Harris, Myles;
(2024)
Prolonged field care: a grounded theory of mitigating risks to health in remote environments.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The United Nations predicts that, despite a rise in urbanisation, by the year 2050 there will be up to 3.1 billion people living in a remote environment. All of these people will have health needs; however, this figure does not include people who travel through, or who are caught in remote environments. Moreover, they are exposed to health risks associated with the hazards and challenges of providing healthcare in remote environments. This research aims to make an original and significant contribution to knowledge of how prolonged field care (PFC) mitigates risks to health in remote environments. The defining features of remote environments that are included in the context of this research are they have no access to health services, there is limited resources, and communication is unreliable, so the risk of delayed evacuation caused by challenging conditions is exacerbated. The identified research gap is an explanatory, evidence-based theory of how PFC can be used to mitigate risks to health in remote environments. Thus, the question for this research is, “What is an explanatory, evidence-based theory of how PFC mitigates risks to health in remote environments?” Grounded theory was used to achieve the research aim and answer the research question. The theoretical finding is a PFC grounded theory, which emerged from analysing data from semi-structured interviews of research participants with experience of PFC in remote environments. The PFC grounded theory was methodologically and empirically tested, which provided greater depth to this research. The methodological test was conducted during the planning of analogue mission that simulated the human exploration of another planet. The simulation was achieved during the empirical test, which took place on a remote and uninhabited island in Scotland that had similarities with the remoteness of another planet. A cross-country skiing expedition provided another case study for the empirical test.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Prolonged field care: a grounded theory of mitigating risks to health in remote environments |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Health geography, Health risk, Humanitarian health, Prolonged field care, Rural health |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Inst for Risk and Disaster Reduction |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10187416 |
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