BU Research Blog

17 November 2014

Examination of the Newborn (EXON) Pilot Project for under-graduate student midwives: an update.

Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, student research, Training Luisa Cescutti-Butler

In November last year I published a blog on the first pilot project I undertook with five under-graduate pre-registration midwifery students which was designed to enable them to qualify with the skills and competencies around examination of the newborn (EXON). The students were required to access and study the module with post-graduate midwives. Four of the students successfully completed the course in September 2014 with one student leaving early on in the project due to unforeseen family circumstances. The journey to completion was not smooth. The first hurdle was a clash of assessments. The EXON assessment (a presentation) fell in the same week as Complex Care (CC), a third year unit assessment where students are required to undergo a VIVA and manage two obstetric emergencies. It is a stressful experience and therefore three of the students requested an extension to their EXON presentation with only one choosing to present with her post-registration colleagues. As the EXON assessment took place on the Monday of that particular week and Complex Care assessments were running over three days, the student managed to negotiate to undertake her CC assessment on the Friday. The three students were re-scheduled to present later in the year with a number of other midwives who were on extensions or resits. One of the advantages of choosing to present in January 2014 was that the student was able to choose a topic that she could use both for her learning around EXON and for her extended essay which was due to be completed somewhat later in the academic year. The student was successful in both endeavours as were all the others but at a later date.

Another hurdle students found themselves confronted with, was a lack of opportunity to undertake newborn examinations including a shortage of midwifery mentors who could support the training requirements of the project. Two of the students could not get any of the examinations done in their own trusts. Fortunately for them, the maternity unit and midwifery staff at Poole NHS Trust Hospital were extremely obliging and supported the students to work there which enabled them to complete the practical newborn checks. All four of the students have successfully qualified as midwives and have obtained midwifery posts in the local area. They remain committed EXON and have volunteered to be EXON ‘champions’ within their respective trusts. I am grateful to Jeanette Elliot, Luzie Schroter, Jenna Penhale and Bex Coleman-Moss for their hard work and dedication during the pilot and for their feedback and advice for the next intake.

Demand for places for the second pilot project remained high when the call was put out a short while ago. Unfortunately due to some of the barriers described above it was only feasible to recruit five students again and all of them based in the west. The students have commenced their studies and are enjoying the learning so far. The pilot projects are helping to inform what impact these barriers will have on the training needs for midwifery students within our local maternity units as this year we are introducing EXON theory to all midwifery students on our newly validated curriculum with the caveat that students will obtain the necessary theoretical knowledge but not all with qualify with the required skills. However by ‘fast-tracking’ students onto one of our twice yearly CPD EXON modules which has around 20+ midwives enrolled, by the time the students reach their third year there should be many more midwives qualified in EXON and in place to support our under-graduate students to gain the competencies around newborn examination. If you require any further information please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler on lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk

15 November 2014

Congratulations to PhD student Rachel Arnold

PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

HSC postgraduate student Rachel Arnold just had the first paper from her research in Afghanistan accepted by the scientific journal BJOG. Her paper analyses the culture of a Kabul maternity hospital to understand its impact on the care of perinatal women and their babies. A heavy workload, too many complicated cases and poor staff organisation lead to a low quality of maternity care. Cultural values, social and family pressures influenced the motivation and priorities of healthcare providers.

The centrality of the family and family obligations in Afghan society has emerged as a major theme. Another theme is the struggle for survival – as health care providers work to support their families, to maintain the power that they have, and to survive within a hospital system where fear rather than compassion appears to drive and motivate. Rachel presented some of the key issues at the 2013 GLOW conference in Birmingham. Rachel is supervised by Professors Immy Holloway, Kath Ryan (LaTrobe University, Australia) and Edwin van Teijlingen.

Rachel’s paper Understanding ‘Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital’ can be found here. The paper is Gold Open Access.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

14 November 2014

Dorset Legacy Fund – addressing health inequalities in the region

Funding opportunities jcodling

The Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Local Authorities, supported by the Public Health team, are very keen to build on the success of the 2012 Olympics in Dorset and have developed a legacy fund to provide a significant resource for investment in innovative and evidence based local projects in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole. The aim of the legacy fund is to create a legacy and inspire communities by investing in projects that focus on the particularly vulnerable, marginalised and deprived communities in order to address health inequalities which exist in Dorset.

