Today was the first session for our rehearsal for the BUDI orchestra. We (BUDI team and the BSO players) had no idea how this would pan out as this is the first time that we are aware of where people with dementia have been given the opportunity to work alongside orchestra musicians and to gain confidence/ relearn or to learn for the first time instruments. It was something of a leap of faith to try to do this based on a hunch I had that if people can come together as a choir could we not also do this as an orchestra? Anyway, I was completely humbled by the successful use of the creative skills of the BSO musicians and BUMusic scholars as they led an initiative for those living with dementia and their family members and support workers today. As a result I have decided to do a regularish piece on my observations of the process (not the actual research which we are doing as part of FIF grant) as the sessions progress that will then culminate in a BU FOL performance on the 14 June at the Winton Life Centre. The photo gives you an idea of what happened, and when our video clips become available I will post these, but it was amazing to experience people with dementia who had lost their musical skills or perhaps more accurately their confidence bringing their instruments – a double bass and mouthorgan and regaining their musical confidence to play alongside the professional musicians. And perhaps more amazing that some of our participants who had never touched a string instrument learn some notes and then play a piece, Bolero, together – and some other classical piece that I had never heard of before (I am not a musician). I too managed to play a few notes on a violin, or maybe it was a viola, anyway the community musician knows his stuff and directed us all to enable the musicians to get us all to play something – and in relative harmony! Two of our BUMusic scholars, while a little hesitant initially, then took the initiative to lead some of the singing that was part of this initial rehearsal and again their skill in using their talents to engage and encourage the group was amazing to watch. I had the pleasure of being taught how to play a few notes (badly) on the double bass by one of our participants with dementia which was probably the best part of the morning for me. I have a soap box position that many will have heard before about how when someone has dementia it is possible to continue to learn new things and also for people with dementia to help us learn new things. Today was just another inspiring example of that.
Category / Ageing and Dementia
Fusion – Establishment of research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
My application to the Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) has been successful. The funds will be used to establish research collaboration, student and staff exchanges with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. I will be travelling to the UKZN during Easter this month for an exploratory visit. While at UKZN, I will present a paper to the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. This will be followed by a series of meetings with students and staff. On my return, I will apply to Bournemouth University to put in place the three relationships.
A successful establishment of the three aforesaid relationships will have many enormous benefits to the students and staff of BU and UKZN. For example, students should benefit culturally in terms of spending sometime in South Africa and UK respectively due to differences in the two countries’ cultures. In addition to cultural awareness, the staff exchange will benefit the staff involved through observing how lecturers in a different country deliver lectures. Apart from co-authoring academic journal articles, research collaboration between BU and UKZN staff should be beneficial where the research call (e.g. Horizon 2020) requires that researchers from Europe collaborate with a partner from South Africa.
At an institution level, the relationships should help BU in two main ways. Firstly, student exchange should increase awareness of BU in Africa which may translate into increase in percentage of African students enrolled at BU. Increasing the percentage of students from Africa is important for BU because currently less than 4% of our students are from Africa compared to 8% UK universities average. Secondly, the increase in student population from Africa will also help BU achieve the strategic plan objective of increasing overseas students’ recruitment by 15% by 2015.
UKNZ is the third largest university in South Africa and a very good university and also shares great similarities in university teaching, research and enterprise activities with those of the Business School, School of Tourism, Design, Engineering and Computing, School of Health and Social Care. Further information about the university can be found on: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/.
Dr Ven Tauringana, Associate Professor of Accounting – The Business School
Dash7 for remote patient monitoring via mobile phone
We would like to invite you to the next research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre that will be delivered by Andrew Yearp.
TitleDash7 for remote patient monitoring via mobile phone
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM
Date: Wednesday 26th March 2014
Room: P302 (Poole House, Talbot Campus)
Abstract: Wireless Remote patient monitoring systems provide an improved environment for hospital patients while expanding the range physiological information available to medical personnel. With these developments patients are now free from wires, but are still contained within the range of the wireless monitoring system. This seminar explores the application of Dash7 and mobile phone technologies in patient monitoring, particularly in hospital wards. The functionality of a prototype system which has been developed so far will be demonstrated during this seminar.
