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My most recent research project has focused on why doctors overprescribe antibiotics to older adult patients in hospitals.

Overprescribing of antibiotics is very detrimental to older adults as well as the public health in terms of antimicrobial resistance. Understanding how doctors, nurses and older adult patients understand antibiotics prescribing has been fascinating and hopefully for its small part helps to improve the health care of the increasing population of frail, older adults.

Higher Education: I did my undergraduate degree in journalism and then worked for a few years as a political reporter. I then chose to do a PhD in the USA in an interdisciplinary communications programme and ended up studying with one of the most eminent qualitative sociologists of our time, Norman Denzin.

Paula’s experience as a student

As an undergraduate I was very active, involved in my subject area organisation, even student politics, working as a journalist and travelling around the world.

My experience of doing a PhD was totally the opposite, I spent most of my time in a very large, totally quiet library concentrating on one topic, which was wonderful in a very different way.

Paula’s Career

I am a Reader in Medical Sociology.

I came to medical sociology via my PhD on how diagnostic discourses define women with anorexia as overly compliant and besotted with media images of thinness. I thought this was a rather simple and sexist way of understanding the complexities of the condition as someone who had experienced anorexia in my teens.

This made me interested in the role medicine plays in all kinds of social processes.