Project criteria:

Target vulnerable people or marginalised communities
Tackle identified health inequalities
Inspire people towards a healthier lifestyle
Have a lasting legacy

The second round of funding is due to open on 1 December with £200,000 funding available.

Congratulations to BUDI who were successful in the first round of funding.

For more information including the application process click here.

13 November 2014

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Research from staff in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) was well represented at this week’s Royal College of Midwives Conference (RCM). The RCM Conference 2014 held in the International Centre Telford explore the theme Better Births: United in Excellence. At this midwifery conference HSC Dr. Sue Way chaired a session on ‘Perineal Care and the Management of the Second Stage’

Dana Colbourne, Postgradute student at Bournemouth University and midwife at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust presented a poster with the title ‘PhD student Leading the way – A case study of a student midwife led postnatal clinic’.

Dr Stella Rawson, senior lecturer in midwifery presented her poster ‘Listening to Women: Exploring women’s experiences of being part of a student midwife’s caseload’.

Jan Stoziek, senior lecturer in midwifery and also Prof Doc student at the University of Portsmouth presented her poster ‘Mother’s Experience of Breastfeeding after Breast Cancer’.

Lesley Milne also presented a poster on the work around ‘Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study’ with Prof. Padam Simkhada, HSC Visiting Faculty Ms. Jillian Ireland, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen,

13 November 2014

Reducing Avoidable Term Admissions’ eLearning project

Fusion, Public engagement, Training Luisa Cescutti-Butler

In the region covered by Health Education Wessex, over half of all admissions to neonatal units are babies who are considered term gestation. An audit of neonatal unit admissions undertaken by University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust uncovered three main reasons for term admissions:

(Mal) adaptation to neonatal life (27%)
Respiratory Distress Syndrome (18%)
Sepsis (13%)

The findings suggest that with better care in the immediate and subsequent postnatal period some of these admissions may have been avoided. It appears to be a national problem with NHS England recognizing an increase in term admissions as a key concern. Separating the woman from her baby can be emotionally upsetting and may impact on a woman’s ability to successfully breastfeed her baby. Babies when admitted onto neonatal units are subject to many interventions and may suffer short term morbidities. In addition to the impact on the woman and her baby there are implications for resources, it costs £500 a day to care for a baby receiving specialist neonatal care. Units who have reduced their term admission rates cite midwifery involvement as vital. Midwives work within multidisciplinary teams; therefore involvement of all healthcare professionals is crucial if term admissions are to be reduced. Standardization of protocols and guidelines appear difficult to achieve based on the various ways services are configured, therefore education on the basic principles of prevention is required.

Following an initial meeting with Kate Graham-Williams (Locum Consultant Neonatologist), Kim Edwards (Network Educator) and Teresa Griffin (Deputy Manager/Lead Nurse) to explore ideas of developing a learning package, a further meeting took place with Luisa Cescutti-Butler, Debbee Houghton and Carol Wilkins (Senior Midwifery Lecturers) to discuss educational outcomes.The meeting concluded with all parties agreeing to work collaboratively on an e-learning package and to explore possible sources of funding. Health Education Wessex has a responsibility to ensure that NHS employees are equipped with the right skills and knowledge to deliver excellent health and patient care, therefore they were approached and agreed to provide funding. Alison Potter (E-Learning Project Manager) joined the project and is managing all stages of the project. The project which involves Health Education Wessex, Thames Valley and Wessex Neonatal Network, Bournemouth University and selected supplier (LEO) have agreed to develop, implement and evaluate a multi-disciplinary eLearning module with an aim in reducing avoidable term admissions to neonatal units.

Luisa, Debbee and Carol are working with Kate on developing content (case scenarios) of the e-learning package and a workshop with all parties including supplier LEO will be taking place in December at Bournemouth University. A number of key professionals from the Wessex region have agreed to be reviewers including a set of parents who would have experienced their baby being admitted to a neonatal unit for medical input. The project aims to be ‘live’ in March 2015.

