Category / Health, Wellbeing & Society

Congratulations to PhD student Rachel Arnold

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

Dorset Legacy Fund – addressing health inequalities in the region

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.

 

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

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,

Congratulations to Dr Sarah Hean & colleagues!

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

NHS England – SBRI Healthcare Innovation Expo

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

 

Paper added to CEL collection

 

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:

  1. 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
  2. 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

Simple Guide to The Research Process in Healthcare

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.

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

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!

 

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

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

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

 

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

Interested in Digital Health research?

We will be holding a CHIRP meeting on Thursday 30th October at 1pm in P403 for anyone who may be currently conducting (or interested in conducting) research studies related to digital health.

The aims of these CHIRP meetings are to meet regularly as a group with common interests so that we can stay updated about current research/current technologies etc., potentially find areas of common interest for collaboration and generally bounce ideas around one another.

Meetings are open to anyone interested in digital technologies and health whether this focuses on digital health interventions, issues around the impact of digital technologies on health and wellbeing, how digital technologies can aid clinical training or something similar. We are particularly interested in creating a multi-disciplinary group of researchers so welcome any colleagues from Health and Social Care, Computing, Psychology, the Media School etc. etc.

We are currently working on pulling together a BU CHIRP/Digital Health research webpage and aim to share our first version with colleagues at the meeting as well as update current/planned projects and past/upcoming events of interest.

Please contact Sarah on swilliams@bournemouth.ac.uk if you would like to join our CHIRP group or would like to come along and find out more at our meeting on the 30th.