Deterioration, Safety, and Equity: Addressing racialised disparities in the assessment and management of deterioration in English maternity settings

This fully funded PhD studentship in the School of Psychology explores how deterioration is recognised, assessed, and managed in English maternity settings through an equity lens. The research addresses critical gaps in understanding how obstetric racism, bias, and stereotyping influence the recognition of deterioration and escalation decisions in maternity care. The project will investigate how deterioration assessment tools, escalation pathways, and clinical decision-making may be influenced by bias, structural racism, and systemic inequities. It will explore lived experiences of deterioration and safety-critical interactions and identify opportunities to co-design solutions embedding equity into clinical protocols and training. Working within the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration, the successful candidate will work with a collaborative research team at the forefront of patient safety research, contributing to national maternity safety initiatives by uncovering inequities in deterioration assessments and helping reduce preventable harm for racially minoritised populations.