Dr Sarah Mitchell
MB ChB FRCGP MSc PhD
Department of Oncology and Metabolism
Senior Clinical Fellow
+44 114 215 9021
Full contact details
Department of Oncology and Metabolism
Room 226, Broomcross Building
Weston Park Hospital
Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2SJ
- Profile
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For enquiries, please contact - om-operational@sheffield.ac.uk
I am a GP with a clinical and academic interest in palliative and end-of-life care. I work at the White House Surgery in Sheffield. This is one of the ‘Deep End' cluster practices, serving the most socioeconomically deprived and ethnically diverse practice populations in the city. I joined the University of Sheffield in 2020 as a Yorkshire Cancer Research Connects Senior Research Fellow. My current fellowship research focusses on the role and response of primary care in COVID-19 end-of-life care, improving identification of palliative care needs, and the integration of community palliative care services to reduce inequalities. I have an interest in health service design and the translation of policy into practice and have a variety of policy roles in palliative care at local, regional and national levels.
Prior to this fellowship, I was an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Warwick and worked as a GP in Birmingham. I was awarded my PhD in 2020. This was a realist inquiry, examining healthcare service design for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families. In 2020 I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, and the RCGP/SAPC Yvonne Carter Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher.
My motivation for research is grounded in my clinical experiences as a GP, providing palliative and end-of-life care to patients in the community with complex and unpredictable health conditions. My research aims to focus on the patient and family experience, and produce recommendations that are practice and policy relevant. I have expertise in systematic review, qualitative research and realist methods. Patient and public involvement is integral to all aspects of my research, including research design and dissemination.
- Qualifications
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- MBChB (University of Sheffield 2001)
- Certificate of Completion of Training: General Practice (Sheffield VTS 2007)
- MSc Palliative Medicine (Cardiff University, 2012, Distinction)
- PhD (University of Warwick, 2020)
- Research interests
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- Primary palliative care
- Identification and management of supportive and palliative care needs in the community
- Palliative care for children and young people
- Medical ethics
- Cancer, complexity and multi-morbidity
- Improving cancer care in primary care
- Health service design and the translation of policy into practice
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- Palliative and end-of-life care in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. British Journal of General Practice, 72(714), 6-7.
- Experiences of general practice of children with complex and palliative care needs and their families: a qualitative study. BMJ Open, 11(1). View this article in WRRO
- Experiences of healthcare, including palliative care, of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families : a longitudinal qualitative investigation. Archives of Disease in Childhood. View this article in WRRO
- The role and response of primary healthcare services in the delivery of palliative care in epidemics and pandemics : a rapid review to inform practice and service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Palliative Medicine. View this article in WRRO
- GPs’ role in caring for children and young people with life-limiting conditions: a retrospective cohort study. British Journal of General Practice, 70(693), e221-e229. View this article in WRRO
- Achieving beneficial outcomes for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions receiving palliative care and their families: A realist review. Palliative Medicine, 34(3), 387-402. View this article in WRRO
- Parental experiences of end of life care decision-making for children with life-limiting conditions in the paediatric intensive care unit: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open, 9(5). View this article in WRRO
- Primary palliative care needs urgent attention. British Medical Journal (BMJ), 2019(365). View this article in WRRO
- Providing end-of-life care in general practice : findings of a national GP questionnaire survey. British Journal of General Practice, 66(650), e647-e653. View this article in WRRO
All publications
Journal articles
- Palliative and end-of-life care in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. British Journal of General Practice, 72(714), 6-7.
- What do we know about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on hospices? A collaborative multi-stakeholder knowledge synthesis. AMRC Open Research, 3, 23.
- Community end-of-life care during COVID-19: Findings of a UK primary care survey.. BJGP Open.
- What is realist research, when should we consider it, how and why?. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed.
- Facilitators and barriers to the delivery of palliative care to children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions: a qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of healthcare professionals.. Arch Dis Child.
- An evaluation of the experiences of young people in Patient and Public Involvement for palliative care research. Palliative Medicine, 35(4), 793-798.
