PhD success for HEE project manager

Health Education England’s Matt Aiello was used to delivering project work in his role as a portfolio manager at HEE but wanted to dig deeper into workforce transformation, so he looked into the possibility of doing a “PhD by Published Works”. This differs from a traditional, taught, PhD in that it offers people the opportunity to use their published works as the ‘research’ part of the PhD and then write a narrative thesis to link these published works to gain the PhD.

Matt worked with Worcester University to develop a new PhD approach, where he could use work that he had led on and delivered and design the PhD to link into Workforce Transformation in the NHS. Matt was able to show that his work would add value to the public and therefore be something that HEE could fund.

Matt kept his full time job and completed the PhD in three years, he found his job and completing the PhD were mutually supportive, his work continually added content to his thesis and his learning around NHS workforce transformation gave him insight to develop his role.

Matt said:

“I could never have taken on and survived a PhD without mentoring and development from HEE leaders. I would like to encourage our senior leads to consider supporting colleagues who would like to take this path and give a special thanks to Liz Hughes and Alan Ryan at HEE who have supported me throughout my PhD journey.”

Professor Liz Hughes MBE, Deputy Medical Director (Undergraduate Education), Health Education England said:

“I am so proud of Matt and want to congratulate him on his fantastic achievement to manage to continue to work full time and contribute further to his role in workforce transformation and receive his PhD is a testament to his hard work and tenacity.”

For more info contact Matt – matthew.aiello@hee.nhs.uk 

Background

Workforce transformation is a process, driven by improving the way we recruit, retain, deploy, develop and continue to support the healthcare workforce, to meet the growing and changing needs of local populations – ensuring high quality care for the patients of today and the future.