Yearly Archives / 2019

Key role of volunteers in the health system

international, open access, Publishing, writing

This week saw the publication of ‘Perceived barriers to accessing Female Community Health Volunteers’ (FCHV) services among ethnic minority women in Nepal: A qualitative study’ [1].  This article in the Open Access journal PLoS ONE highlights the key role volunteers play in delivering health services to minorities/the poorest people, especially in low-income countries like Nepal.

This paper studies community health workers in Nepal, who are known as Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). To address this issue, we conducted a qualitative study to explore perceived barriers to accessing maternal and child healthcare services among ethnic minority groups in two different parts of Nepal with varying degrees of access to local healthcare centres. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty FCHVs, 26 women service users and 11 paid local health workers. In addition, 15 FCHVs participated in four focus group discussions.

A thematic analysis of the data identified five major themes underlying barriers to accessing available maternal and child healthcare services by ethnic minority groups. These themes include: a) lack of knowledge among service users; b) lack of trust in volunteers; c) traditional beliefs and healthcare practices; d) low decision-making power of women; and e) perceived indignities experienced when using health centres.  The paper concluded that community health programmes should focus on increasing awareness of healthcare services among ethnic minority groups, and the programmes should involve family members (husband and mothers-in-law) and traditional health practitioners. Both the FCHVs and local healthcare providers should be trained to communicate effectively in order to deliver respectful care among ethnic minorities if we want to achieve universal healthcare coverage for maternal and child health in low- and -middle income countries.

The paper is based on the PhD research conducted by Dr. Sarita Panday in ScHARR at the University of Sheffield.  Dr. Panday is currently affiliated with the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Centre (APARC) at Stanford University in the USA.  Her co-authors are Prof. Paul Bissell at the University of Huddersfield, FHSS’s Visiting Prof. Padam Simkhada at the Liverpool John Moores University and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.  This is the second paper from Dr. Panday’s excellent thesis, the first paper was also published in an Open Access journal BMC Health Services Research [2].

 

References:

  1. Panday S, Bissell P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P (2019) Perceived barriers to accessing Female Community Health Volunteers’ (FCHV) services among ethnic minority women in Nepal: A qualitative study. PLoS ONE 14(6): e0217070.
  2. Panday S, Bissell P, van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P (2017) The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research 17(1):623.

Assistive Technology Symposium 2019

conferences, Fusion

Dr Huseyin Dogan and Dr Paul Whittington have organised an Assistive Technology Symposium on Monday 24th June 2019 in Share Lecture Theatre, Fusion Building, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, 09:00 – 17:00.

The 2nd Assistive Technology Symposium at Bournemouth University will be a fusion of research domains: Digital Health, Educational Technologies, Human Computer Interaction, Inclusion, Learning Strategies through Metacognition, Smart Technologies, and User Experience. Download Assistive Technology Symposium 2019 Programme.
We have presentations from a range of speakers including academics, researchers and postgraduate students, including a keynote presentation from Steve Tyler, Assistive Technology Director of Leonard Cheshire. The Symposium will conclude with a Panel discussing collaborative projects and future Assistive Technology research.
There is no cost to attend the event, but delegates are required to register online through Eventbrite at:
Registration includes refreshments and a finger buffet lunch (please advise by email of any dietary requirements). Tickets will be available on a first come first served basis and there is a maximum capacity of 60 delegates.
If you have any questions regarding the event, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Paul Whittington by email: whittingtonp@bournemouth.ac.uk

Setting up clinical research – the ‘Organisation Information Document’

NHS, Research Ethics

If you are currently conducting research within the NHS or Health & Social Care (HSC), then please bear in mind the following update if you wish/plan to add new NHS/HSC research sites to your study.

As of 5th June, the set-up procedure for clinical research projects involving NHS or HSC organisations changed (see blog post) –

  • If you applying for HRA/NHS REC approval you will be required to follow the new procedure using the Organisation Information Document (OID), as referenced in the above post;
  • If you are already conducting a study with HRA/NHS REC approval, in NHS/HSC organisations, and wish to involve new sites, then please be aware that the OID should be used, even if existing sites were set-up using the previous document, the Statement of Activities.

Further help and guidance

Guidance on the use of the new UK Local Information Pack has now been published in the Site Specific page of IRAS Help to help applicants with the change.

If you have any queries regarding any of the information provided above, information in the referenced blog post, or would like some guidance with regard to implementing your research in a healthcare setting – please get in touch with BU’s Research Ethics team.

You can also take a look at the Clinical Governance blog for documents, links and training opportunities.

