Dr Jennifer Creese

I am a social anthropologist with a focus on healthcare, particularly professional and organisational cultures of healthcare work, health worker migration, and ethnic/minority experiences in health. I hold a PhD in Social Science from The University of Queensland, Australia (2020) specialising in social anthropology and ethnography. I have previously held research positions studying migration experiences, health care resilience, and dementia family care in Australia, and held a postdoctoral fellowship in 2020-21 at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, before joining SAPPHIRE in January 2022.

I also have an interest in Jewish Studies, particularly social sciences and studies of Jewish identity and experience; I am an affiliate of the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Leicester, and co-editor of the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies.

My research focuses on health workers' experiences of work, particularly around workplace communication and voice, and staff wellbeing and support. I am currently a collaborator on the Hospital Doctor Retention & Motivation (HDRM) project funded by the Health Research Board Ireland, and am part of the Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration team. I am also particularly interested in the migration intentions and experiences of healthcare professionals, and experiences of culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse patients and health care workers in NHS primary and secondary care.

I am also interested in methodological research within ethnography, particularly novel methods of remote, digital and collaborative ethnography. Alongside Dr Niamh Humphries and Dr John-Paul Byrne, I established the Mobile Instant Messaging Ethnography (MIME) methodology, and am interested in further applying and developing this methodological approach in interdisciplinary settings.

I have also undertaken research on Australian Jewish identity and experiences (funded by the Australian Government Australian Postgraduate Award and Research Training Program) and continue my interests in this area.

Books

• Creese, Jennifer (2023) Jewish identity in multicultural Australia. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer. 242 pp; ill. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36347-4

• Creese, Jennifer (2016) Jewish life in Queensland: celebrating 150 years since 1865. Brisbane: Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies. 297 pp; ill. 

Refereed Journal Articles

• Humphries, N., Creese, J., McDermott, A. M., Colleran, G., McDermott, C., & Byrne, J. P. (2024). ‘That's just how medicine is': A remote ethnographic study of Ireland's failure to meet the core work needs of its hospital doctors. SSM-Qualitative Research in Health, 100392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100392

• Byrne, J. P., Creese, J., McMurray, R., Costello, R., Matthews, A., & Humphries, N. (2023). Feeling like the enemy: the emotion management and alienation of hospital doctors. Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1232555. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1232555 

• Creese, J., Byrne, J.-P., Olson, R., & Humphries, N. (2023). A catalyst for change: Developing a collaborative reflexive ethnographic approach to research with hospital doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodological Innovations, 16(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991221137813

• Humphries, N., Byrne, J.-P., Creese, J., & McKee, L. (2022). ‘Today Was Probably One of the Most Challenging Workdays I’ve Ever Had’: Doing Remote Qualitative Research with Hospital Doctors During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Qualitative Health Research, 32(10):1557-1573. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323221106294

• Montgomery, A., Lainidi, O., Johnson, J., Creese, J., Baathe, F., Baban, A., Bhattacharjee, A., Carter, M., Dellve, L., Doherty, E., Jendeby, M. K., Morgan, K., Srivastava, M., Thompson, N., Tyssen, R., & Vohra, V. (2022). Employee silence in health care: Charting new avenues for leadership and management. Health Care Management Review, 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000349. https://doi.org/10.1097/hmr.0000000000000349

• Creese, Jennifer (2022) “How Do I See Myself? It’s Complicated”: Qualitatively Eliciting, Analyzing and Understanding Individuals’ Self-Attitudes towards Identity in an Australian Jewish Community. Societies, 12(5), 132. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12050132

• Creese, Jennifer, Byrne, John-Paul, Matthews, Anne, McDermott, Aoife M., Conway, Edel and Humphries, Niamh (2021), "“I feel I have no voice”: hospital doctors' workplace silence in Ireland", Journal of Health Organization and Management, 35(9), 178-194,  https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-08-2020-0353

• Humphries, Niamh, Creese, Jennifer, Byrne, John-Paul & Connell, John. (2021). COVID-19 and doctor emigration: the case of Ireland. Human Resources for Health 19, 29 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00573-4 

• Creese, Jennifer, Byrne, John-Paul, Conway, Edel, Barrett, Elizabeth, Prihodova, Lucia and Humphries, Niamh (2021) "“We All Really Need to just Take a Breath”: Composite Narratives of Hospital Doctors’ Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(4): 2051. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042051

• Creese, Jennifer & Arnold, Joyce (2021) “The Architectural Provenance of the Margaret Street Synagogue, Brisbane”, in The Australian Journal of Jewish Studies XXXIV: 157-187. http://www.aajs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Intro_AJJS_XXXIV_2021_1-4_Final.pdf

