Rachel Plachcinski
Parent, Patient and Public Involvement (PPPI) Co-Lead
Improving the way parents, patients and the public are involved in our research
Rachel co-led with Charlotte Bevan, parent, patient and public involvement (PPPI) for the DECIDE project. With Charlotte, she currently advises the WRH on strategic and individual project level PPI. They both also co-lead PPPI at the Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care (PRU-MNHC) at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU).
PPPI means talking to and supporting diverse parents, patients and organisational representatives to ensure their priorities and concerns help shape research projects that may affect the care they, or people like them, receive. PPPI also contributes to the research results being shared in a way that is accessible to people with lived experiences, as well as clinical audiences.
Rachel was previously a journalist and an antenatal teacher. Her interest in maternity research was sparked by the training and support she received from the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) after the birth of her three sons, and she went on to complete a BSc in Psychology and MSc in Psychological Approaches to Health at the University of Leeds. Rachel was a parent representative on the INFANT trial looking at computerised interpretation of the fetal heart rate during labour.