If you require any further information please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler, Debbee Houghton or Carol Wilkins on the following email addresses: lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk, dhoughton@bournemouth.ac.uk , cwilkins@bournemouth.ac.uk

13 November 2014

Helping men to lose weight

Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Research assessment Edwin van Teijlingen

High quality research from a collaboration of three UK universities has been turned into practical advice. The ROMEO project (Review Of Men and Obesity) by the University of Aberdeen, the University of Stirling and Bournemouth University found that men are more likely than women to benefit if physical activity is part of a weight-loss programme. Also although fewer men joined weight-loss programmes, once recruited they were less likely to drop out than women. The perception of having a health problem, the impact of weight loss on health problems, and the desire to improve personal appearance without looking too thin were motivators for weight loss amongst men. However, the type of reducing diet did not appear to affect long-term weight loss.

The charity Men’s Health Forum linked up with Public Health England and published a ‘How to’ guide based on the evidence of our ROMEO study. This ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide offers advice for local authorities, commissioners and weight management providers, who are trying to attract men to weight-loss programmes. The guide highlights, for example that:

Programmes that include exercise and behaviour change components as well as dieting are more successful in helping men to lose weight.
Men respond well to programmes that have a higher degree of personalisation, such as setting individual goals, as it increases their sense of control.
Weight-loss programmes based in the workplace or associated with professional sports clubs have been particularly successful.
Using humour and encouraging camaraderie makes programmes more attractive to men as does knowing that there will be other men there.

Furthermore, this ‘How to’ guide includes, amongst other advice, a list of Ten Top Tips.

This is an excellent example how research conducted between three different universities has been turned into easy to understand advice for man who are overweight. The past decade or so has seen an increasing interest in making academic research ‘useful’ to society. Creating and measuring the impact of research conducted at universities has been introduced as key element on the REF, the Research Excellence Framework. The REF assesses the quality of research in, and affects the amount of government money each university in the UK receives.

For a traditional academic publishing the HTA report would be a success in itself. Which, of course, it is to culmination of a large-scale and extensive review, well conducted, published through Open Access, which also attracted considerable media attention from across the globe when it came out. However, ROMEO did not stop there. Due to the involvement of the Men’s Health Fora right from the start of ROMEO, the Men’s Health Forum in England linked up with Public Health England to create and publish ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide is published today.

The ROMEO project, led by Prof. Alison Avenell (University of Aberdeen), examined the evidence for managing obesity in men and investigated how to engage men with obesity services. The evidence came from trials, interviews with men, reports of studies from the UK, and economic studies. ROMEO was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Programme (NIHR HTA Project 09/127/01). Our full report is Open Access and can be freely downloaded here.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

School of Health & Social Care

Bournemouth University

12 November 2014

Congratulations to Dr Sarah Hean & colleagues!

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Hean in the School of Health & Social Care and her colleagues Staddon, Clapper, Fenge, Heaslip and Jack on the acceptance of their article: ‘Improving Collaborative Practice to Address Offender Mental Health: Criminal Justice and Mental Health Service Professionals’ Attitudes Towards Interagency Training, Current Training Needs and Constraints’ by the Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education.

The paper is Open Access funded by BU! A copy is available in BU’s repository BURO: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21462/

Well done

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

11 November 2014

NHS England – SBRI Healthcare Innovation Expo

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer jcodling

SPARK 2014 is a brand new opportunity to see the latest innovations developed to meet NHS needs alongside a national conference that brings together the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), industry partners and NHS leaders and clinicians.

The conference will be of interest to the following audience who are keen to know what the next innovations in healthcare are:

Clinicians
NHS Procurement and Research & Development Teams
NHS Senior Management Teams
Non NHS Providers of Health & Social Care
Local Enterprise Partnerships
Industry or companies who have a interest in the programme
Business Leaders
Academic Health Science Networks
Investors

The SBRI Healthcare programme is an NHS England funded scheme to accelerate the development of new technologies for known health needs. With over 100 companies in the SBRI Healthcare fold some of the key areas in which innovations are being developed are:

Cancer : COPD : CVD : Diabetes : Dementia : End of Life : Hand hygiene : Meds Adherence / Meds Optimisation : Mental Health : Long Term Conditions : Patient Safety : Patient Empowerment : Renal : Research Tools : Telehealth / Telecare for People with Learning Disabilities.

