Category / Nursing & Midwifery

Midwifery lecturer Sara Stride and Associate Professor Susan Way deliver key note speech at the University of Ljubljana

Sara Stride ( Midwifery Lecturer Practitioner) and Associate Professor Susan Way from FHSS, travelled from the UK on the 18th April for a 5 day visit to the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. The trip was funded through Seedcorn (Bournemouth University) and ERASMUS teaching mobility fund (British Council) to extend research and education collaboration between the two Universities.

We received a warm welcome from the Head of Midwifery Education, Dr. Polona Misvek who had helped to arrange our visit. Polona has previously visited Bournemouth University and has co-authored a number of papers with Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen.

The Seedcorn funding enabled Sara to provide a key note lecture to an audience which included midwives, student midwives and midwifery lecturers. In attendance was also the CEO of the Nurses and Midwives Association of Slovenia, Anita Prelec. The lecture related to a recent project funded by the Wellbeing of Women charity where Sara was the Principle Investigator. Other team collaborators were Professor Vanora Hundley, Associate Professor Susan Way and Dr Zoe Shepherd. The topic was entitled, ‘Updating the Understanding of Perineal Practice at the time of birth (UUPP Study)’. It was well received and generated many questions.

We have also been able to agree with the support of Polona Misvek and Anita Prelec to repeat the survey element of the research with midwives in Slovenia.

For further details regarding the teaching mobility aspect of the visit please visit the HSS Blog.

(L-R) Sara Stride, Anta Prelec and Susan Way

 

Audience Invitation to Key Note Speech

NIHR Research Design Service Grant Writing Retreat

Do you have a great idea for research in health or social care?

Would your team benefit from protected time and expert support to develop your idea into a competitive funding application?

The Research Design Services South West (RDS SW) and South Central (RDS SC) are delighted to offer a unique opportunity to researchers in health and social care across their regions. to attend a week-long residential Grant Writing Retreat at Dillington House, near Ilminster in Somerset from Monday 4 September to Friday 8 September 2017 inclusive. The purpose of the Retreat is to give busy professionals dedicated time to rapidly progress their research idea into fundable proposals. The Retreat will provide a supportive environment for research teams to develop high quality research proposals prior to application to national peer-reviewed funding streams. Participating teams will enjoy protected time dedicated to the development of their research proposals away from the distractions of their workplace, expert help and support from RDS adviser staff and the experience of working as part of a professional research team.

I urge you and your colleagues to have a look at the website to find out more details, the process for applying for a place on the retreat, and examples of success stories: http://rds-sw.nihr.ac.uk/rgwr.htm

The cost of the retreat is £2,850 per team of three researchers (see website for details). The opportunity to apply is open to everyone across our region.

HOWEVER, for teams that successfully apply for a place on the retreat, and that consist of at least one member of staff from the Department of Nursing and Clinical Sciences here at BU, the University can offer a limited number of places funded by the Department (2 but might be able to stretch to more).   If you don’t have anybody in mind within the department but still interested in collaborating and applying for a free space offered by the university please contact us and we can facilitate this and try to find people with shared interests and ideas.

Applications for the retreat must be submitted to RDS by 1pm 26th April 2017, and it is important that you discuss your application with someone from the BUCRU/RDS team at an early stage (Sarah Thomas, Helen Allen, Sharon Docherty, Andy Powell, Peter Thomas).

Your local branch of the NIHR Research Design Service is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us, call us on 61939 or send us an email.

New midwifery paper by Dr. Jenny Hall

international, Publishing, writing

Congratulations to Dr. Jenny Hall in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication of her paper ‘Spiritual aspects of living with infertility: synthesis of qualitative studies’. [1]  Dr. Hall co-authored this paper in the Journal of Clinical Nursing with colleagues from Ireland and Portugal.

