eTheses
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This community contains an online collection of PhD theses and selected undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations written by QMU students and researchers.
PhD theses are available to be browsed, searched, read or printed by anyone interested in their content.
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Item EXPLORING THE MEANING OF FACILITATION IN PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH REGISTERED NURSES AND HEALTHCARE ASSISTANTS: A PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH STUDY(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025-10) Breslin, ElizabethBackground This research study aimed to explore the meaning of facilitation in Practice Development (PD). My co-researchers were registered nurses and healthcare assistants (practice co-researchers) working in two residential care facilities in Ireland. PD is an approach to developing person-centred cultures of care grounded in critical social science that integrates collaborative, inclusive, and participatory approaches to achieve person-centred and evidence-based care. Central to PD is person-centred facilitation, which is the focus of my research, examining the meaning of facilitation in the reality of practice. Research Methods Using a person-centred methodological approach, this study was conducted in two residential care facilities in Ireland and underpinned by participatory and emancipatory principles. Research fieldwork was conducted over fourteen months. A range of Practice Development (PD) methods were used, including one-to-one interviews, reflective accounts, observations of practice, facilitation workshops, and informal conversations. These activities were conducted over fourteen months to support engagement and foster trust. A creative hermeneutic data analysis was used to interpret how facilitators experienced and made sense of facilitation in practice. In the later phase, experienced co-researchers joined the analysis process to critically reflect on and deepen their understanding of the emerging outcomes. Research Outcomes In this research, five key elements emerged that illuminate the meaning of facilitation in PD: autonomy, courage, understanding person-centredness, embracing active learning, and flourishing. Person-centred relationships between individuals are underpinned by trust, knowledge of self and others, learning to be creative, having time, and having a supportive space to work together towards a shared purpose in practice.Item FROM SCOPING TO SCALING: COLLABORATIVE INDIVIDUAL PATIENT DATA PLATFORMS FOR NEGLECTED INFECTIOUS DISEASES: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy [PhD by publication](2025-10) Maguire, Brittany JaneThis thesis presents the rationale and theoretical context for a portfolio of published work examining the clinical study landscape across five different neglected and poverty-related diseases (NPRDs). It critically analyses the limitations of traditional aggregate meta-analysis for synthesising evidence for these diseases, demonstrating how challenges such as limited volume of trials and enrolled participants, methodological heterogeneity and inconsistent reporting necessitate alternative approaches. Meta-analysis of individual patient data (IPD) is proposed as an alternative; however, access to IPD raises legal, ethical, and technical barriers, which I critically examine, drawing on the experiences gained through stakeholder engagement. I engaged with the disease specific research communities to assess the feasibility of building global collaborative data platforms which can provide solutions to the many challenges of sharing IPD. The common difficulties identified in my publications across the NPRDs, together with the limited global attention, funding, and resources available, strongly reinforced the need for a unified data-sharing infrastructure to enable economies of scale. My work directly informed the evolution of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) Roadmap, a framework of tools, templates, and resources to streamline platform scoping and development, reduce duplication, and adapt processes efficiently to new disease areas. I also demonstrate how systematic review outputs from my publications evolved into dynamic, openaccess tools that enhance the discoverability of IPD and promote data-sharing. I describe the development of a research community consensus-driven process for generating research agendas that enable the meaningful re-use of IPD to address critical knowledge gaps in these under-researched disease areas. My contribution helped shape and operationalise the vision of IDDO as a researcher-driven initiative to build data platforms, supporting the identification, collation, and harmonisation of IPD to promote meaningful data re-use and advance the treatment and control of neglected infectious diseases.Item FAMILIES OF CARE AND CONNECTION: A RELATIONAL EXPLORATION OF HOW REFUGEES NAVIGATE STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS TO INTEGRATION IN THE UK: A critical appraisal submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD by Publication (Retrospective)(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025-10) Baillot, HelenDrawing on data from three inter-related studies, the four papers considered in this critical appraisal foreground the role played by social connections – relationships with other people, organisations and statutory bodies – in integration. My central argument is that family and family-like relationships are critical to refugees’ experiences of navigating new systems and structures in countries of settlement. These relationships are defined, developed and sustained