We hope to see you there,
Dr. David John
FIF supporting work with the BSO to create a BUDI orchestra
An orchestra for people with dementia and their families faciliated by players from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and BU Music students has been funded following a successful application from Ian Jones, Ian Davis and I to the FIF CCCP strand. The kick off meeting with the musicians, students and the BUDI team was held on the 5 March and we are currently in the process of recruiting people with dementia, and their carers if they wish, to participate in a 10 week programme that will start in April and culminate with a performace at the Winton Life Centre on 14 June as part of the BU Festival of Learning. This is the first project that we are aware of where a symphony orchestra works with people with dementia giving them the opportunity to relearn instruments, learn instruments for the first time while combining this with the choir approach of many initiatives in the UK and worldwide which acknowledge the power of music for the well-being of those with dementia. The team working on this project are very excited about the possibilities this project offers, not just as an example of public and community engagement, and a fused approach to working between students, researchers and professional musicans that engages with those living in our community, but because it ensures that we address one of the fundamental myths that often surround dementia of decline in abilities, when in fact people with dementia can learn new things!
Website & BRIAN Training Sessions

Due to popular demand we are hosting training sessions for the new research webpages together with BRIAN training.
These sessions are open to all BU academic staff, post graduate research students and those supporting researchers in their communications activity.
During the session you will learn the following:
Research Webpages
- Why BU has new research webpages
- How you can upload content to the website
- How the site can be used most effectively to maximise exposure of BU research.
BRIAN
- What is BRIAN and why is it important
- How to set up and maintain your BRIAN profile
- How to ensure your details are correct
- How to request a photo is uploaded
- How BRIAN links to your external staff profile
To book on one of the following sessions please use the links below…
Thursday 27th March 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus
Thursday 17th April 2pm in P421 Poole House, Talbot Campus
We hope to follow these with a session at the Lansdowne Campus (room pending). If you would be interested in a Lansdowne session or you have any queries, please email Shelly Maskell on smaskell@bournemouth.ac.uk
An EU Masters in Dementia
Positive about Dementia is an EU multi-lateral project to develop an inter-disciplinary Masters programme to educate and develop an effective and informed dementia workforce. It was launched in September 2013 and is funded by the EU Lifelong Learning programme. The Positive about Dementia Masters programme will take a positive and appreciative view of the life experience of people living with dementia. The curriculum will contain modules that will explore dementia awareness, evidence-based practice,and research to inform how we can support the wellbeing of people with dementia through educating dementia professionals. The BU team (involving colleagues from SciTech, the Business School, HSC and BUDI) hosted the kick off meeting back in December and following our next team meeting in Dublin in February we are moving full steam ahead with partners in all countries currently conducting consultations with a range of local stakeholders including service commissioners and providers as well as people with dementia and their carers about their views on what the curriculum should cover. A website has been created which will document our development activities over the next 2 and 1/2 years www.posadem.eu. In due course we will be looking for students to pilot the modules we create. If you have a view about what the curriculum should look like or if you know someone who may be interested in being one of our pilot group students do get in touch.
Sharing ideas
Is it possible for BU to help shape a social movement for positive change? I have been lucky enough to attend various external events recently that have been pretty inspiring from the point of view of hearing from colleagues working in different countries and different sectors in the UK about new, novel, creative, innovative (select the word you prefer!) approaches to understanding dementia, conducting dementia research and generally creating what I would call a ‘social movement’ to improve and enhance the lives of all those affected by dementia. I shared some of these with staff on the BU induction session this week and got a pretty good response from new colleagues working across BU schools and services so thought I would take the opportunity to share some of the ideas that hearing about work elsewhere have got me thinking about in terms of what we might be able to do locally as part of the work that BUDI is doing on behalf of the University, but also that aligns to current government priorities about creating dementia friendly communities.
The first idea that excites me is the idea of intergenerational schools that has been pioneered in Cleveland by a truly inspirational colleague, Professor Peter Whitehouse who is a neurologist by trade, but a social innovator at heart. Take a look at the innovative approach they have used to improve education standards for kids but also providing community engagement opportunities for those living with dementia http://www.tisonline.org/. What I love about his work is that when I first met him over 15 years ago it seemed to me that he was very much talking about medical aspects of Alzheimer’s Disease (which I tend to be critical about) and so I was intrigued when he then wrote a book challenging medical conceptualisations about dementia back in 2008, http://www.themythofalzheimers.com/a really good read for anyone interested in constructions of knowledge – and over the years he has been involved in so many cutting edge scientific studies but he has also been applying more ‘social’ knowledge to his community to help improve the day to day lives of those with dementia. So a scientist who is applying practical lessons to the real world. Could we create an intergenerational school here in Dorset? or could we apply aspects of this idea and create for example an intergenerational garden where people with dementia work with kids, families, to create an inner city space where people share life skills and work in community with one another? Thanks to Ian Jones and his community partnership work which is such an asset to what we can do research wise at BU, we are going to test out the idea of having school children work with people with dementia learning to play with technology such as the wii, xbox, ipad, Nintendo DS. So we are going to do a little bit of intergenerational work locally that also feeds into the wider UK work to try and create a generation of dementia savyy youngsters who will understand dementia, be open to talking about it, know the risk factors and generally help to reduce the stigma surrounding dementia in our society. Angela Rippon, who is an Alzheimer Society ambassador gave a fantastic talk about the Alzheimer Society schools project at the Dementia Leadership Challenge project washup workshop we hosted in Bournemouth at the and of February; and I have been following this up and it is disappointing that there appear to be no projects happening in Bournemouth. What could we do with local schools to help raise awareness and contribute to the long term challenge of erradicating the stigma that surrounds dementia? See this link for some really creative projects that are happening across the UK http://alzheimers.org.uk/schools. Back in December ULT agreed to a proposal developed by a group of BU colleagues for BU to work towards being a dementia friendly university. What might this mean beyond raising awareness of dementia amongst our student and staff body, addressing HR policies and creating a dementia friendly environment that makes it easier for all staff, students and visitors to find their way around campus? Could we create opportunities for people with dementia to help students with their projects, for example to create technologies that genuinely address from the outset the needs and wishes of members of our community who become socially disabled by their dementia? Could we encourage students to create a media campaign that challenges negative images of dementia and raises awareness of dementia at the same time? I like the idea of a bus poster campaign that has been used successfully elsewhere to raise awareness of mental health issues, but there are likely many other creative approaches!
Can we build on the positive reputation I believe that BU has of being an applied University, and by this I mean one that equips its students to apply knowledge to their future working lives, a University that addresses societal issues by getting dementia embedded into more of our activities? I appreciate that there are many societal issues, different health conditions that may also be worthy of this kind of approach, so really I am talking about an example of how we can contribute to the notion of a ‘social movement’ generally to help improve society. Dementia offers an opportunity to test out social innovation and given 1 in 3 of us will develop dementia and a further 1 in 3 will know someone with dementia (friend, family, neighbour) more than 2/3 of us are going to directly experience dementia as our population continues to age. If you have creative ideas about how we might achieve a ‘social movement’ type approach do feel free to pop into PG63 or the first floor of the EBC and have a chat with me or the rest of the BUDI team.
2014 sees a surge in engagement with eBU
Through immediate internal publication and open peer review, eBU is ideally placed to support the developmental needs of authors at any career stage, and I’m pleased to say that, so far, the 2014 issue has seen a levels of engagement from across the career spectrum. eBU has had two working paper submissions so far in 2014 (and there are plenty more in the archived 2013 issue!).
Firstly, under the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing theme, Sheetal Sharma (HSC) and colleagues submitted a paper titled Eliciting Nepali women’s views on childbirth and the newborn. A full text file of this paper has been openly reviewed and can be viewed here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/17. I understand Sheetal has just submitted this paper to an external journal, so best of luck and we await with great excitement to hear the outcome!
Secondly, under the Education, Learning and Practice theme, Jonathan Williams (again HSC) has submitted a paper titled Is student knowledge of anatomy affected by a Problem-Based Learning approach? A full text file of this paper can be read here – http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/24.
eBU was also delighted to be able to support outputs from the 2014 PGR conference, and a number of PGRs have decided to use eBU to showcase their work. Why not take a look at the following abstracts and posters:
Business, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
Alice Bonasio – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Customer Engagement Through Crowd-Funding and Social Media: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/21
Lifelong Health and Wellbeing
Ben Hicks – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Using commercial computer game technology to benefit men with dementia residing in rural areas of Dorset: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/19
Sheetal Sharma – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Pregnant and ‘dirty’ for 40 days: A qualitative study of childbirth practice, beliefs and myths in Nepal: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/20
Jonny Branney – PGR Conf 2014 Abstract: Is spinal manipulation associated with changes in cervical inter-vertebral motion?: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/23
Research Methods and Practice
Jenny Roddis – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Experience of interviewing: face-to-face vs. telephone: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/22
Technology & Design
Manuel Salvador – PGR Conf 2014 Poster: Automating Data Pre-processing for Online and Dynamic Processes in the Chemical Industry: http://ebu/index.php/ebu/article/view/18
BUDI – Lunch time seminar
BUDI welcome
Associate Professor Elaine Wiersma to deliver a lunch time seminar
Date: Tuesday 8 April
Time: 12 Noon until 13.00
Venue: EB203
Limited places available: email mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk to reserve your place.
Engaging People Living with Dementia in the Development of Services: Lessons Learned from a Canadian Context
This presentation will explore the ways that a Canadian research team is engaging people living with dementia in the development of services. Specifically, two projects will be discussed—the development of a self-management program for people living with dementia, and a dementia journey mapping project. The engagement of health and social care providers with researchers and people living with dementia will be described within those two projects. Lessons learned about people, relationships, and process will be described and discussed.
Bio:
Elaine Wiersma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She is the Advisor for the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Dementia Studies, the lead of re-THINKing dEMENTIA, the division of Dementia and Seniors’ Mental Health at the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health, Lakehead University, and the chair of the North West Dementia Network. Her work has spanned community and long-term care sectors, using qualitative and participatory methodologies to examine the social dimensions of aging and dementia. Currently, her work is focusing on the development of self-management in dementia and exploring the context of aging and dementia in rural northern communities in Ontario. Elaine is engaged in a number of initiatives, both research and community initiatives, that seek to engage people living with dementia and care partners as equal partners, recognizing that the involvement of these groups is vital to creating more effective services and programs.
Dementia Friends Training – Thursday 20 March,Talbot Campus
Do you wish to become a Dementia Friend? Janet Scammell, Dementia Champion is running an introdutory session which will last from 50 mins to 1 hour on Thursday 20 March at 12 noon in TA131 (Tolpuddle Annex, Talbot Campus). This training is open to all staff and students. At the end of the session, participants are invited to become Dementia Friends (which basically means promoting positive thinking about living well with dementia in their own communities). You also get a lovely dementia friends badge!
If you wish to attend please let Michelle O’Brien know by either email mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk or call 01202 962771.
eBU news, updates and success story!
eBU news: updates and achievements
It’s been a while since I posted about eBU. Since my last post there has been some exciting updates and progress to report. There are some new faces to welcome, a reminder to encourage students to submit, news that eBU is supporting outputs from the PGR conference and will support outputs from an exciting new conference, and… (drum roll…) a paper originally submitted to eBU has been published in an external journal!
Welcome aboard!
