Staff Members
Mrs Rachel Stocker, BSc, MSc, MBPsS
(email at rachel.stocker@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Rachel is a final year PhD student in the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, based in the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing.
Rachel has a background in Psychology, completing her undergraduate degree in Psychology with Criminology at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2008. She then went on to specialise in Health Psychology, completing her MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 1 BPS Chartership at Teesside University in 2009.
Her interest in chronic conditions and qualitative inquiry evolved during this time, with her MSc dissertation being titled “Examining Psychosocial Influences on the Self Management of Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus”. For this, she used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis with semi structured interviews.
Rachel then spent a year and a half lecturing at Sunderland and Teesside Universities on Health Psychology and Research Methods modules, and volunteering as an Assistant Psychologist in secondary care adult mental health for TEWV, before being successful in gaining a Durham Doctoral Studentship.
The interdisciplinary nature of Health Psychology and her prior interest in chronic illness enables Rachel to investigate the experience of heart failure, specifically communication difficulties between clinicians, patients, and carers at diagnosis and prognosis within her PhD. Her thesis is entitled "Experiences of prognostication and the transition point from active to palliative and end of life care in heart failure: A grounded theory study."
In her spare time Rachel enjoys running, building computers, cooking, and gardening. She lives in Darlington with her husband Phil and together they have (or are owned by) three cats.
Selected Publications
Books: sections
- Stocker, R, Close, H & Hungin, A Pali S (Accepted). End of Life Care in Heart Failure: Is it time to reinvent the wheel? In Making Sense of Chronicity (eBook). Richards, R & Howard, L The Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Conference papers
- Stocker, R & Close, H (2012), Assessing the uptake of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients: a systematic review, 13 S1: Society for Academic Primary Care ASM. Glasgow, UK, Primary Health Care Research & Development, 1-240.
- Stocker, R & Close, H (2012), Assessing the uptake of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients: a systematic review, Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group Annual Conference. Northumbria University, England.
- Stocker, R & Close, H (2012), Assessing the uptake of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients: a systematic review, 41st Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) Annual Scientific Meeting. Glasgow, Scotland.
- Stocker, R. & Close, H (2012), Assessing the uptake of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients: a systematic review, FUSE UKCRC Public Health Research Centres of Excellence Conference. Durham, England.
- Stocker, R, Close, H & Hungin, A Pali S (2012), End of Life Care in Heart Failure: Is it time to reinvent the wheel?, Making Sense of: Chronicity: A Health, Illness and Disease Project. Oxford University, England.
- Stocker, R, Close, H & Hungin, A Pali S (2012), Perceptions, attitudes and experiences of end of life care for heart failure: Are current end of life paradigms appropriate and applicable for heart failure?, Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group Annual Conference. Northumbria University, England.
Journal papers: academic
- Stocker, R & Close, H (Accepted). Assessing the uptake of the Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients: a systematic review. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
- Stocker, R & Close, H (2013). A novel method of enhancing grounded theory memos with voice recording. The Qualitative Report 18(T & L Art. 1): 1-4.
Media Contacts
Available for media contact about:
- Medical and health research topics: