Category / REF Subjects

Human Milk Banking in the UK

BU research, PG research, student research

UKAMBBreast feeding is the gold standard for feeding babies. This might not be surprising for most of you, although the rates of exclusive breast feeding in the UK are low. But have you ever heard of human milk banking? The UK Association for Milk Banking (UKAMB) does an incredible job in providing safe and screened donor breast milk all over the country through 16 donor milk banks, mostly to preterm babies whose mothers cannot provide sufficient breast milk. Feeding human donor milk instead of formula milk is for example associated with a lower risk for the severe gut infection necrotising enterocolitis.

Breast milk and donor milk also contain omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for brain and visual development in early infancy. However, research based at BU has identified that the current intake levels of preterm infants are too low to match the in utero accretion rates. Therefore, the aim of my PhD project at BU is to investigate approaches to increase the intake of omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in preterm babies to improve their outcomes. One aspect I will be looking at is the intake from donor milk. Therefore, I was invited by the UK Association for Milk Banking to give a short presentation about my research at their annual training day in June.

I am looking forward to meeting donor milk bank staff and other researchers in the field of human milk banking at this day. I will post more details after the event. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you would like to find out more about human milk banking in the UK or want to become a milk donor visit UKAMB’s website at http://www.ukamb.org/.

Isabell

Announcement BU Humanisation Conference 2016

BU research, Research Integritiy

BU Humanisation Conference     21st June 2016

Venue: Room EB708, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, BH8 8EB

 

Please find the Programme for the Humanisation conference on the 21st June 2016 attached.

Please feel free to pass the information on to others internal and external to the university (academic and practice) who you feel may be interested

The conference is being run at no cost and so you need to make your own arrangements for lunch.  Let Dr. Caroline Ellis-Hill  ( cehill@bournemouth.ac.uk ) know by the 15th June if you wish to attend .

If you only want to attend for part of the day, please state which part of the day you’d like to attend.

 

9.30 Registration  
10.00 Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill Welcome
10.10 Anne Quinney Humanisation of the BU Generic Student Assessment Criteria.
10.30 Dr Sean Beer Perceptions of the authenticity of food: a study of residents in Dorset (UK)
10.50 Prof Ann Hemingway Innovative routes to Wellbeing: Equine Assisted interventions
11.10 Coffee  
11.30 Jane Fry Sharing human concerns: utilising an embodied interpretative approach to convey findings from a descriptive phenomenological study
11.50 Dr Carole Pound Humanising care: translating theory into practice in stroke care
12.10 Rutherford and Dr. Emer Forde The Rutherford Introspective Photography: Promoting self-reflection and wellbeing of GP trainees through photography.
12.30 Free time   Please see information about local venues for lunch
2.00 Dr Vanessa Heaslip How phenomenology enables insight into the Human lives of Gypsy Roma Travellers’
2.20 Mevalyn Cross Experiencing the Humanisation Framework together
2.40 Dr Jan Mosja Chaplaincy at the bedside. Learning from Buddhist chaplains and their contributions to the humanisation of health care.
3.00 Sally Lee Humanising and the Care Act well-being principle
3.20 Dr Mary Grant and Dr Catherine Lamont Robinson HeART of Stroke: feasibility study of an Art & Health intervention following a stroke
3.40 Thanks, Tea and Close  

 

Eating and Drinking Well: Supporting People Living with Dementia – BUDI Research Seminar

BU research, Research communication

You are cordially invited to a BUDI research seminar which is open to all students and staff.

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

“Eating and Drinking Well: Supporting People Living with Dementia”

 By Dr Jane Murphy and Joanne Holmes

 Tuesday 14 June 2016

13.00 – 13.50pm

EB203, Executive Business Centre

 Dr Jane Murphy with co-investigator Joanne Holmes will present their findings from research, funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing to understand how to improve nutrition for people living with dementia in care homes. Ensuring appropriate food and nutrition is a vital part in delivering dignity in care for people with dementia. Eating and drinking becomes increasingly difficult as a result of the disease that puts people at increased risk of severe malnutrition (under nutrition) and weight loss. Worryingly there have been no standardised ways to maintain adequate nutrition in people with dementia as the challenges of meeting appropriate nutrition and hydration continue to be reported.

