Dr Ben Bowers

After gaining extensive clinical experience in community nursing, Ben specialised in palliative and end of life care. Ben’s doctoral research investigated community end of life anticipatory prescribing practice and perspectives of this care. His postdoctoral research interests include improving systems for using end of life care medications at home.

Academic interests

Ben’s academic interests include: 

• Last days of life symptom control
• Patients and families' experiences of care
• Medical ethics
• Systems-driven design
• Human factors in healthcare
• Patient safety
• Community-based palliative care interventions
• Anticipatory prescribing of injectable medications
• Qualitative and mixed-methods research.

Degrees obtained

• BA (Hons) Nursing, 2006.
• MSc Advanced Practice, 2016.
• PhD Public Health and Primary Care, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 2021.

Awards and prizes

• Wellcome Early Career Award, 2023–2027.
• Queen Elizabeth Award for Outstanding Service, 2022.
• NHS England Community Nursing Research Award, 2022.
• NIHR School for Primary Care Research Scholarship, 2018–2021.
• Best Research Award, Association of Palliative Medicine Congress, 2019.

Biography

Ben is a clinical academic community nurse. He is a Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow and a practicing Honorary Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care. As well as his research role at the Primary Care Unit and Department of Engineering, Ben is a Community Nursing Research Consultant with the Queen’s Nursing Institute and a Visiting Research Fellow at Cardiff University. Ben has held the title of Queen’s Nurse since 2009. His recent NIHR funded PhD with the University of Cambridge investigated community end of life anticipatory prescribing and patients’, families’, and clinicians’ perspectives of this care.

Ben’s postdoctoral research interests include improving last-days-of-life symptom control and systems for using end of life care medications at home. Ben is an interdisciplinary researcher, working with colleagues in engineering, patient safety, social sciences, primary care, and palliative care.

Other interests

Improvisation (Improv), road biking, traveling with the family, gardening, and the allotment.