Conference details: 10 December, QE II Conference Centre, London

Booking information including discounted rates for universities: click here

Proposed agenda: click here

5 November 2014

What costs £15 and smells of spent fireworks?

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Public engagement, R & KE Operations afeigenbaum

Tear gas is used around the world nearly everyday, yet major international organisations, including the World Medical Association and NATO, state that not enough is understood about the real-life impact and health effects of these technologies. Responding to this lack of accessible information, in 2013 Dr. Anna Feigenbaum won a Fusion Fund grant to form the Tear Gas Research Connection — a group of researchers, NGOs, investigative journalists and tactical technicians keen to get to the ‘truth behind the tears’.

Over the past year, Dr. Feigenbaum and John Horne have been collating data from humanitarian reports, medical journals, corporate correspondences, shipping documents, media reports and Freedom of Information requests in efforts to contribute to public debate and policymaking on this issue. With a year of research and networking behind us, this Tuesday we held our first stakeholder meeting at Birmingham City University. With support from BU Fusion and the Wellcome Trust, fifteen of our partners and advisors came together to strengthen the connections between our work and plan future projects.

As tear gas use has tripled since 2011, there is a pressing need to find new ways to understand and communicate information on its physical and mental health effects. However, data on sensitive topics like tear gas is often kept hidden, deemed too confidential to be made open. This makes it difficult to gather health and human rights information, particularly on vulnerable populations (prisoners, detainees, those living in conflict zones). Likewise, detailed health and medical information, beyond basic safety instructions, is not often available in accessible formats. This leaves many people who suffer tear gas exposure unable to get the treatment they need.

In response to these difficulties in data collection, two initiatives emerged at the Tear Gas Research Connection meeting. Plans are now underway to establish a medical team as part of the connection, bringing together toxicologists, GPs, Emergency responders, military medics and others with the newly formed tear gas task force of the European Respiratory Society. Coming together, this group will work to evaluate and re-issue an up-to-date field guide for dealing with the medical effects of tear gas. There were also discussions of how data mining and new archival methods might be used to help aggregate dispersed information, bringing global information together in one searchable place.

In addition to the significant gap in the communication of scientific knowledg, populations facing tear gas are often marginalised communities that have limited means of expressing their experiences in legitimated forums. To share these stories and raise awareness on tear gas deaths and injuries, our stakeholder group sketched out ideas for documentary projects, including an online memorial that told ‘3 layer stories’ providing the data, humanising those hurt or killed, and detailing the perpetrator that caused the harm. The aim of this project would be to create ‘grieve-able spaces’ and transnational connections around this under-documented and under-reported, global issue. To this effect, our team is currently putting together an AHRC Digital Transformations bid on ‘telling data stories.’

Any truly multidisciplinary issue like tear gas, demands a collaborative, multidisciplinary response. We saw this disciplinary diversity emerge across the other projects that came from our interactive workshop ‘idea stations’. Some of these fascinating proposals included:

Charting the advertising and PR history of tear gas sales
An A to Z critical guide to tear gas
Engaging citizen science and wearable technologies
Using GIS software to map export data

Central to all of our project ideas is an attention to the relationship between data and design. In this information age, it is crucial that we consider not just what the data shows us, but how we communicate those findings and insights to a variety of audiences. That is why our group is committed to holding face-to-face meetings with policymakers and making appearances in international media outlets. To date, our research has featured in newspapers, websites, broadcast radio and television including The Financial Times, The Guardian, Vice.com, Australian Broadcast Company radio, RT, SES Turkey and BBC Mundo, to name just a few.

