Professor Sassy Molyneux is an interdisciplinary researcher whose extensive career spans nearly three decades. Through her work at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kenya, she has become a leading expert in health policy and systems research.
Since Professor Molyneux’s return to the UK in 2020, she has continued her work from the Health Systems Collaborative in Oxford, all while maintaining connections with her colleagues and research partners in Kenya. Her influence extends beyond academia, playing a vital role in strategic decisions within the Nuffield Department of Medicine and serving on international advisory groups such as Health Systems Global, WHO/TDR, and SARETI.
Understanding moral distress
The NIHR Global Health Research Professorship award will support Professor Molyneux’s research into the root causes of moral distress among frontline staff and the development of institutional strategies to effectively manage and mitigate these challenges.
Moral distress happens when someone knows the right thing to do but institutional constraints make it nearly impossible to pursue that course of action.
This issue is particularly urgent in resource-limited settings, where international research pressures often lead to complex ethical dilemmas.
Professor Molyneux will collaborate with colleagues and partners in various resource-limited settings to understand the causes and effects of this distress and to evaluate the effectiveness of institutional processes designed to minimise and manage it.
The research aims to develop evidence-based guidelines that promote fairer practices in international research. These guidelines aim to foster a more inclusive and innovative research culture and to strengthen research systems, thereby enhancing the resilience of health systems globally.
Led from the Health Systems Collaborative, the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme research will involve close collaboration with international networks, including the Global Health Bioethics Network, Health Systems Global, the Rebuild Consortium, the Pandemic Sciences Institute and the Global Health Ethics & Governance unit at the World Health Organization.