This international team conducted review and synthesis of qualitative research to seek a deeper understanding of the spiritual aspects of patients’ experiences of infertility.  They concluded that infertile couples’ experiences of infertility may offer an opportunity for spiritual care particularly related to the assessment of spiritual needs and the promotion of spiritual coping strategies. Moreover, effective holistic care should support couples in overcoming and finding meaning in this life and health condition.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

New publication: vital signs obstetric charts

PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Congratulations on the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences team which had its paper ‘Vital signs and other observations used to detect deterioration in pregnant women: an analysis of vital sign charts in consultant-led UK maternity units’ accepted by the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia (published by Elsevier). 
The paper compares: (i) vital sign values used to define physiological normality; (ii) symptoms and signs used to escalate care; (iii) 24 type of chart used; and (iv) presence of explicit instructions for escalating care. The authors conclude that the wide range of ‘normal’ vital sign values in different systems used in the UK and the Channel Islands suggests a lack of equity in the processes for detecting deterioration and escalating care in hospitalised pregnant and postnatal women. Agreement regarding ‘normal’ vital sign ranges is urgently required and would assist the development of a standardised obstetric early warning system and chart. The lead author of this new paper is FHSS Visiting Professor Gary Smith, his co-authors include FHSS staff Vanora Hundley, Lisa Gale_Andrews and Edwin van Teijlingen as well as three BU Visiting Faculty: Debra Bick (King’s College London), Mike Wee (Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Richard Isaacs (University Hospital Southampton).

From Nepal, to BU and back again

PG research, student research

Recent BU graduate Dr Pratik Adhikary is currently working alongside BU researcher Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH) in Nepal.

The CMMPH have been working on improving maternity care in Nepal for a number of years. They’ve most recently begun looking at the impact of women’s groups on maternal and child health uptake in Pharping- rural Nepal.

A former BU PhD student, Dr Adhikary is in charge of planning and monitoring the study, as well as training local Nepalese data collectors. He also looks after the data entry and the overall evaluation of the study.

As well as this, Newton funding is offering him his first fieldwork post as an independent researcher. Below we follow his journey from a former BU student to a BU staff member.

“I’m originally from Nepal and came to Bournemouth University in 2009 to study for my PhD. This looked at Nepalese migrant workers working in the Middle East and Malaysia – this focused on their physical and mental health, as well as any risks they took in their jobs. Previously, I studied for an MSc in Public Health at the University of Aberdeen, as well as working as a cardiac data collection officer in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,” says Dr Adhikary.

“Studying at BU was very important for my academic career. I was lucky enough to present my PhD study at an international conference, which provided me with useful feedback from both academics and early career researchers,”

“My academic supervisors Prof van Teijlingen and Dr Steven Keen were instrumental throughout my PhD- in gaining a partial fee waiver, international travel funds to attend conferences and arranging a grant from the open society foundation,”

“As a young researcher, I am planning a number of drafts for publication in 2017. Support from my BU colleagues has given me a unique stepping stone in the academic world,”

“Being at BU has enabled me to grow my researcher’s network and provided me with an insight into the some of the highest quality of research in the world,” says Dr Adhikary, “I’ve always felt at home at BU and I’m keen to continue my research career here! “

You can read one of Dr Adhikary’s PhD papers online for free here

Dr Adhikary was also a co-author on this recent 2016 paper on the BU Research Blog

British Academy Visit – reserve your place now!

Funding opportunities

british_academy_logoThe British Academy is returning to BU on 8 March 2017.  This is an invaluable opportunity to find out more about the international and domestic funding available through the organisation.  For those of you who are not familiar with the British Academy, it is the UK’s leading independent body for the humanities and social sciences, promoting funding, knowledge exchange and providing independent advice within the humanities. 

The session will last just over  1 hour (13:00-14:15) and will comprise a presentation focusing on international and domestic funding opportunities along with an overview of the British Academy, followed by a Q&A session.

Representatives of the British Academy will be available to answer any individual queries not covered in the presentation or Q&A session, and members of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office will be on hand should you wish to discuss BU’s processes for bidding to the organisation.

Places for this event can be reserved through Organisational Development here.