CEH sandpit opportunity for advanced technology for water runoff

Funding opportunities

NEW date 22 & 23 October 2019

Penrith, Rheged Centre

The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is holding a 2-day sandpit in 2019, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The sandpit will be held at Rheged, Penrith, which has the benefit of being co-located to a number of important field runoff experiments. Please apply by the end of August 2019.

The broad aims of the sandpit are to generate research proposals which can:

  • Build a better understanding of the problems and challenges posed by water runoff and allow these to be framed in a clearer way.
  • Address the key research challenges that are identified through use of STFC facilities , technology and expertise.
  • Facilitate interactions between key researchers and end-users in water and agriculture.

The sandpit will include demonstrations of scientific advancements in the area of rainfall runoff modelling, including the demonstrations of real time flood forecasting for arable environments from JBA, and novel sensor systems for measuring diffuse pollution. Following the sandpit, participants will be invited to apply for funding for ~10 projects at up to  £20k each. The aim is for projects to deliver advanced technology solutions to address the challenges identified by the community.

Over the next few weeks, CEH will be inviting expressions of interest from the rainfall-runoff research community.

If you would like to participate in the agri-runoff sandpit, please fill in this online questionnaire.

Research Communication Day

Knowledge Exchange, Training

Thursday 20 June from 10.30am – 3.30pm, Talbot Campus

This event is a one-stop shop in assisting academics in finding out more regarding research communication and outreach to external audiences. The day will be particularly helpful for academics new to BU, or early career researchers of all levels who wish to increase their public profile and the impact of their research.

Nineteen workshops will be on offer in the afternoon, covering a wide range of topics vital to researchers and academics – from broadcast training to sharing research through social media. Included in these are two one-to-one sessions – one with the editor from the Conversation, and another with the Impact Officer team.

By the end of the day, attendees will understand the benefits of communicating their research, how to go about this, and who in BU can help them. The event is sure to be of great use to academics and researchers.

More information is available on the staff intranet.

Ethical Thinking and Decision-making in Practice

Research Ethics

Monday 17th June 09:30 – 16:30 Talbot Campus

An exciting day’s workshop for academics who are new or relatively new to research, who would like to enhance their understanding and confidence in the application of ethical considerations to their research activity.

The aims of the day are to:

  1. Increase your awareness of the need for ethics compliance in research
  2. Develop a good understanding of your responsibilities and when you may need further assistance
  3. Develop your skills in the following key areas, within the context of ethical research:
  • Planning and design
  • Gathering data and data analysis
  • Reporting, including presentation and dissemination
  • Consideration of ethical dilemmas, based on real-world examples and participants’ experience

More information and the link for bookings are on the staff intranet.

Dr. Helen Kara has been an independent research since 1999. She has a background of employment in the private, public, and voluntary sectors, and now undertakes commissioned research and evaluation, mainly for public and voluntary sector organisations and partnerships. Her research areas are social care, health, and the voluntary/third sector.

What happens to items deposited in BURO?

open access

What happens with items uploaded to BURO?  Do people look at them?

If you have ever wondered about this, IRUS-UK produces a wealth of data about UK repositories.

For example, it tells us that Bournemouth University was in 38th place in number of items downloaded from BURO during May, with a total of 43801 downloads.

Another interesting set of statistics gives us a graphic of downloads per country.

And there is more!

Remember that your faculty library teams are here to support you, don’t hesitate to contact us.

José

Faculty Librarian: HSS and Research Support

RKEDF events next week – spaces available

Research Ethics

 

There are spaces available at the following events next week:

Day Date Event and booking link Facilitator
Monday 17th June Ethical Decision making in Practice Dr Helen Kara
Tuesday 18th June Using Creative Research Methods Dr Helen Kara
Thursday 20th June Research Communication Day RDS & M&C

Please follow the links to find out more and to book. The workshops with Dr Helen Kara are now also open to PGRs, who do not need line manager approval to attend.

Book now so that appropriate catering can be arranged.

 

Photo of the week

The photo of the week series is a weekly series featuring photos taken by our academics and students for our Research Photography Competition, which provides a snapshot of some of the incredible research undertaken across the BU community.

 

This week’s photo of the week, ‘A quiet moment at my local, but I can’t relax. How am I going to find the dream placement?’ is by Vianna Renaud, a placement development advisor and postgraduate researcher from the faculty of media and communications.

Each year second year university students prepare for their sandwich placement search. Whilst a variety of both academic and support staff promote employability activities to help students gain a better idea of what is out there, student engagement can be quite low. Given the success of peer assisted learning initiatives across the HE sector, I am researching the potential impact of an employability coaching and mentoring programme on both first year and final year students.

