PhD Student

Email: dc625@medschl.cam.ac.uk

 

I am a registered general nurse who has specialised in teenage and young adult cancer. This is a discipline focussed on teenagers and young adults with cancer (TYAC) aged 13-25. In the UK, development of specialist services began nearly two decades ago, to provide age appropriate care and improve outcomes in this patient group. I worked alongside Dr Helen Hatcher to develop a TYAC service from a standing start for Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust making it the principal treatment centre for East Anglia. Following this I moved into clinical education and have been teaching clinical communication skills to undergraduate medical students whilst maintaining clinical work once a month, as a late effects nurse specialist. I review survivors of young adult cancer in a nurse led clinic, alongside the medical team. I am now combining my two areas of specialist interest, clinical communication and TYAC together, to research how we can communicate effectively with teenagers and young adults with cancer. TYAC are not involved in decisions about their care to the extent they would choose to be and have identified communication as a research priority. Young people are often accompanied by another person, primarily a parent which can have an impact on the involvement of young people in communication with healthcare professionals. I will be researching the perspectives of healthcare professionals, young people and parents to understand the interactional dynamics and to ultimately develop a training intervention to educate healthcare professionals to communicate effectively with TYAC.

Research Interests

I am particularly interested in; communication, triadic communication, teenage and young adult cancer, survivorship, end of life care and a firm interest in health care professional education.

Selected Publications

A Ward, Critoph, D, Westacott, R, Williams, R and Dogra, N (2022) A collaboration on teaching and assessing triadic consultation skills. PEC innovation. https://doi.org https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecinn.2022.100091

S.J. Smith and D.J. Critoph, (2021) The impact of missing property for relatives and healthcare professionals: Communicating with grieving relatives during COVID-19, Patient Education and Counselling, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2021.12.003i

Critoph, D*, Smith, L *, Williams, R, Hatcher, HM (2021) Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Placements: Developing Complex Clinical Communication Skills of Medical Students. Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology DOI: 10.1089/jayao.2021.0079

Heritage, S, Feast, A, Mourad, M, Smith, L, Hatcher, HM, Critoph, D (2021) Documentation of oncofertility communication in adolescents and young adults with cancer: a retrospective analysis. Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology. DOI: 10.1089/jayao.2021.0087

Magrath, C, Critoph, D, Smith, L, Hatcher, HM (2021) “A Different Person Entirely”: Adolescent and Young Adults’ Experiences Returning to Education after Cancer Treatment. Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology. 10.1089/jayao.2020.0168

Critoph, D, Smith, S (2020) Care after death: the grief journey for those bereaved during COVID-19. Nursing Standard, RCNi. 9 Sep 2020.

Smith, L, Critoph, D, Hatcher, HM (2020) How Can Health Care Professionals Communicate Effectively with Adolescent and Young Adults Who Have Completed Cancer Treatment? A Systematic Review. Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology.DOI: 10.1089/jayao.2019.0133

Critoph D, Cutler, L, Marshall N, Poole, J, Robson, J and Watts. Chapter Eight. In: The blueprint of care for teenagers and young adults with cancer, 2nd ed. London, UK. Teenage Cancer Trust; 2016; 97-105.

Holland, D (2009) TYA Cancer – challenges for the speciality. Journal of Paediatric Nursing, Vol 21 (4). (Published under maiden name) DOI: 10.7748/paed2009.05.21.4.38.c7072

Holland, D (2005) The Transition from Active Curative Treatment to Palliative Care in the Haematology Patient. Journal for BMT Nursing, winter 2005 (published under maiden name)