Using a blend of qualitative and quantitative research methods, the research has:

  • Identified best practice for delivering excellence in nutrition and dignity in dementia care. Working with local care-homes, it has gathered information on nutrition-related care from everyone involved in the care of the person with dementia.
  • Established high quality education and learning. The research has informed the development of a high quality learning to equip front-line nurses and care home staff with the skills needed to improve the delivery of nutrition for people living with dementia in the community achieved through evidence-based learning in nutrition and empowered leadership.

Working in partnership with stakeholders, including care homes, charities, informal carers, Partners in Care and the Borough of Poole Council the work has  provided new insights into the issue, as well as excellent examples of best practice.

After the initial research was carried out, the team worked together with local partners to create training film and workbook, which have formed the central part of the dissemination process.

The toolkits have been widely disseminated via conferences, events, the project website, blogs and through their partner organisations, which is leading to their ideas being implemented in care homes across the country. The application and impact of the resources are currently been evaluated and how they influence training programmes across the country, as well as on local and national policy.

We hope you can join us.

Memories of Nursing

BU research, Research communication

In 2009, Professor Francis Biley in HSS launched a project to capture the voices and stories of a little heard group, those of elderly, retired nurses. A group of interested academics started to carry out interviews in 2009-10, mainly taking place at the Retired Nurses National Home (RNNH) in Bournemouth.

When Fran sadly passed away, the project faltered for a while until Professor Gail Thomas supported Eileen Richardson, then a trustee at the RNNH and previously a staff member in HSS, to bid for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In 2015 the project received £10,000 of HLF support; interviews were started once again (some conducted by volunteers, some by Sarah Keeley and Professor Elizabeth Rosser from HSS), transcriptions took place, an exhibition was hosted at the Bournemouth Library in January 2016 and now a website has been developed to share the project widely.

The website has considerable contextual information about the project, the RNNH (a very special home) including historic documents and a video made in the 1990s, oral history research, the history of nursing and midwifery, details of nurse education in the past in Dorset and Salisbury area and, importantly, audio clips from the participants themselves presented under key themes (more will be added as the final interviews are analysed).  There are also links to many other useful sites.

We hope that you will take advantage of this interesting resource to learn more about the lives of nurses, many who practised in World War Two and who were nursing when the NHS was introduced. The accounts are fascinating and this approach to sharing the outcomes of research is innovative and will helpfully ensure these stories are shared widely.

For more details, please visit memoriesofnursing.uk.

Professor Gail Thomas

New paper BU PhD student Sheetal Sharma

BU research, open access, PG research, Publishing, writing

Plos ONE Sheetal 2016Congratulations to FHSS PhD student Sheetal Sharma on her latest paper [1].  The paper ‘Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal’ appeared this week in the journal PLOS One.  Sheetal’s innovative mixed-methods approach was applied to a long-running maternity intervention in rural Nepal.  The paper concludes that community-based health promotion in Sheetal’s study had a greater affect on the uptake of antenatal care and less so on delivery care. Other factors not easily resolved through health promotion interventions may influence these outcomes, such as costs or geographical constraints. The evaluation has implications for policy and practice in public health, especially maternal health promotion.

Reference:

  1. Sharma, S., van Teijlingen, E., Belizán, J.M., Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., Sicuri, E. (2016) Measuring What Works: An impact evaluation of women’s groups on maternal health uptake in rural Nepal, PLOS One 11(5): e0155144 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0155144

Accessible Gaming for Stroke Rehab

PG research

We would like to invite you to the last research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre for this academic year.Techstroke

 

Title: Insights into the use of technology for upper limb stroke rehabilitation

 

Speaker: Owen O’Neil (Bournemouth University PhD student, funded by the Centre for Digital Entertainment)

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 1st June 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: Stroke is a global pandemic and the largest cause of severe adult disability in the world. Incidence rates in the UK suggest that over 150,000 suffer a first time stroke, and over 80% of survivors will suffer some form of motor disability. Rehabilitation typically consists of high volumes of motor practice to engage the mechanism of neural plasticity, a form of cortical rewiring that allows the brain to adapt after damage. Meeting the rehabilitation needs for this population through one-to-one physiotherapy care is currently not possible.  There is a growing impetus on research institutions to explore cost-effective methods for increasing access to rehabilitation that may promote improved functional recovery for patients at home and in the clinic. Recent approaches include the use of video game technology as a method of increasing patient engagement and upkeep to rehabilitation programs. Of particular interest is the emergence of low cost commercial off-the-shelf devices such as the Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect.

