Katie Zwerger (she/her)

I am a Research Associate in Health Services Research at the University of Sheffield. I am a predominantly qualitative researcher, with much of my experience and interest focusing on working in partnership with people living with dementia, their family and friends and the wide range of people who engage in paid care work. I am particularly interested in research that explores older people’s experiences of health and social care. I am also fundamentally interested in care research practice that is underpinned by a robust ethic of care.

I am currently the RA on the UVAC Study: Understanding Variation Between Care Homes. Much of my work on this study will be focused on qualitative work characterising the Enhanced Health in Care Homes Framework, as well as community and stakeholder engagement.

In 2018, I completed my BA in Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. I then moved to Sheffield to begin my postgraduate studies. I completed my MA in Social Research at the Sheffield Methods Institute in 2019. In 2020, I completed my MPH in International Development which was split between SCHARR and the Department of Geography. For my MPH dissertation, I conducted a discourse analysis with case studies on the conceptualisation of dementia in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on the impact of global aid.

In October 2024 I passed my PhD viva and am currently undertaking the corrections. My PhD studentship, titled ‘Navigating Safety and Risk in the Community: Implications for Adult Social Care and Support Services’, was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, School for Social Care Research (NIHR SSCR). In my study, I adopted a triadic approach in exploring how people living with dementia, their carers and their care workers understand and navigate risk and safety in their own day-to-day lives. I adopted Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as my methodology and conducted photo-elicitation, semi-structured and group interviews. I also explored remote informed consent and qualitative data collection in working with people living with dementia.