Student combines placement passion with PHD to win UK award
A GCU PHD student has received special recognition for her work focusing on the unmet needs of stroke survivors suffering from visual impairment.
Ciara Ryan was awarded the Patient, Carer and Public Involvement Prize by the UK Stroke Forum (UKSF) in December last year.
Despite the wonders of modern technology initially letting her down, Ciara was delighted to receive some positive news to cap off 2021.
She explained: “I actually missed the original message telling me I’d won because there was an internet outage at the University! I had people texting me about it and I had no idea what was going on!
It was great to have my work recognised though, especially when I’ve not actually finished my PHD yet.”
Ciara came to GCU in February 2019, having previously completed an Undergraduate Occupational Therapy degree in Ireland.
She said: “During placement back home, I became really interested in visual impairment and strokes because I could that there was no evidence as to how it should be treated.
I completed two placements on stroke wards, one community and one in a hospital. We knew people had problems with their vision after suffering from a stroke but there was no real evidence for how to assess it or how to deal with it.
I always knew that I would go into PHD study, but I hadn’t anticipated that I’d go straight from an Undergrad into a PHD. One then came up at GCU, and here I am!”
Upon arrival in Scotland, Ciara threw herself into her studies and is now reaping the rewards for all her effort.
She explained: “Since I started my studies at GCU, I’ve worked as a Patient and Public (PPI) Coordinator for the NMAHP-RU Research Partnership Group. I’ve always been interested in PPI, which involves me working in partnership with patients and members of the public to plan and carry out research. I used that in my own studies and it’s obviously paid off for me to win this award!”
Ciara now plans to continue her work on her PhD project, which aims to develop a self-management intervention for people living with stroke-related visual impairment. She’s thankful for the support received from GCU and plans to develop her work further in future.
She said: “We basically have our own stroke rehabilitation team at the University and Marian Brady is the Director of it. We meet every week and it’s a really lovely place to work.
Everyone’s been amazing and it’s been great to be around people whose work also relates to PPI. I’ve learned a lot from them and just really tried to translate that into my own work.”
Ciara, who’s due to finish at GCU in the summer, added: “I’m still in the final stages of designing my intervention. I’m hopefully going to secure some sort of funding to develop the intervention further and then trial it but we’ll just need to wait and see.”
A UKSF judge also passed on their congratulations, saying: “Ciara has put public involvement at the heart of the study (and her PhD) and reflected thoughtfully on how to make it work for the individuals involved.
This has, I imagine, been challenging during the pandemic, especially as some of the public contributors are visually impaired, but good communication, careful listening and persistence in finding solutions has paid off. It is encouraging to see that she intends to build public involvement into future projects using what she has learned, and to encourage other PhD students in this area too. Congratulations also to the rest of the team for their input and guidance.”
By Ross Clark
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