Oladayo Afilabi

Oladayo joined the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Research in October 2018. He is a Registered Nurse (RN) in both Nigeria and the UK. He underwent his Bachelor of Nursing Science at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria, graduating in 2008. He proceeded on his MSc in Health Planning and Management at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. After this, he won the Muritala Mohammed International Postgraduate Scholarship at London Metropolitan University in 2013; for a second MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health with research focus on death, complicated grieving and family dynamics and how these affect children and adolescents. In 2018, he won the 2018 King’s Postgraduate Research International Scholarship from the King’s College London Centre for Doctoral Studies.

Oladayo’s current research interest is in integrated palliative care models within existing health systems structures in low and middle-income countries. His PhD research is on the acceptability and feasibility of an intervention to strengthen palliative care delivery for patients with serious illnesses at the primary health care level in Nigeria. This has the potential to scale service delivery and improve access to palliative care in difficult to reach populations while contributing to the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goal in Nigeria. He recently won the 2019 King’s Global Research Grant to explore partnerships in Nigeria for the development of his intervention and steering of his research.