Research Assistant in Paediatric Pain (fixed-term)

Research Assistant in Paediatric Pain (fixed-term)

Job title: Research Assistant in Paediatric Pain (fixed-term)

Salary: Starting from £30,805, rising to £37,174

Grade: Grade 6

Contract Type: Part Time, Fixed Term

Placed on: Thursday 13 March 2025

Interview date: Thursday 24 April 2025

Reference: ED12536

Special Conditions: A DBS check is required for this position

The Department of Psychology is seeking a skilled and highly motivated part-time (0.6FTE) Research Assistant to support a 3-year Wellbeing of Women funded project exploring the effect of period pain on the lives of adolescent girls and their school engagement.

The project, led by Dr Abbie Jordan, aims to use a mixed-methods approach to understand barriers to school engagement during menstruation in adolescent girls (e.g., stigma, pain characteristics, parent/staff attitudes). This will then inform the development of brief pain management educational sessions for adolescents, parents/carers, and school staff to increase support and school engagement for adolescent girls.

There will be several stages to the project:

1. Hosting interactive workshops at schools to understand period pain beliefs and myths
2. Interviews with adolescent girls, parents/carers, and school staff to explore the impact of period pain on school engagement
3. Surveys to understand pain management knowledge, attitudes, school engagement, stigma, self-efficacy, and pain interference
4. Synthesising the findings to develop educational sessions on period pain management and evaluating their success.

The Research Assistant will work with a Post-doctoral Research Associate to support activities relating to the first three stages. This includes assisting with recruitment of schools and participants, scheduling and conducting interviews, and setting up surveys.

The post holder will join Bath’s thriving Centre for Pain Research and will be encouraged and supported in pursuing career development opportunities. As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

We have one position available offered on a part-time (21.9 hours per week; days flexible) fixed-term basis.

The post is funded for 13 months.

Due to the research involving adolescents, a DBS check will be required for this post.

A driving licence and willingness to drive to schools is desirable though not required.

Informal enquiries about this role should be directed to Dr Abbie Jordan (pssalj@bath.ac.uk).

We welcome applications from candidates who have:

1. A bachelor’s degree in psychology or related discipline
2. Experience or interest in the field of health psychology and/or pain management
3. Experience of mixed methods data collection methods, such as interviews and surveys.
4. Strong communication and organisational skills.

What we can offer you:

We consider ourselves to be a university where difference is celebrated, respected, and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on the university. We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for our students, staff, and community by reinforcing our Safer Recruitment commitment.

• Free counselling services through Health Assured
• Cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme
• Staff discount at Team Bath gym
• Staff discounts on postgraduate tuition fees
• Staff discount on language courses
• Generous employer contributory pension schemes
• Generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work-life balance
• A wide range of personal and professional development opportunities including Apprenticeships, LinkedIn Learning, and more
• Free entry to the Holburne Museum in Bath
• An excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce

We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details such as your name may be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.