Heather Savigny has joined me as a co-editor. I have met with Heather a few times now, and it is obvious that she is passionate about developing writing and scholarly skills. On this basis, Heather is a perfect addition to the team. We have both met with the new PVC Prof John Fletcher, and I’m glad to say that, like his predecessor, he is very supportive of eBU. Shelly Maskell from R&KEO has also come aboard and will provide vital support in helping develop eBU.
Encourage students to submit
One immediate challenge for eBU is not appeal to students. eBU launched a bit too late last year to appeal to students who would have made important submissions at the end of last academic year (dissertations etc), but hopefully we will be well placed to appeal to them this year! So I urge all academic staff to encourage students who produce good quality to a) encourage them to spend a little bit more time and format their work into a publishable output and b) offer some support to this end.
PGR conference
eBU is well placed to help early career researchers and students make that leap into the ‘publish or perish’ world of academia. On this basis, it is a tool that PGRs should take advantage of. We are actively encouraging people who presented their work at the PGR conference to submit their work to eBU. We have received a good number of abstracts and posters already, and eBU will be a great platform to showcase this work BU wide. Outputs associated with the PGR conference to have deadlines, and these are:
- Please submit posters before Friday 14th March.
- Please submit abstracts before Friday 14th March.
- Please submit conference papers before 12th April
I would encourage those who made an oral presentations to write it up as a conference paper. There is guidance for PGRs on myBU and on the Graduate School website, but do feel free to get in touch with any questions. We don’t generally set deadlines, so please remember that you can submit any other papers you might have in the pipeline (e.g. review papers) at any time, and we will guarantee a quick internal and open peer review.
Future scope
Congratulations to Luciana Esteves from ApSci, who has been successful in winning some Fusion funding to kick-start an annual undergraduate research conference at BU – SURE@BU. This is something to look out for in the future, but it is worth stating now that eBU will play a key role in the publication of conference abstracts, posters, conference papers etc.
I’m glad to report that one of the submissions to eBU has been published by an external journal, and I believe others will shortly follow suit. The successful paper in question is a paper that I wrote with colleagues. However, it is a useful little case study to illustrate how and why eBU works.
Myself and colleagues in HSC and outside (University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and Westbourne Medical Centre) submitted a grant application in the second half of last year. In most grant applications you have opportunity to summarise the key literature, and this one was no different. Unfortunately whilst the grant application was unsuccessful, I took a senior colleagues advice and spent a little bit of time turning the application into a paper. After a few weeks I submitted it to eBU (the phrase ‘put your money where your mouth is’ comes to mind!). As I had a bit of a vested interest it was processed by editorial colleagues and reviews were uploaded after a few weeks. It really helped having two sets of informed but fresh eyes scrutinise the paper, and changes were made on the basis of these reviews. The paper was submitted to a journal and accepted with suggestions for minor changes.
When I wrote this article I was a Research Assistant here and, like many early career researchers, I had aspirations of becoming published in peer reviewed journals. One of my trepidations was getting that first publication. I’m now a PhD student here, and I’m sure the floodgates will open (along with another colleague have since have had another accepted!) as I now have many ideas for potential papers and now – thanks to eBU – I have no fear of the unknown!
Andy Harding
Doctoral Researcher and eBU co-editor
Networking opportunity with expert in Behaviour Change
To remind, we have Dr Falko Sniehotta from Newcastle University visiting on Tuesday 4th March (http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/?s=falko).
There are spaces left on the workshop for those that would like to sign up for this free workshop (plus free lunch).
For those that cannot attend the workshop (10am – 12pm), but would like to informally talk with Falko during our networking lunch (12pm – 1pm), then you are most welcome to join us in PG146, Talbot campus (though lunch will only be provided for those on the workshop).
Falko is keen to discuss potential research collaborations with BU staff and so would welcome the opportunity to meet with colleagues.