• Humphries, Niamh, McDermott, Aoife M., Creese, Jennifer, Matthews, Anne, Conway, Edel and Byrne, John-Paul (2020) “Hospital doctors in Ireland and the struggle for work-life balance”. European Journal of Public Health. 30(Suppl_4):iv32-iv35. https://doi.ord/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa130

• Creese, Jennifer (2020) “Schmoozing with my sisters: the work of feminist insider at-home ethnography in a Jewish community”, Women in Judaism 17(1): https://doi.org/10.33137/wij.v17i1.34941

• Creese, Jennifer (2020) “Negotiating and Performing 'Jewish Australian' identity in South-East Queensland’s Jewish community: Creolisation, national identity and power”, Journal of International Migration and Integration 21: 1279–1294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-019-00714-8

• Creese, Jennifer (2019). Secular Jewish Identity and Public Religious Participation within Australian Secular Multiculturalism. Religions, 10(2):69. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020069

• Creese, Jennifer (2017) “Negotiating 'Russian-ness': Politics, Religion, Nationalism and Identity in the South Brisbane Russian Jewish Community, 1912-22”, Australian Journal of Jewish Studies 30:  74-91. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:d605cdc

• O'Dwyer, Siobhan T., Moyle, Wendy, Taylor, Tara, Creese, Jennifer and Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie (2017) “In their own words: how family carers of people with dementia understand resilience”. Behavioral Sciences 7(3): 57. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs7030057

• O'Dwyer, Siobhan T., Moyle, Wendy, Taylor, Tara, Creese, Jennifer and Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J. (2016) “Homicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia”. Aging & Mental Health, 20 11: 1174-1181. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2015.1065793

• Creese, Jennifer (2014) “A history of Jewish women's lives in Brisbane: the first hundred years”, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 21(4): 531-555. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:337121

Health worker views and experiences of work

Cultures and hierarchies of healthcare professions and workplaces

Ethnic and religious minority health work/health care experiences

Communication and voice in the healthcare workplace

Wellbeing and mental health of health workers

I teach around the topics of social science in medicine, social theory, qualitative research methods, and health workforce wellbeing.

Course Lead: Population and Social Science (MBChB, Leicester Medical School)

Lecturer: Qualitative Research (MRes, Department of Population Health Sciences; MBChB, Leicester Medical School); Health Worker Wellbeing (MSC Qual & Saf, Department of Population Health Sciences) Population Health (BSc ClinSci, School of Biological Sciences) 

Staffing and workforce in the health system

Migrant healthcare workers and international recruitment

Wellbeing of healthcare workers

Emigration of healthcare workers

Co-Lead University of Leicester’s ‘Ethnography for Healthcare Improvement Summer School’

Coordinator 'Ethnography for Healthcare Improvement Community of Practice' network

Affiliate Member, Centre for Sustainable Work & Employment Futures, University of Leicester

Affiliate Member, Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Leicester

Executive Board and UK Liaison Officer Australian Association for Jewish Studies

Co-Editor Australian Journal of Jewish Studies

Regular peer-reviewer for a range of high-profile journals including: International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health, Human Resources for Health Healthcare, Social Sciences, Ethos, Religions, Aging & Mental Health, Journal of Migration & Integration.

My work has been reported on by the media in the following outlets:

The Conversation, 13.04.23. "Junior doctors: why pay isn’t the only reason thousands are striking". https://theconversation.com/junior-doctors-why-pay-isnt-the-only-reason-thousands-are-striking-203701
Irish Medical Times, 25.03.22. “Hospital doctors afraid to speak up about systemic issues”. https://www.imt.ie/news/hospital-doctors-afraid-to-speak-up-about-systemic-issues-25-03-2022/
Independent (Ireland), 24.03.22. “Hospital doctors say they face ‘hand-to-hand combat’ in bid to improve care for patients”. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/hospital-doctors-say-they-face-hand-to-hand-combat-in-bid-to-improve-care-for-patients-41481006.html
Australian Jewish News, 06.08.2021. “Jews in North Queensland – past and present”. https://www.australianjewishnews.com/jews-in-north-queensland-past-and-present/
RTE Brainstorm, 3.06.2021, “What Irish hospital doctors learned from working during the pandemic”. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0603/1225788-irish-hospital-doctors-pandemic-lockdown-survey-health-system/
BreakingNews.ie, 22.02.21, “Doctors speak about the mental health toll during first wave of Covid-19”. https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/doctors-speak-about-the-mental-health-toll-during-first-wave-of-covid-19-1085272.html
Irish Examiner, 22.02.21, “Doctors outline the mental toll they have suffered during the pandemic”, https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40231553.html
Australian Jewish News, 27.10.15, “Marking a milestone in Queensland”, https://www.australianjewishnews.com/marking-a-milestone-in-queensland/
J-Wire, 9.10.2015, “150 years of Jewish Life in Queensland”, https://www.jwire.com.au/150-years-of-jewish-life-in-queensland/