Dr Katharine Weetman BA (Hons); FHEA; PhD

Dr Katharine Weetman

Birmingham Medical School
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Telephone
+ 44 (0)121 414 8078
Email
k.e.weetman@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@ke_weetman
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Clinical Sciences
Interactive Studies Team
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Katharine (Katie) Weetman is an Assistant Professor in Clinical Communication at the Interactive Studies Unit (ISU) based in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham. The ISU is the team responsible for delivering teaching and supporting assessment of clinical communication across healthcare programmes.

Katharine is a healthcare linguist involved in the teaching of Clinical Communication to undergraduate students on multiple programmes. She is the ISU lead for communication for the Nursing and Midwifery programmes.

She has a background in linguistics, professional role play (simulation), and healthcare research. Her special interests are language, inter-professional communication, patient information, and hospital discharge (the subject of her PhD thesis). She has expertise in: Health Sciences, Applied Linguistics, and Realist methodologies. 

Qualifications

  • Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, 2024 
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2024
  • PhD in Health Sciences, University of Warwick, 2020
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2016
  • BA (Class I) in English Language, University of Birmingham, 2014

Biography

Katharine is an alumnus of the University of Birmingham having graduated in English Language in 2014. She then went on to work as a Medical Secretary in the NHS. From 2015-2020, Katharine undertook a PhD at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick; this research investigated written discharge communication between hospital professionals, General Practitioner’s, and patients. Alongside this, she joined the role play team at the ISU in 2015. Additionally, Katharine worked on several research projects centred on clinical communication with the ISU. In 2020, Katharine joined the core academic team at the ISU.

Katharine teaches across multiple year groups and programmes with the ISU to include Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry. Input varies between programmes but often involves small group teaching, seminars, and large group lectures. She supports recruitment of ISU role players. This associate team currently comprises 100+ associates from diverse backgrounds. These associates are trained by the ISU to simulate patients, colleagues, carers, and relatives, offering students the opportunity to be immersed and engage in realistic simulations within teaching and learning contexts.

Katharine is a coach on the ISU Referred Students Programme which provides cross-programme 1-1 remediation and support for students identified as struggling with language, professionalism, and communication. To the knowledge of the ISU, this is the only programme of its kind nationally and beyond.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Katharine has an interest in supervising at postgraduate level at both Master’s and PhD. She is interested in supervising projects related to:

• Clinical communication
• Discharge and care transition
• Palliative and end of life care
• Interprofessional relationships
• Healthcare simulation
• Realist methods

If you are interested in studying any of these subject areas, please contact Katharine on the contact details above or for any general doctoral research enquiries please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk
For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings

Research

Katharine’s research focuses on clinical communication in a number of broad contexts. More recently, driven by personal experience, she has developed projects focussed on palliative and end of life care. She is also interested in collaborating on projects relating to disability, connective tissue disorders, and dysautonomia.

 Her current work spans across five key areas:

  • Clinical communication
  • Discharge and care handover
  • Realist synthesis of complex interventions
  • Palliative and end of life care
  • Applied linguistics

She is also a member of BRHUmB, a research hub for palliative care in the West Midlands and works collaboratively with academics, clinicians, stakeholders and the public in health and social care research. Katharine is the current ECR representative on the Institute of Clinical Sciences research committee.

Other activities

April 2022 - March 2024 - Honorary Research Fellow, University of Warwick, Medical School

Member UK Council for Clinical Communication

Outreach interest with schools

Peer reviewer for academic journals 

Publications

Highlight publications

Martin, D & Weetman, K 2023, 'Writing letters to patients attending psychiatry clinics', BMJ, vol. 383, p2857. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2857

Weetman, K, Wiskin, C & Chizzo, J 2022, 'A cross-programme vertically integrated communication and professionalisation curriculum, adapted from pharmacy for nursing', International Journal of Healthcare Simulation, vol. 2, no. Supplement 1, pp. A47-A48. https://doi.org/10.54531/nglf7525