Public Health, Mental Health and Mass Atrocity Prevention

international, Knowledge Exchange

On 9th – 10th June, Dr Ellie Smith attended the “Public Health, Mental Health and Mass Atrocity Prevention” workshop. The event was held in New York, and was co-hosted by the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

The aim of the workshop was to bring together a group of practitioners and academics with particular experience of working with conflict and trauma within the fields of psychology, psychiatry, public health and law, in order to explore the role of public and mental health strategies and approaches in mass atrocity prevention. The event was designed to encourage the exchange of ideas between intellectual fields and to begin to build a body of knowledge on the subject, intended to culminate in an edited volume. Dr Smith was presenting her work on the concept of “Justice” as viewed from the perspective of atrocity survivors, and in particular, the psychological notion of a “sense of justice”, including its constituent elements.

She is currently engaged as a Researcher with Bournemouth University on the AHRC-funded project “Mass Grave Protection for Truth and Justice”, led by Dr Melanie Klinkner @GraveProtection

Breastfeeding paper published today

NHS, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

The journal Women and Birth (by Elsevier) published the latest academic paper by Dr. Alison Taylor today.  Alison’s paper ‘The therapeutic role of video diaries: A qualitative study involving breastfeeding mothers’ had been online as a pre-publication for a while but today in appeared officially in print [1].  Alison is a Senior Lecturer in Midwifery in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) and this scientific paper is part of her completed PhD research project. 

 

 

The paper is based on a large number of video clips recorded by new mothers.  The total recording time exceeded 43 hours. This paper focuses on one theme, the therapeutic role of the camcorder in qualitative research. Four subthemes are discussed highlighting the therapeutic impact of talking to the camcorder: personifying the camcorder; using the camcorder as a confidante; a sounding board; and a mirror and motivator.  Dr. Taylor and colleagues conclude that frequent opportunities to relieve tension by talking to “someone” without interruption, judgement or advice can be therapeutic. Further research needs to explore how the video diary method can be integrated into standard postnatal care to provide benefits for a wider population.

This is the second paper originating from Alison’s PhD research, the first one appeared in Midwifery (also published by Elsevier) [2].   Dr. Taylor’s PhD thesis was supervised by Prof. Emerita Jo Alexander, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (in CMMPH) and Prof. Kath Ryan at the University of Reading.

[Drawing of Breastfeeding Woman by Allison Churchill.]

 

REFERENCES:

  1. Taylor AM, van Teijlingen E., Alexander J, Ryan K. (2019) The therapeutic role of video diaries: A qualitative study involving breastfeeding mothers, Women & Birth 32(3):276-83. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871519218300064
  2. Taylor A, van Teijlingen E, Ryan K, Alexander J (2019) ‘Scrutinised, judged & sabotaged’: A qualitative video diary study of first-time breastfeeding mothers, Midwifery 75: 16-23.

The Research Development and Support R&KE Application Timeline

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The Research Development & Support RKE Application timeline is your ultimate guide to applying for external R&KE funding. The timeline guides you through all the necessary steps, procedures and processes involved, including navigating through all the requirements of the internal quality approvals, costing preparations, legal and finances approvals, faculty approvals, etc.

The R&KE timeline also provides helpful guidance in the time needed in preparing and finalising external funding applications, taking you through initial planning, the submission preparation processes, legal and finance approval processes and to the submission to funder process.

You can also find useful links and information, as well as your Funding Development Team contacts on this timeline document.

Please click on this link to access this useful guidance document.

NEW: Research England delivery plan 2019

Today sees the launch of Research England’s delivery plan for 2019.

Their funding allows HEIs to work effectively and efficiently with business and charities. They help universities seize fast-moving opportunities to work with business partners independently, and enable them to collaborate with businesses, charities and other funding bodies that pay less than the full economic cost of research.

 

NEW: Innovate UK delivery plan 2019

Today sees the launch of Innovate UK’s delivery plan for 2019.

Innovate UK will take a thought-leadership role around business-led innovation, providing leadership through their expertise, being recognized as a trusted voice, and setting the direction for innovation in the UK and beyond. They have already introduced new ways of working with innovative businesses through world-class programmes and processes. These include building up the UK’s innovation infrastructure with the Catapult network and introducing new forms of innovation finance such as Innovation Loans and their Investment Accelerator. But they now need to move further and faster to make the most of public funding, ensuring maximum impact as an investor in business innovation, and not just as a funder.