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Graduate Research Assistant - Patient Voices from an Advance Care Planning Intervention and Optimizing Care for Serious Illness

The Graduate Research Assistant will assist in coding/analyzing qualitative data and preparing manuscripts related to an NIH-funded grant that builds on an in-home intervention to discuss Advance Care Planning (ACP) among a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of seniors. ACP seeks to ensure that people with serious illness have opportunities to reflect on their personal values and make decisions about the possible types of future care they want to receive, before they are too impaired to express themselves. The research goal is to better understand patients’ perspectives on their illness, the desirability of intensive care services, perceptions of hospice services, and knowledge/attitudes about ACP. Additional anticipated themes may include faith and cultural traditions, familial obligations, conception of death, and personal empowerment through ACP.

  • Location:

    Boston, on campus

  • Remote Work:

    No

  • Semester:

    Spring 2026

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  • Project Title

    Patient Voices from an Advance Care Planning Intervention and Optimizing Care for Serious Illness

  • Faculty / Project Lead

    Laura Senier

  • Project Description

    Advance Care Planning (ACP) helps patients who have severe illness to express their preferences for care and avoid future aggressive treatments that they would refuse if they were not too incapacitated to do so. We will examine audio-recorded ACP conversations between patients and clinicians that were produced during a trial of a home-based video decision aid. By focusing on what homebound patients say about ACP, and how this potentially differs among types of patients and is related to patients’ subsequent ACP decisions and actual use of care, we will gain insights into how ACP processes can be improved – to reach and assist more patients.

  • Qualifications Necessary

    a. Basic: Experience in qualitative research methods (thematic analysis, analytic induction, or grounded theory) is essential. Subject matter expertise in Sociology, Public Policy, Public Health, or a related social science discipline is desired. Time management and the ability to work independently within an interdisciplinary team are also necessary. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential. Patients in the study recordings have a prognosis of death within 1 year; applicants are forewarned that listening to the audio files may be necessary for optimal understanding of the study data and may be emotionally difficult. b. Preferred Qualifications: Advanced knowledge of conceptual and theoretical frameworks in medical sociology, gerontology, health inequities, and end-of-life care would be helpful. Proficiency in NVivo version 12.0 or higher preferred. Experience supervising master’s and undergraduate students is a plus. Spanish language skills or fluency is a plus.

  • Hours per Week

    20 Hour Position