Over the year we will be building up a number of these projects and we’re always on the look out for new collaborators. From advertising to animation to atmospheric chemistry — if you are interested in this research area and have skills or knowledge to share, please be in touch: afeigenbaum@bournemouth.ac.uk

Meet Our Partners & Advisors

Dima Saber (Birmingham City University); Graeme Hayes (Aston University); Marijin Nieuwenhuis (University of Warwick); Ion Maleas (Goldsmiths); Tara O’Grady (Human Rights Defender); Damian McCormack (Medical Doctor Dublin); Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths); Noha Atef (Birmingham City University); Lucie Ryzova (University of Birmingham); Michael Crowley (Bradford)

2 November 2014

Surrogacy, legislation & exploitation

Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

A few months ago Jillian Ireland (BU Visiting Faculty) and I wrote a short Bournemouth University Research Blog on the case widely reported in the media about the Thai baby abandoned by the Australian parents who had ‘placed the order’ for the surrogate child. Following this Blog, Dr. Vijay Sharma, Consultant Physician in Chelmsford, sent me a very interesting paper that appeared in last week’s BMJ.

The paper ‘Taming the international commercial surrogacy industry’ is written by health journalist Sally Howard. She highlights the different laws (or absence thereof) governing surrogacy. She cites an Australian lawyer as saying: “there are no international conventions and agreements …. Legal issues relating to parentage and immigration vary so widely that the process can result in dramatic outcomes, such as a child born via surrogacy who is both legally orphaned and stateless.”

Howard makes a very good point that legislation in low-income countries such as Thailand, India or Nepal is important to help protect surrogate mothers and their off-spring, but equally important is the role of high-income countries to legalise the commercial surrogacy market within their own borders. High-income countries such as the UK, Australia, the USA and the Netherlands have a moral duty to legislate for (restrict) our citizens to help protect poor and vulnerable people in low-income countries from engaging in unethical and/or exploitative commercial surrogacy transactions.

Visit vizecounselor.com if you’re looking for a Thai lawyer for class action lawsuit.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University.

31 October 2014

Paper added to CEL collection

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

The latest paper of BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The lead author Padam Simkhada (BU Visiting Faculty) together with BU’s Edwin van Teijlingen and three academic colleagues in Nepal published their paper: ‘Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal’ [1].

This latest paper reports on the knowledge of and practice in accessing electronic research-based evidence among university teachers in the health and medical field in Nepal. This paper originates from a recently finished DelPHE (Round 4), British Council: award. The study called Partnership on Improving Access to Research Literature for HE Institutions in Nepal (PARI Initiative) was a collaboration between Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, the University of Sheffield and BU’s School of Health & Social Care. This is the second paper to appear from the PARI study, the first paper reported on research methods teaching [2].

The paper argues that accessing electronic research literature provides an opportunity to gathering up-to-date research-based information that should be core to all health curricula in Nepal. The authors call upon curriculum developers and university authorities in Nepal to revise health curricula and help build electronic searching skills among staff and students.

The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is a full Open Access journal which means anybody across the globe can access it for free.

References:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S., Sathian, B. (2014) Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(4): 405-14. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/11375
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Pokharel, T., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S. (2013) Research Methods Coverage in Medical & Health Science Curricula in Nepal, Nepal Journal Epidemiology 3(3): 253-258. www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/9185

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Bournemouth University

31 October 2014

Congratulations to Wendy Marsh

Awarded & submitted bids Edwin van Teijlingen

BU lecturer-practitioner Wendy Marsh based in Portsmouth has just been awarded The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Luke Zander Research Support Bursary. The prize of £500 and a year’s membership to the RSM was established to honour Dr. Luke Zander a founding member of the Forum and an innovator in maternity care.

Wendy Marsh will receive the prize on 25 November at a meeting entitled ‘Looking back to the future: Challenges and opportunities in maternity care’, which will mark the 30^th anniversary of the Maternity & the Newborn Forum.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

29 October 2014

Participation in regional and national conferences provides challenging learning opportunities for BU social work students

Public engagement, student research Jonathan Parker

In October, Michelle Lillywhite and Karen Sampson, final year students on the BA Social Work programme at Bournemouth University attended two conferences, one organised by a local charity working with adult survivors of childhood abuse Dorset Action on Abuse (DAA) and the second organised by British Association of Social Workers (BASW) in conjunction with the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.