Screenings of RUFUS STONE continue to grow
The research-based short film, RUFUS STONE, continues to gain traction and make an impact. RUFUS STONE was the key output of a three-year Research Councils UK funded New Dynamics of Ageing Project at Bournemouth University. Since it’s gala premier in 2012, the film has been screened widely for academics, NGO workers, healthcare providers and community audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
RUFUS STONE is a film about love, sexual awakening and treachery, set in the bucolic countryside of south west England, and viewed through the lens of growing older. It is based on knowledge gathered as part of the research project “Gay and Pleasant Land? – a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales.”
More information about the research project and the film
Watch the Trailer for the film
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
13 March: University of Alberta the Arts-based Research Studio and Joe Norris present a screening of RUFUS STONE followed by a Q & A with Project lead, Author and Executive Producer, Kip Jones via Skype. 12 noon to 2 p.m. Canadian time.
22 March: Keele University’s “Dynamic Qualitative Research” two-day conference will show the film. Mid-day. Kip will be present to take questions and comments.
24 April: RUFUS STONE will be featured as a Special Event in the Frontiers Stream at the British Sociological Association’s Annual Conference at Leeds University. A lunchtime screening, Kip will take questions following the screening. 12:30-13:30
Roger Stevens Lecture Theatre 20.
ALSO: Working out details to screen RUFUS STONE at University of Melbourne’s “Artistry, performance and scholarly inquiry” Conference in July. Stay tuned!
Website training sessions

I just wanted to remind colleagues that we are hosting training sessions for the new research webpages on Friday 7 February and Friday 14 February.
These 90 minute sessions are open to all BU academic staff, post graduate research students and those supporting researchers in their communications activity.
During the session you will learn the following:
- Why BU has new research webpages
- How you can upload content to the website
- How the site can be used most effectively to maximise exposure of BU research.
Sessions are informal and if they fall over lunchtime, do feel free to bring a sandwich!
To book on one of the following sessions please use the links below…
Friday 7 February 2014 12:00-13:30 – S103 Studland House, Lansdowne Campus
Friday 14 February 2014 10:00-11:30 – P131 Poole House, Talbot Campus
Friday 14 February 2014 14:30-16:00 – P131 Poole House, Talbot Campus
If you have any questions about the website or training sessions, please email the research website team.
Scanning Brains, Bones, and Artefacts: Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Poole Hospital
For the past two years I have made very slow progress in attempting to convince Poole Hospital to open access to their MRI scanners for research purposes. Whilst I had originally responded to an email from them it seems there were not at all ready to deal with my requests. More recently there has been some positive movement on the issue. I am hoping that this technology might interest you. Poole Hospital has three scanners of two field strengths: two at 1.5T and one at 3T, the latter being the standard for neuroimaging, but the former being of use for high-resolution structural scans of people and objects. The applications for this type of technology are many; in psychological research it is used most commonly to get brain scans of patients or to measure brain activity as people perform tasks, but has been used effectively as an analytical tool in Archeology and Sports Science; you will know better than I how this technology has been used in your fields. I am trying to gauge the level of interest in this technology at BU so as to make a better case to BU and to the hospital. Please contact me on bparris@bournemouth.ac.uk if there is utility in the use of this technology in your research or teaching or if there could be in the future.
New research web pages and removal of old pages
On Monday 27 January the Digital Communications Team will integrate the new research web pages into the main BU site.
This will include a link from the homepage and from the School pages. (School copy has been developed with the Deans and DDRs to introduce the new site, provide an overview of the School’s research and outline the research themes the School is involved in).
The Digital Communications Team will also start removing the old research pages on Monday. This will include removing the research centre pages, which have either been moved to the new site, elsewhere, or identified as no longer required.
In addition to notification from Professor Matthew Bennett and the Schools, the research website team have tried to speak to all staff in person to ensure required content is moved across and outdated content is removed. This has been a massive exercise and apologies if we have missed anyone. If you do have any concerns regarding your pages, please email the website team as soon as possible. All old content will be moved onto an internal BU server, where it will be kept for a period of six months before being finally deleted.

