Student Profile - Phil Swarbrick
PhD Student
Phil Swarbrick
I began my part-time, self-funded MPhil/PhD in October 2006. My working research title is, "Advance care planning in palliative patients". It is my wish to understand more fully the needs of terminally ill patients as and when they are deciding on their future care. I would like to know how, when and with whom such paients wish to discuss their advance care and I am especially interested in how the New Mental Capacity Act (2005) may change this in the future. I intend to use the qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and focus groups with patients and with carers/relatives of these patients. My supervisor is Dr Anne Grinyer and my adviser on all legal aspects of end-of-life care is Professor Hazel Biggs, Dept of Law, Lancaster University.
I am medically qualified having worked as a GP and in palliative medicine in both hospices and hospital settings. At the moment my work mainly involves the teaching of Lancaster/Liverpool medical students in communication skills, but I am hoping to return to some work in local hospices in the near future.
Projects/Studies
Advance care planning in palliative patients