In this presentation we offer some insights and opportunities to introduce low cost off the shelf media technology as a modality of stroke therapy. Provide an overview of the current project, including some preliminary data and discuss what might come next.

 

 

We hope to see you there.

 

Hat-trick of new diabetes papers

BU research, Featured academics, international, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Diabetes editorial BarnardCongratulations to Katharine Barnard and Janet James in FHSS and their colleagues in the USA and Sweden on their latest publication on the ‘Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living with T1 Diabetes’ [1].  Recently Dr. Barnard also co-authored an editorial in the international journal Diabetes under the title ‘Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand?’ [2].  Finally, the third recent paper by Dr. Barnard and colleagues from across the UK was published in Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Association [3].Barnard Diabetes 2016

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

References

  1. Barnard, K., James, J., et al. Impact of Chronic Sleep Disturbance for People Living With T1 Diabetes J Diabetes Sci Technol 2016; 10: 762-767.
  2. Barnard K.D., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Psychosocial Aspects and Diabetes Technology – Head to Head or Hand in Hand? Diabetes 2016; 12(1): 35-36. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17925/EE.2016.12.01.35
  3. Barnard K.D, Holt, R.I. et al. ,Could the Discrepancy in Perceived Emotional Care Received and Provided Be a Barrier to Active Diabetes Self-management? Insights From the Second Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN2) Study. Diabetes Care 2016; 39(2): e20-e21.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc15-0674

 

FHSS PhD student awarded prestigious Churchill Medallion in London

BU research, Funding opportunities, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

new medallion Anita

129 Fellows awarded a prestigious new Churchill Medallion at a London award ceremony

 

Anita Immanuel, PhD student in FHSS was presented with a newly designed Churchill medallion at a prestigious biennial award ceremony in London this week (Wednesday, 18th May), after successfully completing  her Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.

Anite was presented with the stunning blue cloisonné enamelled silver Churchill medallion by its designer and Guest of Honour, Professor Brian Clarke, who is a world renowned architectural artist. Professor Clarke presented 129 Fellows with their medallions at a ceremony in Church House, in Central London. Church House has significant Churchillian associations as during the Blitz, Winston Churchill requisitioned Church House as a makeshift Houses of Parliament after the originals had been damaged by bombing.

As part of  her Fellowship and linked to her PhD research, Anita travelled to Australia and Canada.  Her PhD reserach examines the quality of lives of adults who have survived cancer of the blood or lymphatic system. Patients with haematological cancers have frequently reported lack of care-coordination as an unmet need following their intensive treatment.   Anita’s Fellowship has been outlined in a previosu BR Research Blog (click here!).

Speaking about the Fellowship, Prof. Stephen Tee (Executive Dean FHSS) said: “These Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowships provide opportunities for UK citizens to go abroad on a worthwhile project, enriching their lives through their global experiences.  We are proud of Anita’s PhD research focusing on the quality of life in people who have survived cancer.  This Fellowship has also benefited Anita and her colleagues at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trustwhere she works as specialist nurse in this field”.

Anita’s PhD is supervised by: Dr. Jane Hunt and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (both FHSS) and Dr. Helen McCarthy, Anita’s clinical Ph.D. supervisor.

In 2017 The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust will be awarding 150 Travelling Fellowships. This will directly support British citizens who want to travel overseas to gain knowledge, experience and best practice to benefit others in their UK professions and communities, and society as a whole. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death in 1965, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 5,250 Travelling Fellowships.  The application process for travel in 2017 is now open!  Visit www.wcmt.org.uk for more details, or to apply before 5pm on 20th September 2016, for travel in 2017.

 

There’s no ‘I’ in Team: My experience as a URA

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, conferences, Fusion, Research communication

Blog post by Pippa Empson, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Innovative Pedagogy)

Following my application and interview earlier this year I was accepted for the Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) position on an ‘Innovative Pedagogy’ research project. Being part of the URA programme gave me an insight into the world of primary research which involved transcribing conversations from focus groups, collating data into spreadsheets and statistically analysing data using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), and getting the opportunity to present our findings in the Bournemouth University conference SURE (Showcasing Undergraduate Research Excellence). It was a pleasure to work alongside academic staff Dr Jacqueline Priego and Dr Jonathan Branney who welcomed me and Jade Offer, the other URA, to the team and supported me in my position.