Feedback from researchers already using the new site is that it is very flexible, quick and easy to use and allows easy integration of a variety of different media content types.
If you would like to find out more about using the new site or joining us for a training session, please read my blog post from earlier in the week.
Good start of the year: Early crop of 2014 publications

HSC staff saw the fruit of their hard work in 2013 as a great number of papers have been accepted for publication or actually appeared in print in the first three weeks of January.

There are a number of 2014 papers in health care journals, including papers in Nurse Education in Practice, The Practising Midwife, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Birth, ISRN Family Medicine, Perspective in Public Health, an editorial in Midwifery and two in the same issue of Health Science Journal. There was also an early contribution from our social science colleagues in The Journal of Adult Protection and, last but not least a book chapter in Case Studies in e-Learning Research.
- Morley, D., 2014. Supporting student nurses in practice with online communication tools. Nurse Education in Practice, 14, 69-75.
- Bennett, S and Scammell, J (2014) Midwives caring for asylum-seeking women: research findings. The Practising Midwife. 17 (1) p9-12
- Whitford, H., Aitchison, P., Entwistle V.A., van Teijlingen, E., Davidson, T., Humphrey, T., Tucker, J. Use of a birth plan within woman-held maternity records: a qualitative study with women and staff in northeast Scotland, Birth (accepted).
- Norton, E. 2014 The application of humanization theory to health-promoting practice. Perspectives in Public Health, (online first 2013)
- Sapkota, T., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2014) Nepalese health workers’ migration to the United Kingdom: A qualitative study. Health Science Journal 8(1): 57-74.
- Hunt, J.A., Hutchings, M. (2014) Innovative group-facilitated peer and educator assessment of nursing students’ group presentations, Health Science Journal 8(1): 22-31.
- Harding, A., Sanders, F., Medina Lara, A., van Teijlingen, E., Wood, C., Galpin, D. Baron, S., Crowe, S., Sharma, S. Patient choice for older people in English NHS primary care: theory & practice, ISRN Family Medicine (accepted).
- Norton, E., Holloway, I., Galvin K. 2014. Comfort vs risk: a grounded theory about female adolescent behaviour in the sun. Journal of Clinical Nursing. (online first 2013)
- van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Matthews, Z., Lewis, G., Graham, W.J., Campbell, J., ten Hoope-Bender, P., Sheppard, Z.A., Hulton, L. (2014) Millennium Development Goals: All good things must come to an end, so what next? Midwifery 30: 1-2.
- Parker, J., Ashencaen Crabtree, S. (2014) Covert research and adult protection and safeguarding: an ethical dilemma? The Journal of Adult Protection (accepted).
- Hutchings, M, Quinney, A., Galvin, K. Clark, V. book chapter IN: ‘The Yin/Yang of Innovative Technology Enhanced Assessment for Promoting Student Learning’ Case Studies in e-Learning Research. Book is now available at: http://www.academic-bookshop.com/ourshop/prod_2915879-Case-Studies-in-eLearning-Research-for-Researchers-teachers-and-Students.html
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Toward a better science of promoting walking: A cross-school Fusion project
Samuel Nyman (Psychology, DEC), Andrew Callaway (ST), and Kelly Goodwin (ST) were awarded Research Development Fund – Small Grant funding for 2013 to conduct a study to promote walking among older people. Over the summer they identified a further fusion opportunity so that students from both schools could be involved. They report their experience here:
Co-creation in the School of Tourism
Our study began with the purchase of pedometers (small device to count walking steps) and actigraphs (small device to count walking steps but can also measure intensity, i.e. if walking or running). These were then used by students in the School of Tourism in a group project. Their task was to recruit 10 older people from the local community to take part in a study whereby they wore the devices every day for 60 days to measure how much walking they did. But this was not just a sports science project to look at whether pedometers or actigraphs reported the same results. It was multidisciplinary in that participants were enrolled into an N-of-1 randomised controlled trial (RCT), whereby each day they took part in a different psychological condition. Each morning participants had to set a goal for the day that was either to increase their walking steps or eat more fruit and vegetables (active control condition). They also had to either wear a pedometer that showed them how many steps they had walked so far that day, or a pedometer that was sealed (and so they would not know how many steps they had walked; another active control condition). These different conditions were based on control theory, that suggests that if people set themselves a goal to walk more, and can keep check on how much they have done, then they will be likely to walk more steps on those days than on the other days (when they had to state a goal for fruit and vegetable intake and could not see how many steps they have done). N-of-1 trial designs are recommended by the MRC framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions and help ascertain whether theories work at the individual level.
