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 and social care workers' experiences of work, particularly around workplace communication and voice, and staff wellbeing and support. I am 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 primary and secondary health and social 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, particularly around Jewish needs and experiences in health and social care.

Past projects: 

• East Midlands Partnership for Health Workforce Retention (EMPEROR) collaboration (Economic & Social Research Council, 2023-2024). Qualitative Lead.
• Developing an Historical Understanding of Black Maternity and Motherhood Health Experiences in Leicestershire (LIAS Into The City grant, 2024). PI
• Community action research understanding hypersensitivity pneumonitis in the Leicester population of South Asian ethnicity (LIAS Into The City grant, 2024). Qualitative Lead.
• Workforce wellbeing implementation processes (NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands, 2025-2026). PI

Current projects: 

• CONTENT Study: Evaluation of Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training for Health & Social Care Staff (NIHR, 2025-2028). Qualitative Lead.
• Modernising heart failure service provision in the UK : a '4x4' model of care delivery (BHF, 2025-2026). Qualitative Co-I.
• Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research Collaboration, theme "Enhancing Cultures of Safety" (NIHR, 2023-2028). PI for project "Speaking up about patient safety concerns by healthcare staff from minority ethnic groups".
• MATCARE: Understanding system empathy and safety in maternity care (Stoneygate Foundation, 2026). Co-I.

Books

1. Creese J. Jewish Identity in Multicultural Australia. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2023. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-36347-4.

2. Creese J. Jewish Life in Queensland: Celebrating 150 Years Since 1865. Brisbane: Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies; 2016.

Book Chapter

1. Creese J, Humphries N. The international health labour market and health worker migration. In: McDermott AM, Hyde P, Avgar AC, FitzGerald L, editors. Research Handbook on Contemporary Human Resource Management for Health Care. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing; 2024. p. 25-40. doi:10.4337/9781802205718.00009.

Refereed Journal Articles

1. Creese J, Oli RU, Wang W. Factors influencing workplace collaboration and learning between resident doctors and senior nurses: a scoping review. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2026:1-23. doi:10.1007/s10459-026-10557-5.

2. Sathanapally H, Karsanji U, Creese J, Doe G, Khunti K, Steiner M, et al. Ethnic differences in healthcare utilisation and diagnosis after first presentation with breathlessness: a retrospective cohort study using UK primary care records. npj Prim Care Respir Med. 2026. doi:10.1038/s41533-026-00507-4.

3. Kontou K, Daynes E, Singh SJ, Evans RA, Gardiner N, Chaplin E, Richardson M, Bishop N, Creese J, Bateman N, Wright A. The effectiveness and acceptability of face-to-face rehabilitation for patients with Long Covid who were not hospitalised with their acute infection: a mixed-methods study comprising a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with embedded qualitative component.. Trials. 2026;27:132. doi:10.1186/s13063-025-09419-z.

4. Ramsey L, Martin G, Mackintosh N, Creese J, Liberati E, Overton C, et al. Reflections and guidance on using ethnographic approaches in health and care research: ten researchers' diverse insights. Int J Qual Methods. 2025;24:16094069251369312. doi:10.1177/16094069251369312.

5. Wenzel D, Bleazard L, Wilson E, Creese J, Faull C. How do clinicians navigate end-of-life care with NIV/CPAP? A thematic analysis study. BMJ Open. 2025;15(12):e111989. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2025-111989.

6. Wenzel D, Creese J, Wilson E, Jones M, Faull C. Deus Ex Machina: an ethnographic exploration of technology, death and decision-making in respiratory care. Sociol Health Illn. 2025;47(8):e70091. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.70091.

7. Sinatti G, Salvador JG, Creese J. Sparking change: frictions as a key function of ethnography for healthcare improvement. Humans. 2025;5(3):22. doi:10.3390/humans5030022.

8. Wang W, Creese J, Karanika-Murray M, Harris K, McCarthy M, Leng C, et al. Can compassionate leadership of senior hospital leaders help retain trainee doctors? BMJ Leader. 2025;9:225-229. doi:10.1136/leader-2024-001010.

9. Costa N, Olson R, Mescouto K, Setchell J, Plage S, Dune T, Creese J, Suleman S, Prasad-Ildes R, Ng ZY. Non-clinical psychosocial mental health support programmes for people with diverse language and cultural backgrounds: a critical rapid review. Cult Med Psychiatry. 2025:1-64. doi:10.1007/s11013-024-09893-1.