through practices of care. I therefore position both care and family as central vectors in integration and as sites where refugees are agentive decision-makers shaping their own integration trajectories. Empirically I call for researchers and practitioners to move away from individualistic notions of integration to fully incorporate the family and the care that flows through family-like relationships into the design and delivery of research and practice. Conceptually, I outline the ways in which this process of incorporation moves us away from integration and towards an alternative feminist post-migration ecological framework, within which orientations and practices of care play a crucial role.Item Finding Our Way, Telling Our Stories: A Story-Informed Transformation Toward Person-Centred Culture and Practice after Australia’s Oakden Report: An introduction and critical appraisal in partial fulfilment of the Doctor of Philosophy degree by retrospective publication.(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025-10) McKellar, DuncanThis doctoral study by retrospective publication examines the transformation of health, aged and social care environments from dehumanised and dysfunctional into compassionate, person-centred cultures. The research is grounded, firstly, in my experience as a reviewer of South Australia’s Oakden Older Persons’ Mental Health Service, a profoundly flawed institution whose exposure led to several national inquiries and, secondly, in my subsequent experience as the strategic clinical lead of systemic reforms occurring after the report’s publication. Through immersive, embodied scholarship, involving practice-based learning, reflective practice, and autoethnographic research, this study explores the role of storytelling as a mechanism for culture change. The thesis explores the relationship between storytelling, organisational culture, and person-centred care, synthesising insights from philosophy, theology, and social science. It argues that a story-informed approach—where storytelling and story-listening are embedded in work and care practices—enhances empathy, disrupts power hierarchies, and fosters psychologically safe environments. This principle, alongside the co-designed Culture Framework developed in the Oakden reform process, provides a strategic model for sustainably embedding person-centred values into health, aged, and social care services. The critical appraisal considers theologically informed personalism as an ontology, functioning as a wellspring for a dynamic embodied scholarly practice. It also positions storytelling as an epistemology that humanises care and builds ethical, empathetic, and inclusive cultures. It evaluates the study’s methodological foundation in evocative autoethnography and reflexive scholarship, addressing the ethical complexities of narrating lived experience. The findings affirm that systemic failures, such as those at Oakden, are often rooted in the erosion of personhood and relational care. By offering an applied model of cultural transformation, this thesis contributes new knowledge to the field of person-centred practice, advocating for narrative as a central mechanism in achieving sustainable, compassionate care environments.Item THE INSTITUTIONALISATION OF WHISTLEBLOWING IN THE SCOTTISH HEALTH SERVICE: AN INTERPLAY BETWEEN ORGANISATIONS, MEDIA AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE(2025) Burnett, AlexisThe act of whistleblowing has become a common, global phenomenon in recent decades, and the necessity to find satisfactory solutions has become a major focus for organisations world-wide. This is particularly important in the field of health, where the National Health Service has witnessed serious whistleblowing events to the detriment of healthcare staff and, perhaps more importantly, to patients. NHS Scotland is selected as a case study to explore the reconceptualization of whistleblowing as a normative organisational process. This research study contrasts with existing literature on whistleblowing, which has focused primarily on the treatment of healthcare whistleblowers at the hands of their managers and organisations, where the primary victim is the whistleblower, subjected to organisation reprisal. A qualitative research study has been undertaken, which includes interviews with NHS leaders, media coverage of high-profile whistleblowing cases and official whistleblowing-related documents. The primary theme of this thesis concentrates on whistleblowing institutionalisation as an emerging political process initiated by the Scottish Government. This thesis makes two main contributions to the issue of whistleblowing specifically in the Scottish health service. First, it provides evidence of the introduction of whistleblowing institutionalism through related policies and processes for the whole of NHS Scotland and associated organisations, including contractors. Second, it identifies media impact on public policy decision making in relation to whistleblowing with the discovery of a ‘whistleblowing’ specific frame. This frame provides empirical evidence of an influential media on the political landscape.Item Understanding unresolved higher education complaints: A mixed methods study on the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA)(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025) Elkington, Ossian LeoHigher education (HE) is increasingly shaped by the pressures of marketisation, which positions students as consumers within a competitive educational marketplace. Amidst this shifting landscape, the resolution of student complaints has become a critical issue, raising fundamental questions about fairness, accessibility, and the efficacy of independent adjudication