DAA, who offer support groups and one to one counselling for adult survivors, held their annual conference in Boscombe, Dorset. The theme of the conference was supporting people who have been sexually abused though the criminal justice system and how this can effect the working relationship between practitioners and survivors, alongside the personal impact of this work on practitioners. Speaking on the day were representatives from both the local Dorset police’s Child Protection Unit Senior Investigating Officer, John Merrick and Julia Woodward, Senior Crown Chief Prosecutor, from the Crown Prosecution Service Wessex.

The questions from the floor about when the police ‘believe’ a victim were answered with a refreshingly honest account of a police investigator who explained their role isn’t to believe but to build a case with evidence that has a ‘high chance of conviction’. We felt, however, that it is the role for the social worker/counsellor to offer this trust, belief and acceptance of the victim and that the police had a very different, more process-led role within the journey of criminal proceedings. This provided us with significant insights into the differences between professions engaged in the same kind of work with people.

The support that DAA offer people within the local community through these difficult and challenging processes was a continual theme in the personal account shared offered of a survivor’s journey through the criminal justice system which for them resulted in a conviction and ‘validation’ that the horrific abuse they endured was wrong.

It showed us though that while the triumph of a conviction is a positive thing the essence of the entrenched abuse and the victims’ mind-set resulting from their experiences is not so easily eradicated. An important lesson for us as trainee practitioners was that even though we see that justice has been done it does not mean that ‘closure’ can ever really be attained; something we will remember.

The national BASW conference, held in Leeds, was entitled ‘Unsticking the stuck’ and based on a live supervision session with a willing volunteer. The facilitator demonstrated to us how we, as practitioners, can get ‘stuck’ within a case by not concentrating on the most important aspect: understanding and working towards the needs of the client.

In this scenario, the delegates comprised a good mix of students, like us, and more experienced and qualified practitioners who dealt with complex cases – something we aspire to do once qualified!

The initial expectation of the day was that we would come away with some therapeutic interventions to add to our ‘toolkit’ before undertaking our practice placement. However, this was not the case, rather the day prompted an exploration into the meaning and importance of supervision for us as practitioners. I think as well being able to understand and get to grips with a real case and not just a case study the conference gave our discussions on the day more credence and depth as this was a real situation, laced with complexity. It introduced us to something, unfortunately, ever prevalent within our society.

Attending external conferences gives us, as trainee practitioners, the ability to step outside of our comfort zone – the classroom – and explore our knowledge, experiences and natural instincts of working with an increased understanding of complexity. Crucially, this gives us the opportunity to gain insight into the remit and responsibilities of other practitioners which can only strengthen our awareness of the importance of today’s multi-agency working. It creates an understanding of working strategies and thinking outside the box plus the opportunity to network, share ideas and in these cases add something to our ‘personal toolkit’ as future practitioners.

Michelle Lillywhite & Karen Sampson

Social work students

28 October 2014

Simple Guide to The Research Process in Healthcare

Guidance Lisa Andrews

The research process can be a tricky one, especially if you are navigating more than one organisation’s processes! Bournemouth University Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) with help from RKEO and Local NHS R&D departments, have created a simple flowchart that represents the research process in the NHS and BU, with the aim of helping healthcare researchers understand the process and what they need to do when!

You can download the guide here: BU&NHS Combined Research Process. The process is always evolving so please ensure you check here regularly for the most recent version.

28 October 2014

Impact, outcome and research methods – HSC PhD student on LSE Impact Blog

PG research, Research assessment aharding

With working at a university and the rise of the REF, you would have almost certainly come across the terms ‘impact’ and ‘outcomes’. Whilst there might be a great deal of similarity and overlap in the use of these terms, it is important to discuss the sometime subtle differences between ‘impact’ and ‘outcome’. What consequences might this have for the design of social research?

The health and social care literature uses these terms in a rather haphazard manner. The differences are rarely discussed and it can be suggested that many use the wrong terminology. In this blog post on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences Blog, relating to the field of information and advice on welfare issues, I briefly discuss and propose that there are fundamental differences between what an impact refers to and what an outcome refers to. Furthermore, I suggest that these differences are significant and profound enough to align each to opposing research methodologies.

These thoughts relate to the key areas of my PhD project with Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC) in London. EAC coordinates the FirstStop service which provides information and advice to older people (and other stakeholders) on housing and care issues. My research is focused on how older people use information and advice on housing and the wider impact that this has.

