• the supervisor’s letter of support;
• the applicant’s career stage – priority is given to those who are currently undertaking their PhD and those who completed doctoral studies in the last two years;
• the faculty will aim to find a balanced mix of professional background, country/institute, topics, and stage of research career in the selection of Summer School participants.

Once offered a place at the Summer School, selected participants will be asked to send a 1-2 minute video of themselves summarizing their research (i.e. elevator pitch). These will be shared with all other successful applications prior to the start of the Summer School.

Upon successful application, the registration fee for the Summer School is £ £275. Please notice that the fee does not include the include the cost of becoming a EACH member.

Deadlines

Call for application is now open

16 July 2023: call for application closes.

End July 2023: confirmation of places for selected participants

If you wish to know more about the Summer School, we recommend reading the PEC article: “Express rather than impress: Benefits of the rEACH summer school for early-career researchers in the field of health communication” by Amann et al., 2018 or “Fragmented world, connected community: success factors of the first online EACH Summer School for early-career researchers” by Wieringa, Pinker et al., 2022

Upon successful application, the registration fee for the Summer School is  £275. Please notice that the fee does not include the include the cost of becoming a EACH member. You can join EACH here

Meet the facilitators

Senior facilitators

Prof Alexia Papageorgiou

Alexia is a Professor in Clinical Communication at the University of Nicosia Medical School and a Researcher at the University of Nicosia Research Foundation in Cyprus. She is also the Chair of the Centre of Medical Education. She holds a BA in Psychology, an MSc in Health Psychology and a PhD in Psychiatry.

Previously Alexia was a Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, a Research Fellow at University College London (UCL, 2000-2003) and a Lecturer at Birkbeck College (2000-2003). She has designed and implemented new clinical communication curricula for undergraduate and graduate medical degrees in the UK and Cyprus and has extensive experience in student teaching and assessment in undergraduate and graduate medical education.

Alexia’s research areas are clinical communication, medical education, health psychology and advance statements of people who can no longer make decisions in medicine and psychiatry. She has experience in quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methodologies.

Online profile: www.alexiapapageorgiou.com

Prof Sarah Peters

Sarah is a Professor of Health Psychology at The University of Manchester, UK, where she leads the Manchester Centre for Health Psychology. She is also co-director of the NIHR Northwest Research Design Service, supporting researchers and clinicians in methodological aspects of grant applications.

Previously, Sarah was Director of Communication Skills at the University of Liverpool, where she designed and delivered training in communication and behaviour science to medical undergraduates. Sarah’s research focuses on healthcare communication, particularly within challenging contexts, such as medically unexplained symptoms, unhealthy behaviours, and suicide. The overall goal is to improve patient care and a key aspect is how to equip health professionals to communicate more effectively with patients, relatives and colleagues.

Sarah uses a range of methods but specialises in how to integrate qualitative methods within randomised controlled trials to examine mechanisms of action, acceptability, feasibility and implementation of psychological and educational interventions.

Online profile: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/sarah.peters

Junior facilitators

Dr Julia Menichetti

Julia is an Italian Postdoctoral Researcher at the Health Services Research Unit of Akershus University Hospital, Norway. She is a clinical psychologist with a BA in Neuropsychology, MSc in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Organizational Psychology.

Julia is investigating how doctors frame and share medical information with patients during clinical interactions. She is also involved in or planning projects about: (1) how longitudinal drug-related interactions affect the adherence of old patients with heart failure, (2) the development of a teaching course for medical information sharing, (3) how doctors promote patient engagement in interactions, (4) the role of physician’s curiosity in medical interactions.

Julia has used a range of qualitative methods and, generally inductive, analytical approaches: from microanalysis of clinical interactions to thematic analysis of individual and group interviews. She also loves to combine and triangulate different methods and approaches, e.g. videos of interactions with interviews and/or questionnaires and/or observations.

Online profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julia_Menichetti

Dr Rebecca Goulding

Rebecca is a Research Associate at the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research, at The University of Manchester, UK. She has a BSc in Psychology, an MPhil in Community-Based Medicine and a PhD in Health Psychology.

Rebecca’s PhD focused on: (A) exploring how older people with multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) communicate with primary care staff (including reception staff, nurses and doctors), and (B) developing an intervention to empower older people with MLTC to improve communication and reduce risks to patient safety. She is currently working on two projects concerning: (1) access to primary care and how this can be optimised, and (2) treatment burden for adults with MLTC under the age of 65.

Rebecca is a predominantly qualitative researcher. She has experience conducting systematic reviews, meta-ethnographies, surveys, interviews, focus groups, obervations and cognitive interviews; including as part of standalone, mixed and multiple methods studies.

Online profile: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/rebecca.goulding

The time shown is CEST