BU Research Blog

Mel Hughes, Angela Warren and Vanessa Heaslip are collaborating with Yeovil Hospital on an NIHR funded project to showcase the involvement of people with lived experience in health and social care research. This may have been as a participant, public contributor or co-researcher. If you know anyone who might be interested in taking part, please see below.

Invitation to participate in our forthcoming exhibition.

My name is Janine Valentine and I am a nurse consultant at Yeovil Hospital in Somerset.

Working in collaboration with the Department of Nursing Science and the PIER partnership at Bournemouth University, I am currently developing an exhibition which has been funded by the National Institute of Health Research and which aims to promote the importance of participating in research

This is planned to take place in March 2022 across a number of venues within the Southwest

What will people see at the exhibition?

We are aiming to create a beautiful, inspiring and thought provoking exhibition, showcasing  the stories of a number of individuals who have been involved in research. The wider purpose of the exhibition is to raise the profile of research and those who participate within it, with a view to encouraging others to sign up and get involved.

Who will be involved?

We would love to hear from people who have participated in ay health or social care related study who would be interested in taking part in the exhibition. We are keen for the exhibition to provide a rich and interesting story, reflecting both the variety of research study and the diversity of individuals who participate. We are particularly interested in hearing from people whose voices may be less frequently heard. Research affects all of us in some way and it is important that everyone has an opportunity to be part of it whatever their situation or background.

The exhibition will provide an opportunity for a wider audience to learn more about the various ways in which they can become involved in research and how valuable their contribution would be.

If I think I can contribute, what do I need to do?

As a participant, we would like to meet with you to hear your story about your involvement in research. In order to do this, we would make initial contact by phone to discuss the project and answer any questions you may have. We would then arrange to meet with you in person. This would consist of myself and a professional photographer travelling to meet you at a suitable location where we would record your story and take your photograph. We would expect this to take around an hour.

Your story would then be written up to be exhibited alongside your photograph.  In some cases, we might create an audio recording of your story. Before any inclusion in the exhibition these would be shared with you to ensure that you were happy with them and amendments would be made in accordance with your wishes.

We are offering participants a payment of a £20 voucher for their time.

We plan to tour the exhibition to a variety of public spaces end events such as local libraries, hospitals as well as Bournemouth University. As participants your shared voices will be an amazing way through which to inspire others to get involved and celebrate the importance of research.

If you would like to participate or learn more about this project please contact me via Janine.valentine@ydh.nhs.uk or 07523 949730