This part of the project was completed before the summer of 2013, and provided students in the School of Tourism a group project and a very useful learning experience. Students were posed with a more challenging and rewarding project of engaging with older people with the local community. They also had to contend with the challenges of group work, project management, learning and teaching others to use the objective physical activity monitors, and dealing with the challenges of conducting short-longitudinal data collection in the field. The students helped in the co-creation of new knowledge to test if pedometers or actigraphs were better at measuring walking activity, and in testing whether control theory shows promise as a means of behaviour change at the individual level measured by walking activity.
Co-creation in the School of Design, Engineering and Computing
Before launching into the analysis over the summer, the project team (Nyman, Callaway, and Goodwin) identified a further opportunity to enhance the data collected by the above student group project and provide a further opportunity for fusion.
Andrew Callaway identified that published studies in this area simply compare one measure of physical activity with another, as we had done, with no evidence as to which is the closest to a ‘true’ measure of what really happened (both devices will not be completely accurate). He proposed a further study that compares the two measures of pedometers and actigraphs against a criterion measure – a measure that was known to be truly accurate. This entailed the design and implementation of a laboratory-based study whereby students would walk on a treadmill and have their physical activity monitored by several devices simultaneously, including manual and video-recording of steps walked.
The set up entailed volunteers to walk on a treadmill at different speeds (all comfortable walking paces) with pedometers, actigraphs, and a sensewear armband strapped on them, and a video camera recording their walking plus other volunteers manually counting the number of walking steps performed. You will be surprised how difficult it can be to correctly count the number of steps walked in a two minute period! With the combination of all these measures we should arrive at a close to ‘criterion’ measure to compare the devices with.
Third year students from the BSc Psychology framework who had elected to study the Health Psychology unit volunteered to help with this experiment in the Sports Lab. This was a great learning opportunity for the psychology students as none of them had seen the sports lab before or the equipment used for physical activity monitoring. In the session the students also had the opportunity to engage with two members of staff and five third year student volunteers from the School of Tourism to access their expertise in sports science and performance analysis. Dr Nyman also used the sessions as an opportunity to relate the material from the lecture the day before to the seminar sessions, and to demonstrate to students the output that can be obtained from actigraphs (using TV screens) and what this affords in terms of more nuanced health psychology research questions that can be answered. The students had the opportunity to be involved in the co-creation of new knowledge that will challenge the perceived wisdom of the reliability of objective physical activity monitoring.
Conclusion
After recently completing the laboratory experiment, we now have all the data to begin analysis and writing up. We are pleased with the outcome of the two studies above and feel they are a great example of fusion in terms of cross-school collaboration and co-creation of new knowledge, embedded within existing teaching programmes. Conducting the two studies has also provided us as researchers with new data that will lead to peer-reviewed publications.
We would like to thank the older people and health psychology students that volunteered to help with the studies, and the School of Tourism students that volunteered to help us with the recent laboratory experiment.

- Students who helped with the project: Front Row (L to R): Sam Sayer, Emma Rylands, Joe Hill. Second row (L to R): Calum Sharpin, James Baum.
Dr Samuel Nyman, BUDI and Psychology Research Centre
Andrew Callaway and Kelly Goodwin, Centre for Events and Sport Research