I learnt many new skills including analysing quantitative and qualitative data which the academic staff was happy to guide me in. I was initially daunted by the work I would be expected to do and whether I would be able to fit it around my undergraduate studies as a second year adult nursing student. However as I was able to fulfill some of the URA work at home on my own computer it meant I was able to be flexible with when I worked, so I could keep my other commitments. Being a URA was a great opportunity which I would recommend it to anyone interested in research or furthering their skills, be it computer skills or communication skills.

Pippa Empson, BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing, year two

Touch Gesture for Smartphone

PG research

We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.Gestures

 

Title: Touch Gesture for Smartphone

 

Speaker: Chi Zhang (Bournemouth University PhD student)

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 18th May 2016

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract:

The number of smart device users is over one-quarter of the global population for the first time in 2015 and there will be 2 billion smart device users over the world by 2016. Increasingly the number of intelligent apps available to access is also one reason for its popularity. However, as a result it becomes challenging to locate and launch an app easily and quickly. In this seminar Chi Zhang will talk about her research on how a user defined gesture may enhance user’s experience on locating an app. The talk will present the results of an initial experiment. Participants are first asked to create a gesture for 15 often used apps (such as Chrome, Gmail, Facebook, etc.), based on apps’ function, and their icons’ textural or visual information. Then the next day the participants tried recalling their defined gestures and use a gesture to locate and launch the corresponding app. The experiment aims to find out what information the user applies to create a gesture and how it’s related to the recalling of the gesture.

 

We hope to see you there.

Rewilding Dorset

conferences, Events

A very successful meeting with 140 delegates from was held in May 2016 at Charlton Down Village Hall, near Dorchester to discuss and explore the application of rewilding concepts to Dorset co-hosted by Bournemouth University and the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Photo 05-05-2016, 16 28 59

In recent years, rewilding has become a major theme in conservation, stimulated by publications such as George Monbiot’s Feral and the launch of rewilding organisations both in the UK and at the European scale. While a number of rewilding initiatives have been launched in the UK, most of these are predominantly located in upland areas in the north and west of the country. Elsewhere in Europe, many rewilding initiatives are seeking to encourage ecological recovery on agricultural land that has been abandoned. This raises the question of whether rewilding concepts are applicable to intensive agricultural landscapes such as Dorset, and if so, how they might best be implemented.

We were delighted to be able to welcome a number of speakers who presented at the meeting, including leading researchers with expertise in rewilding, and practitioners with experience in implementing rewilding projects. The meeting also involved representatives from a number of conservation organisations in Dorset.

Speakers included:

Photo 05-05-2016, 10 40 14

Dr Paul Jepson, Oxford University – “Rewilding policy: risk and opportunities”

 

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Dr Christopher Sandom, University of Sussex – “Putting rewilding into practice”

 

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Dr Matthew Heard, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology – “Ecological impacts of rewilding using extensive grazing: the case of Knepp Estate”

 

Photo 05-05-2016, 14 45 32

Fiona Bowles, Poole Harbour Catchment Initiative – “Is there space for Dorset Rivers to run wild?”

 

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Helen Meech, Rewilding Britain – “Why Rewild Britain?”

 

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Professor Richard Brazier, Exeter University – “Quantifying the ecohydrological impacts of reintroducing Eurasian Beaver to intensively managed, lowland agricultural landscapes”

 

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Alison Turnock, Dorset AONB – “The Wild Purbeck Nature Improvement Area – towards bigger, better, more, joined”

 

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The day was rounded off with a lively and positive discussion with  Jonathan Spencer (Forestry Commission), Ian Alexander (Natural England), Mark Robbins (RSPB), David Brown (National Trust), Imogen Davenport (Dorset Wildlife Trust) and chaired by Prof. James Bullock (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology).

 

This meeting was held as part of the Modelling Natural Capital in Dorset Project (funded under the Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) initiative). Any questions can be addressed to Research Assistant Arjan Gosal.