10. Creese J, Byrne JP, Conway E, O'Connor G, Humphries N. “They say they listen. But do they really listen?”: a qualitative study of hospital doctors' experiences of organisational deafness, disconnect and denial. Health Serv Manage Res. 2025;38(2):62-70. doi:10.1177/09514848241254929.

11. Humphries N, Creese J, McDermott AM, Colleran G, McDermott C, Byrne JP. ‘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 Qual Res Health. 2024;5:100392. doi:10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100392.

12. Creese J. “We're alone in this together”: the anthropology of fear and Jewish attitudes to antisemitism. J Mod Jew Stud. 2024;23(1):5-25. doi:10.1080/14725886.2022.2142774.

13. Overton C, Tarrant C, Creese J, Armstrong N. Role of coproduction in the sustainability of innovations in applied health and social care research: a scoping review. BMJ Open Qual. 2024;13(2). doi:10.1136/bmjoq-2024-002796.

14. Mogomotsi G, Creese J. European nurses’ burnout before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on patient safety: a scoping review. Hospitals. 2024;1(2):151-171. doi:10.3390/hospitals1020013.

15. Creese J, Byrne JP, Olson R, Humphries N. A catalyst for change: developing a collaborative reflexive ethnographic approach to research with hospital doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodol Innov. 2023;16(1):3-14. doi:10.1177/20597991221137813.

16. Byrne JP, Creese J, McMurray R, Costello RW, Matthews A, Humphries N. Feeling like the enemy: the emotion management and alienation of hospital doctors. Front Sociol. 2023;8. doi:10.3389/fsoc.2023.1232555.

17. Montgomery A, Lainidi O, Johnson J, Creese J, Baathe F, Baban A, et al. Employee silence in health care: charting new avenues for leadership and management. Health Care Manage Rev. 2023;48(1):52-60. doi:10.1097/HMR.0000000000000349.

18. Creese J. “How do I see myself? It's complicated”: qualitatively eliciting, analyzing and understanding individuals’ self-attitudes towards identity in an Australian Jewish community. Societies. 2022;12(5):132. doi:10.3390/soc12050132.

19. McGowan G, Hoffstaedter G, Creese J. Object-based learning in the social sciences: three approaches to haptic knowledge making. Teach Anthropol. 2022;11(2):97-107. doi:10.22582/ta.v11i2.657.

20. Humphries N, Byrne JP, Creese J, McKee L. ‘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. Qual Health Res. 2022. doi:10.1177/10497323221106294.

21. Byrne JP, Creese J, Matthews A, McDermott AM, Costello RW, Humphries N. ‘…the way it was staffed during COVID is the way it should be staffed in real life…’: a qualitative study of the impact of COVID-19 on the working conditions of junior hospital doctors. BMJ Open. 2021;11:e050358. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050358.

22. Creese J, Byrne JP, Matthews A, McDermott AM, Conway E, Humphries N. “I feel I have no voice”: hospital doctors' workplace silence in Ireland. J Health Organ Manag. 2021;35(9):178-194. doi:10.1108/JHOM-08-2020-0353.

23. Humphries N, Creese J, Byrne JP, Connell J. COVID-19 and doctor emigration: the case of Ireland. Hum Resour Health. 2021;19:29. doi:10.1186/s12960-021-00573-4.

24. Creese J, Byrne JP, Conway E, Barrett E, Prihodova L, Humphries N. “We all really need to just take a breath”: composite narratives of hospital doctors’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(4):2051. doi:10.3390/ijerph18042051.

25. Humphries N, McDermott AM, Creese J, Matthews A, Conway E, Byrne JP. Hospital doctors in Ireland and the struggle for work-life balance. Eur J Public Health. 2020;30(Suppl 4):iv32-iv35. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckaa130.

26. Creese J. Schmoozing with my sisters: the work of feminist insider at-home ethnography in a Jewish community. Women Judaism. 2020;17(1). doi:10.33137/wij.v17i1.34941.

27. Creese J. Negotiating and performing ‘Jewish Australian’ identity in South-East Queensland's Jewish community: creolisation, national identity and power. J Int Migr Integr. 2020;21:1279-1294. doi:10.1007/s12134-019-00714-8.