If anyone has an interest in this area, do get in touch!

27 October 2014

Lunchtime project invitation talk: Living Well Active – Improving the Lives of People with Cancer – 5th November & 12th November

gthomas

You are cordially invited to this lunchtime project invitation talk which is open to all staff.

Please feel free to bring your lunch.

“Dorset Living Well Active – Improving The Lives of People Living with Cancer”

Exploring Opportunities for Schools/Faculties, Staff and Students

Wednesday 5th November 2014 13.00 – 13.50pm P403, Poole House
Wednesday 12th November 2014 13.00 – 13.50pm B225, Bournemouth House

Dorset Living Well Active is a flagship project funded by Macmillan Cancer Support and Sport England with an ambition to enable 1000 people living with cancer in Dorset to improve their potential for health, fitness and wellbeing.

Living Well Active is building a ‘virtual health and fitness club’ bringing together healthcare professionals, physical activity providers, educators, support groups and organisations who are passionate about helping people with cancer live the best life they can. Examples of existing organisations we are currently working with are:

Bournemouth University, County Sports Partnerships, Local, regional and National Cancer Charities, GP Practices, Hospitals, Local Authorities
Health Commissioners, Behavioural Change Support Organisations (Chronic Health Conditions), Leisure Centres/ Fitness Clubs / Countryside and Parks , Walking for Health, British Cycling, England Athletics, NGB Sports, Dorset Race Equality Council, Help and Care, Boots.

On successful completion of this project it is planned to expand its geographical boundaries to surrounding counties.

Dorset Living Well Active offers Bournemouth University a wealth of opportunities for research, partnership, product and service development, student experience, volunteering and to be part of a nationally recognised project improving the lives of people living with cancer.

Areas include:

Website, Social media and Engagement Tools, Service User Experience, GP Practice Development, Social Return on Investment Studies
Behavioural Change and Positive Psychology, Physical Activity and Sport (Delivery and Training), Nutrition, Journalism, Graphic Design.

I really welcome the opportunity to explore your potential to benefit from the Living Well Active project and make a positive difference to people, communities and health services in the process.

Thank you

Layne Hamerston

Visiting Associate

Centre for Wellbeing and Quality of Life

Centre of Post Graduate Medical Research and Education

26 October 2014

CMMPH Baby Friendly

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to all in the midwifery team for achieving re-accreditation as Baby Friendly. The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative’s Designation Committee recently re-assessed Bournemouth University’s Midwifery programme. This committee reported earlier this week that “Bournemouth University (Midwifery) should be re-accredited as Baby Friendly.

The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative University Standards programme is an accreditation programme aimed at university departments responsible for midwifery and health visitor/public health nurse education. It was developed to ensure that newly qualified midwives and health visitors are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills they need to support breastfeeding effectively.

Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation is awarded to an individual course, not to the university itself. Universities are welcome to apply for accreditation for each of the courses they provide for the training of midwives or health visitors/public health nurses.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

25 October 2014

Congratulations to PhD student Carol Richardson on getting a paper in The Practising Midwife

PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH PhD student Carol Richardson just had a paper accepted by the editor of The Practising Midwife. Carol is a Bournemouth University clinical academic doctoral midwife based in Portsmouth. She is part of a scheme jointly funded by BU and Portsmouth Hospital NHS trust (PHT).

Carol is also a Supervisor of Midwives, and her first paper ‘Chasing time for reflection’ relates to midwifery supervision.

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Bournemouth University

Category / Health, Wellbeing & Society

Examination of the Newborn (EXON) Pilot Project for under-graduate student midwives: an update.

Dorset Legacy Fund – addressing health inequalities in the region

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

Reducing Avoidable Term Admissions’ eLearning project

NHS England – SBRI Healthcare Innovation Expo

What costs £15 and smells of spent fireworks?

Congratulations to Wendy Marsh

Simple Guide to The Research Process in Healthcare

Lunchtime project invitation talk: Living Well Active – Improving the Lives of People with Cancer – 5th November & 12th November

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Congratulations to PhD student Carol Richardson on getting a paper in The Practising Midwife

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