systems. This research addresses these concerns by examining the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA), which serves as the principal complaint-handling body for unresolved disputes in HE across England and Wales. By blending theoretical and practical perspectives, this research seeks to illuminate the systemic factors shaping complaint outcomes and procedural fairness in a marketised HE context. Adopting an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, the research comprises two complementary studies. The first is a quantitative analysis of cross-sectional secondary data from 5,111 OIA complaints, revealing key patterns in complainant demographics and their relationship to complaint outcomes. Notably, the findings underscore significant disparities, with males, ethnic minorities, and international (non-EU) students being less likely to secure remedies. The second study delves deeper into these patterns through a qualitative exploration of stakeholder perspectives. Thematic analysis of focus groups involving complainants, university staff, and OIA staff uncovers diverse experiences shaped by structural and procedural factors. Participants describe mixed perceptions of procedural justice, encompassing concerns over impartiality, communication barriers, and varying levels of support. The qualitative findings propose three typologies of complainants, Persistent Pursuers, Reluctant Escalators, and Resolution Seekers, highlighting the motivations and expectations influencing student engagement with the OIA. This thesis makes significant contributions to both academic discourse and practical policy. It explores the application of procedural justice theory to the unique context of a HE ombudsman and challenges existing paradigms of student complaining behaviour. By providing actionable insights into the disparities and barriers within the OIA’s processes, the research offers recommendations to enhance fairness, transparency, and equity in student complaint resolution. Ultimately, this work advocates for a more thorough and transparent adjudication system that reflects the diverse needs of HE students.Item DISORIENTATED AFFECTS: ENCOUNTERING QUEER TRAUMA THROUGH EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY FILM(2025) Mosch, ReginaThis arts-based PhD investigates microaggressions against queer bodies through an experimental documentary film art process. While the idea of a spectacular, very violent, and rupturing trauma experience begins to take on more nuanced perspectives through inquiries of feminist, post/de/anticolonial and queer scholarship, the particular fragmented, embodied and subjective affects of an exposure to microaggressions have as of yet not been fully understood within trauma studies. What do microaggressions do with queer bodies? How do they change their shape and distort their appearance, thus enacting oppression on and beneath the surface of queer bodies? Thisstudy uses experimental film aesthetics and a queer film-phenomenological lens informed by Sara Ahmed (2006) and Katharina Lindner (2018) to question dominant understandings of trauma as rupture and demands a sensibility to forms of violence that are invisible, intangible, fragmented or purely embodied. Introducing a queer politics of encountering and sharing trauma on a sensory level, this study particularly explores what the cumulative, piercing nature of microaggressions takes out of queer people’s grasp, yet also the potentials of aesthetic and practical disorientation for building new lines of thought and action. The co-creative exhibition over/exposed acts as the main vehicle to (de)construct spaces of queerness, co-creation and trauma in experimental documentary film. over/exposed negotiates trauma through various filmic, bodily and spatial surfaces; its encounters disorientate, twist and trouble co-creators, viewers and researcher as a queer politics of encountering and sharing trauma on a sensory level is assembled. Through an affective analysis of the 10 artworks as well as the co-creative process, this study reveals a new understanding of trauma as overexposure that brings attention to abrasions, frictions and subtle intrusions to queer bodies, the (power) relations within and beyond an artistic process and the significance of an instable and disorientated body for producing new knowledge.Item Technology is nothing, the terrain is everything: Factors influencing the implementation of point of care testing for Malaria, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Tuberculosis within East Africa.(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025) Willetts, AnniePoint-of-care testing is a central strategy for controlling the infectious diseases Malaria, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Tuberculosis (TB), especially in low and middle-income countries where access to laboratories is scarce. However, its routine implementation into frontline diagnostic practices remains inadequate to meet global targets. This study explored the factors influencing the implementation of malaria, HIV, and TB point-of-care (POC) testing by frontline health workers in primary healthcare settings in a rural county in Coastal Kenya. Adopting a pragmatic philosophical lens, this mixed-methods study drew on Normalisation Process Theory to explore how health providers implemented these POC testing interventions and how they became embedded in routine practice. Frontline health providers participated in a cross-sectional facility survey of 40 public and private primary health facilities, 11 semi-structured interviews, and 7 focus group discussions, providing a comprehensive understanding of the broad context and the in-depth experiences involved in implementing