28. Creese J. Secular Jewish identity and public religious participation within Australian secular multiculturalism. Religions. 2019;10(2):69. doi:10.3390/rel10020069.

29. Creese J. Negotiating ‘Russian-ness’: politics, religion, nationalism and identity in the South Brisbane Russian Jewish community, 1912-22. Aust J Jew Stud. 2017;30:74-91.

30. O'Dwyer ST, Moyle W, Taylor T, Creese J, Zimmer-Gembeck M. In their own words: how family carers of people with dementia understand resilience. Behav Sci. 2017;7(3):57. doi:10.3390/bs7030057.

31. O'Dwyer ST, Moyle W, Taylor T, Creese J, Zimmer-Gembeck MJ. Homicidal ideation in family carers of people with dementia. Aging Ment Health. 2016;20(11):1174-1181. doi:10.1080/13607863.2015.1065793.

32. Creese J. A history of Jewish women's lives in Brisbane: the first hundred years. Aust Jewish Hist Soc J. 2014;21(4):531-555.

I have supervised 3 PGR students to completion: 

• Lucy Swancott (PhD, Public Health & Epidemiology, 2026) A state of emergency: an exploration of workforce wellbeing in the emergency department
• Leah Ford (DClinPsy, Psychology & Vision Sciences, 2026) The indirect impact of working in primary care: An exploration of how GP spouses are affected
• Rosie Dhillon (DClinPsy Psychology & Vision Sciences, 2025) Technology-Based Interventions and the Lived Realities of Racialised Women's Maternal Health: An Exploration of Effectiveness and Experience

I currently supervise 7 PGR students:

• Amy Adeyeye (PhD, Public Health & Epidemiology) Accessing drug addiction therapy and rehabilitation for young adults in the UK from the BAME community
• Ed Freshwater (PhD, Public Health & Epidemiology) Team Ethos in Mental Heath Care: a qualitative study of “what good looks like” for mental health team culture in NHS mental health services
• Paul Garvey (PhD, Public Health & Epidemiology) An ethnographic exploration of how Early Career Nurses manage workload and patient safety in critical care units
• Kate Kontou (PhD, Respiratory Sciences) Mixed Methods study to explore the effectiveness and acceptability of face-to-face exercise-based rehabilitation for patients with Long Covid who were not hospitalised with their acute infection
• Naila Niaz (PhD, Cardiovascular Sciences) Establishing normative ranges for cardiopulmonary function in transgender people: a pilot, feasibility study
• Harini Sathnapally (PhD, Cardiovascular Sciences) Symptom perception of “breathlessness” and impact on healthcare access in culturally diverse populations
• David Wenzel (PhD, Public Health & Epidemiology) Dying Breathless: Understanding the impact on patients and their loved ones of dying using non-invasive advanced respiratory support 

I am interested in discussing supervision of new PhD and Masters projects in the following areas:

• Health & social care worker views and experiences of work
• Cultures and hierarchies of health & social care professions and workplaces
• Communication and voice in the health & social care workplace
• Wellbeing and mental health of health & social care workers
• Cultural, ethnic and religious health experiences, perceptions and inequalities

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 1 (MBChB, Leicester Medical School). I also teach this unit in our CQMU partnership in China.

Lecturer: Qualitative Research (MRes Applied Health Research, School of Medical Sciences); Health Workforce Wellbeing MSC Quality & Safety, School of Medical Sciences + ); Population Health (BSc ClinSci, School of Medical Sciences); Compassionate Leadership & Professional Identities in Healthcare (MSc Healthcare Management, School of Business). 

I was awarded a Fulbright Commission Global Challenges Teaching Award in Health Inequalities in 2025. Together with partners in the Leicester Medical School and at the University of Virginia, USA, we are delivering dynamic AI-enhance Virtual Exchange & Collaborative Online International Learning (VE/COIL) within Population and Social Science 1 in 2026/7 to enhance learning on global health.

I am open to discussion about the following areas:

• Staffing and workforce in the health system
• Migrant healthcare workers and international recruitment
• Wellbeing of healthcare workers
• Emigration of healthcare workers
• Health & social care issues in Judaism

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

Deputy (Acting) and Member, Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Leicester

Executive Board and UK Liaison Officer Australian Association for Jewish Studies

Editor-In-Chief, Australian Journal of Jewish Studies

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

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/