- Experiences of general practice of children with complex and palliative care needs and their families: a qualitative study. BMJ Open, 11(1). View this article in WRRO
- Experiences of healthcare, including palliative care, of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families : a longitudinal qualitative investigation. Archives of Disease in Childhood. View this article in WRRO
- The role and response of primary healthcare services in the delivery of palliative care in epidemics and pandemics : a rapid review to inform practice and service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Palliative Medicine. View this article in WRRO
- GP home visits: essential patient care or disposable relic?. British Journal of General Practice, 70(695), 306-307.
- GPs’ role in caring for children and young people with life-limiting conditions: a retrospective cohort study. British Journal of General Practice, 70(693), e221-e229. View this article in WRRO
- Achieving beneficial outcomes for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions receiving palliative care and their families: A realist review. Palliative Medicine, 34(3), 387-402. View this article in WRRO
- The journey through care: study protocol for a longitudinal qualitative interview study to investigate the healthcare experiences and preferences of children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families in the West Midlands, UK. BMJ Open, 8(1). View this article in WRRO
- Undertaking doctoral research with children and young people with life‐limiting or life‐threatening conditions. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75(12), 3183-3185. View this article in WRRO
- Ethics and patient and public involvement with children and young people. Archives of disease in childhood - Education & practice edition, 104(4), 195-200. View this article in WRRO
- Palliative care : training the primary care workforce is more important than rebranding. British Medical Journal (BMJ), 2019(365). View this article in WRRO
- Parental experiences of end of life care decision-making for children with life-limiting conditions in the paediatric intensive care unit: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open, 9(5). View this article in WRRO
- Primary palliative care needs urgent attention. British Medical Journal (BMJ), 2019(365). View this article in WRRO
- The undertakers: Learning from an unusual work experience placement. InnovAiT: Education and inspiration for general practice, 11(8), 465-466. View this article in WRRO
- Specialist paediatric palliative care services: what are the benefits?. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 102(10), 923-929. View this article in WRRO
- Palliative care from diagnosis for all ages including children and young people. BMJ, 2017(357). View this article in WRRO
- Providing end-of-life care in general practice : findings of a national GP questionnaire survey. British Journal of General Practice, 66(650), e647-e653. View this article in WRRO
- Advance Care Planning in palliative care: A qualitative investigation into the perspective of Paediatric Intensive Care Unit staff. Palliative Medicine, 29(4), 371-379.
- Use of formal advance care planning documents: a national survey of UK Paediatric Intensive Care Units. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 99(4), 327-330.
- Dying at home during covid-19: a view from primary care. BMJ, n1776-n1776.
- Advance care planning is everybody’s business. BMJ, f6748-f6748. View this article in WRRO
- Service change and innovation in community end-of-life care during the COVID-19 pandemic: qualitative analysis of a nationwide primary care survey. Palliative Medicine.
Chapters
- Applying corpus-based discourse analysis to enhance understanding of barriers to palliative and end of life care provision in general practice In Demjen Z (Ed.), Applying Linguistics in Illness and Healthcare Contexts (pp. 321-348). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Conference proceedings papers
- 5 Primary care delivers palliative care during COVID-19: a national UK survey of GP’s and community nurses. Oral presentations
Theses / Dissertations
- The Journey through Care. Palliative Care for children and young people, and their families: What? When? How? A Realist Inquiry. View this article in WRRO
- Palliative and end-of-life care in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. British Journal of General Practice, 72(714), 6-7.
- Teaching interests
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I regularly supervise medical student SSC projects and offer supervision to BSc, MSc and PhD students. My teaching and supervision interests are primary palliative care and medical ethics.
- Professional activities
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- Clinical Director for End-of-Life Care, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group
- Clinical Co-Lead for Palliative and End-of-Life Care, South Yorkshire Integrated Care System
- Regional Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care, North East and Yorkshire NHSE&I Strategic Clinical Network
- Senior Clinical Lead for Palliative and End-of-Life Care, NHS England and Improvement (until April 2022).
- Member of the Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Editorial Board
- Convenor of the Society of Academic Primary Care Palliative Care Special Interest Group