Dr Sarah Brearley

Lecturer

Research Interests

Alongside her role developing the PhD programme, teaching, and supervising PhD students, Sarah is involved in developing qualitative and quantitative research within the supportive and palliative care setting. Her research interests include a focus on symptom management in palliative and supportive care. She is co-lead on a European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) major award to clarify symptom clusters related to chemotherapy-induced nausea and a co-applicant on a large multicentre randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of acupressure wristbands in the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, funded by the HTA. Sarah also is interested in clinical strategies for managing symptoms She was recently involved in an assessment of clinical utilisation of antiemetics with chemotherapy and is currently undertaking an investigation of strategies to manage PPE (a skin condition associated with chemotherapy). Other work includescompleting the qualitative analysis of longitudinal data on cancer experiences from interviews with GI cancer patients anda systematic scope of the evidence base on the health and well being of cancer survivors, for the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative (NCSI). Sarah also has an interest in spirituality.

Research currently being developed includes:

• strategies to aid the identification of acute stroke patients requiring referral to specialist palliative care services
• the development of a Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) for patients with gynaecological cancer
• the development and validation of a scale to identify people living with symptoms and psychosocial forces that contribute to the development of cancer cachexia syndrome.

Future aims are to continue to develop leading research within the palliative care which has a direct impact on improving patient outcomes.