Weetman, K, Dale, J, Mitchell, SJ, Ferguson, C, Finucane, A, Buckle, P, Arnold, E, Clarke, G, Karakitsiou, D-E, McConnell, T, Sanyal, N, Schuberth, A, Tindle, G, Perry, R, Grewal, B, Patynowska, K & MacArtney, J 2022, 'Communication of palliative care needs in discharge letters from hospice providers to primary care: a multisite sequential explanatory mixed methods study', BMC Palliative Care, vol. 21, no. 1, 155. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-022-01038-8

Weetman, K, Dale, J, Scott, E & Schnurr, S 2021, 'Discharge communication study: a realist evaluation of discharge communication experiences of patients, general practitioners and hospital practitioners, alongside a corresponding discharge letter sample', BMJ open, vol. 11, no. 7, e045465. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045465

Weetman, K & MacArtney, J 2022, '31 Communication of palliative needs in discharge letters from hospice to primary care', BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, vol. 12, no. Suppl 1, A13. https://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2021-MCRC.31

Recent publications

Article

Weetman, K, Wiskin, C, Skelton, J & Heathcock, K 2024, 'Evaluating the referred students’ coaching programme through student surveys: A protocol for an evaluation of supporting healthcare students with language, communication and professional development', Communication and Medicine, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 152-161. https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.24819

Weetman, K, MacArtney, JI, Grimley, C, Bailey, C & Dale, J 2024, 'Improving patients’, carers’ and primary care healthcare professionals’ experiences of discharge communication from specialist palliative care to community settings: a protocol for a qualitative interview study', BMC Palliative Care, vol. 23, no. 1, 156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-024-01451-1

Weetman, K, Spencer, R, Dale, J, Scott, E & Schnurr, S 2021, 'What makes a “successful” or “unsuccessful” discharge letter? Hospital clinician and General Practitioner assessments of the quality of discharge letters', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 21, no. 1, 349. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06345-z

Weetman, K, Dale, J, Scott, E & Schnurr, S 2020, 'Adult patient perspectives on receiving hospital discharge letters: a corpus analysis of patient interviews', BMC Health Services Research.

Weetman, K, Dale, J, Spencer, R, Scott, E & Schnurr, S 2020, 'GP perspectives on hospital discharge letters: an interview and focus group study', BJGP Open, vol. 4, no. 2, bjgpopen20X101031. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen20X101031

Weetman, K, Wong, G, Scott, E, MacKenzie, E, Schnurr, S & Dale, J 2019, 'Improving best practice for patients receiving hospital discharge letters: a realist review', BMJ open, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. e027588. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027588

Weetman, K, Dale, J, Scott, E & Schnurr, S 2019, 'The Discharge Communication Study: research protocol for a mixed methods study to investigate and triangulate discharge communication experiences of patients, GPs, and hospital professionals, alongside a corresponding discharge letter sample', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 825. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4612-1

Skelton, JR, O'Riordan, M, Berenguera Ossȯ, A, Beavan, J & Weetman, K 2017, 'Learning from patients: trainers' use of narratives for learning and teaching', BJGP Open, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. bjgpopen17X100581. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen17X100581

Wiskin, C, Duffy, J, Weetman, K, Skelton, J & Swindells, C 2016, 'Mindset, confidence and skill: The impact of a development intervention', British Journal of Healthcare Management, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 315-324. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2016.22.6.315

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Demjen, Z (ed.), Loew, J, Mitchell, S, Weetman, K, Millington-Sanders, C & Dale, J 2016, Applying corpus-based discourse analysis to enhance understanding of barriers to palliative and end of life care provision in general practice. in Z Demjén (ed.), Applying Linguistics in Illness and Healthcare Contexts: Contemporary Studies in Linguistics . 1 edn, Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 321-348. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350057685.0022

Doctoral Thesis

Weetman, K 2021, 'An investigation of written discharge communication between hospital clinicians, GPs, and patients in the UK', ???thesis.qualification.phd???, University of Warwick. <http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/160516/>

Review article

Weetman, K, Wong, G, Scott, E, Schnurr, S & Dale, J 2017, 'Improving best practice for patients receiving hospital discharge letters: a realist review protocol', BMJ open, vol. 7, no. 11, pp. e018353. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018353

View all publications in research portal