Closing date: 12-Oct-2022
Job description
The King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) is seeking to appoint three part-time Research Project Support Officers to contribute to an ongoing epidemiological cohort study (n = 8,500) investigating the mental health and experiences of serving personnel and veterans of the UK Armed Forces. The roles are being offered on a part-time basis between 40-60% FTE (14-21 hours per week), and the work will involve some irregular hours (please see below for further details). The study is in Phase Four and we are re-contacting participants from the previous phase to invite them to continue taking part in the study by completing an online or paper questionnaire. The main responsibilities of the postholders will be to (i) follow-up and trace non-respondents, primarily by phone, to help achieve the best possible response rates, and (ii) to undertake data entry of survey and administrative data. The balance of these tasks will depend upon the % FTE the postholders are appointed on, with the core focus being on follow-up and tracing if appointed towards the lower % FTE. The purpose of the calls will be to ensure that study invitation packs have been received and to answer participant queries, or to seek updated details where necessary. This will involve contacting participants by phone; this will involve working some early evenings and weekends to contact participants at times most convenient for them. Serving personnel may also be contacted via their military unit during office hours. Other duties may include assisting with postal mailouts, emailing or texting survey links to participants, checking/cleaning data, and other project administrative tasks as required.
The postholder will be educated to A-level standard or above, have excellent verbal communication skills and experience of communicating with customers, patients or research participants. They will be able to undertake routine tasks with a high degree of accuracy, have good all-round IT skills and experience of using spreadsheets/databases. The willingness to work some irregular hours is essential (please see below for further details). A relevant degree, relevant research data collection experience, and experience of working with vulnerable individuals or those living with mental health problems are not essential but would be an advantage. Postholders will be expected to work within a team but also autonomously at times. They will join a friendly multidisciplinary team with backgrounds across Psychiatry, Psychology, Epidemiology, Public Health, Sociology and Military History. The posts would suit individuals who would like to gain some data collection and data entry experience in an academic research environment.
Postholders will be required to work some irregular hours involving some early evenings and weekends. It is anticipated/preferred that hours will be worked across Tuesday to Thursday involving one or two early evenings per week (to 7.30pm approximately with a later start on those days) and one 4 hour weekend session per month minimum (usually Sunday afternoon/early evening). We are open to applications from candidates who wish to work a larger proportion of the hours across a weekend, for example, but there will be some limits to ensure that; calls can be made at appropriate times, supervision from the research team is available and that there are sufficient staff resources available during standard office hours to meet the needs of the study. Working hours may need to be amended to meet the needs of the study.
KCMHR sits within the Department of Psychological Medicine. It launched in 2004 and is directed by Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Professor Nicola Fear.
For more information about KCMHR please see https://kcmhr.org/
For more information about the Health and Wellbeing Cohort Study, please see https://kcmhr.org/phase4-health-and-wellbeing/
When preparing your application please ensure that you address how you meet each of the criteria in the person specification. Your application will be assessed against these criteria. Please upload a statement (2 pages maximum) and a CV (2 pages maximum).
The posts are available from November 2022 and will be offered on a fixed-term contract for up to 8 months (no later than to 31/7/23).
These are part-time posts – 40-60% full time equivalent (14-21 hours)