each POC testing process. Descriptive analysis of the survey data was performed using the statistical computing platform R. The qualitative data were analysed thematically using Ritchie & Spencer’s (1994) Social Framework Analysis Approach, with NVivo Version 11 software assisting in the management and systematic analysis process. Applying Cresswell's Convergent Mixed Methods Approach, the datasets were merged to provide a more comprehensive understanding of each POC testing process. The study identified three overarching contextual factors shaping the implementation of POC testing: the capacity to provide laboratory services, the value attributed to patient care and health providers’ work, and access to a supportive network, regardless of whether the POC testing focused on malaria, HIV or TB. In conclusion, the study highlights the dedication and resourcefulness of health providers who, despite the constraints typical of low and middle-income countries, work innovatively to embed the POC testing processes into routine diagnostic practices to enhance patient care.Item A PAPER OF RECORD: CONVERGENCE AND COMMUNITY AT THE GLASGOW HERALD(2025) Silver, ChristopherFounded in Glasgow in 1783, the Herald is among the oldest continuously published newspapers in the English-speaking world. In the late 20th century, the paper sought to cast off its reputation as an organ of once powerful local elites; with the goal of becoming the preeminent national paper of record for Scotland. This transformation necessitated an expansion in the range and extent of the Herald’s journalistic output: with a particular emphasis on culture, high literary standards, and the role of specialist correspondents with the requisite expertise to scrutinise state and civil society institutions. These developments form part of a cultural turn in Scottish journalism, facilitated by structural modernisation and energised by prefigurative impulses that emerged in the context of growing demands for enhanced political autonomy, alongside a broader revival of national identity and culture in Scotland. However, a seemingly resilient and expanding national media system, consolidated in the post-war era, was unprepared for the advent of global media convergence. Thus in 2003 Newsquest – a wholly owned subsidiary of US conglomerate Gannett – purchased the Herald and went on to substantially retrench the title’s editorial operations, resulting in a significant reduction in the range and extent of its journalistic output. This project combines a study of documentary and oral history sources which together constitute a cultural history of the Herald. Based on analysis of these sources, this project shows how Herald journalists sustained an interpretive community which resisted the pressures of media convergence by restating journalistic values and valorising institutional memory, while foregrounding the cultural value of the title. This project also situates the Herald’s cultural history and its transformations within wider theoretical debates about community, the public sphere, and modernity. Drawing on these fruitful connections, this thesis concludes by conceptualising four distinct transformations in journalistic culture and practice. These findings are grounded in the Herald’s particular interpretive community, but they also underline the broader salience of the journalistic record amid the pressures and possibilities of global media convergence.Item MU-BEING: MUSIC THERAPY WITH YOUNG PEOPLE FROM MULTICULTURAL BACKGROUNDS IN SOUTH KOREA(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2025-05) Oh, JoonThis study began with reflective questions regarding the fundamental meaning of music therapy in a multicultural context. The purpose of this study is to explore how music therapy can support the well-being of young people from multicultural backgrounds, how young people and their communities experience music therapy, and what role the therapist’s beliefs, values, and attitudes play in the process. Five young people participated in ‘Mu-Being,’ a music therapy programme developed from the values of Person-Centred Practice and an understanding of the unique contexts of young people and their community. A multimethod based on a multi-paradigmatic approach, consistent with the project’s motivating values and ideas evolved: it included measuring multidimensional well-being, interpretive phenomenological process guided by lifeworld existentials, and arts-based work. The improvement in the social aspects of well-being highlights the role of music therapy practice in challenging and unprecedented contexts. Young people’s music, histories, and the ways in which they participated played a key role in collaboratively developing the conditions for flourishing. Mu-Being facilitated a safe, creative space for young people to experiment and integrate their identities and needs, a transcendent time to cross various existential boundaries, and transformative relationships through shared musical experiences with the local community. Reflective music composition as a way of knowing demonstrated the potential of music to explore aspects of experience that are difficult to identify through numbers and text. The project places music therapy practice at the intersection of well-being theory, personcentred practice framework, and arts-based inquiry, and its transdisciplinary nature fosters multifaceted discussions and resources that can contribute to the development of programmes encompassing the authentic voices of young people and their context; offers an understanding of how person-centredness can be realised in practice; demonstrates how data from various sources can be used together to explore music therapy experiences and their impact.