Rebecca (Becky) Sherrington
Shaping the Future of Healthcare: Navigating Regulatory Challenges and Policy Innovations in Assisted Dying for Healthcare Professionals
Becky is a MPhil student who is an experienced registered nurse with a background in senior healthcare leadership and health and social care.
Becky is the Chief Inspector of the Jersey Care Commission, Jersey’s independent regulator. (Jersey is a self-governing UK Crown dependency in the Channel Islands). Assisted dying is a significant and current topic of debate in Jersey, and the debate in Jersey has attracted considerable attention from the media and policymakers in the UK and further afield. In November 2021, following the recommendation of a citizen’s jury, the States Assembly (Jersey’s parliament) voted to support assisted dying in principle, meaning that legislation is likely to follow and could be the first jurisdiction within the UK to implement assisted dying.
As a result of the UK debate and Jersey's significant future policy change, as the Chief Inspector of Jersey’s regulator, Sherrington recognised the need to devise a regulatory model informed by the experience of other international organisations and regulatory bodies.
The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives of healthcare regulators on assisted dying, with particular focus on inspection, oversight, identify regulatory challenges, and opportunities for learning from jurisdictions where assisted dying is lawful. Specifically, it seeks to: (1) examine regulatory practices and oversight mechanisms, (2) investigate and identify areas for policy and practice improvement, and (3) facilitate comparative learning from international regulatory experiences. By generating in-depth insights, the study will contribute to the evidence base on effective healthcare regulation and support the development of robust, ethically informed regulatory frameworks.
Supervisors: Dr Mary Neal and Dr Susan Rasmussen
Email - rebecca.sherrington@strath.ac.uk
