Phd Scholarship – Exploring Patient Acceptability And Preferences For Advance Provision Of Medi[...]

PhD Scholarship – Exploring patient acceptability and preferences for advance provision of medical abortion pills

About the project

Despite the availability of a range of contraceptive methods, there are still high rates of unintended pregnancy and dissatisfaction with contraceptive methods. There is no method of contraception that is 100% effective and some women experience side effects or are fearful of them. Additionally, not all women want to use a regular method particularly if they are not often sexually active. Emergency contraception can be used, but it is only of limited effectiveness.

Self-management options for early medical abortion are becoming increasingly available through organisations in Europe, Canada and the US. Advance provision of medical abortion pills could overcome access barriers, particularly for women who live in areas where health care services are limited; however, there are gaps in our understanding of patient acceptability and preferences for how advance provision might work. This PhD project will utilise quantitative and qualitative methods to explore patient acceptability and preferences for advance provision of medical abortion pills. The outcomes from this project will provide a better understanding of women’s views on advance provision to inform policy and practice focused on improving the sexual and reproductive health of women in Australia.

SPHERE and Monash University

The successful candidate will be part of a multidisciplinary cohort of researchers and students based at the SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care. SPHERE’s focus is on improving access to and the quality of women’s sexual and reproductive health care services particularly in the areas of preconception care, contraception, medical abortion services, and endometriosis and pelvic pain diagnosis and management in primary care. For more information about the important work that SPHERE does, please visit the website.

SPHERE is located at the Department of General Practice at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and is part of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) at Monash University.

Monash University is a member of Australia’s Group of Eight coalition, and is internationally recognized for excellence in research and teaching as one of the world's top 80 universities. Embedded in an ecosystem of health, academia, and industry, it delivers the research outcomes, skilled workforce, technology, and partnerships to improve human health locally and globally.

Professor Mazza is the Head of the Department of General Practice at Monash University and a nationally and internationally recognised leader in implementation research and knowledge translation in the general practice setting. She has made significant, sustained, and ongoing contributions to advance general practice and primary health care in Australia in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health and as a proponent of evidence-based quality improvement through guideline development and implementation. She leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care (SPHERE), which aims to improve the quality, safety, and capacity of primary health care services to achieve better outcomes in women’s sexual and reproductive health.

Please email your expression of interest in this scholarship and PhD research opportunity to

• A cover letter describing your research interests and why you would like to undertake a PhD (maximum one page)
• A CV including qualifications, academic achievements, list of publications, work history, and references

Applications Close : Tuesday 18 March 2025, 11 : 55pm AEDT

Monash University recognises that its Australian campuses are located on the unceded lands of the people of the Kulin nations, and pays its respects to their elders, past and present.