At the end of the month (Friday 30th September) Professor Jane Murphy and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are both speaking at the Advanced Dementia Research Conference (ADRC 2022). Their participation will be online thus helping to reduce BU’s carbon footprint. Prof. Murphy, Deputy Dean for Research in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) will be talking about ‘Nutritional interventions in ageing’, whilst Prof. van Teijlingen from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) will be discussing ‘Qualitative Research in Dementia’. The one-day conference has two more BU connections and two further speakers ‘Dr. Brijesh Sathian and Prof. Padam Simkhada are both FHSS Visiting Faculty. The former will be speaking on ‘Complex Innovative trial designs and analyses for Dementia Research’, whilst the latter will be presenting on ‘Mixed-methods research in Dementia’.
Category / Global engagement
IMSET publishes position paper on long-term sustainability
Fabio Silva of the Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, together with a group of co-authors from 32 other institutions, has led the publication of a landmark position paper in the journal Sustainability entitled Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée.
Stemming from a transdisciplinary workshop held online during 2020, the paper argues that current crises – in land use, biodiversity, novel pathogens, water management – can only be fully understood by doing research over timescales that greatly exceed the lifespan of any individual human. This so-called longue durée is the key to fully understanding the full extent of socio-environmental processes and their implications.
As well as identifying key processes and challenges, IMSET and colleagues set out how key issues may be addressed by fully integrating humans into environmental modelling and planning. By including ancient human activity and future outcomes in our mission statement, we aim to provide a manifesto for developing an integrated approach towards socio-ecological systems in the long term.
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Silva, Fabio, Fiona Coward, Kimberley Davies, Sarah Elliott, Emma Jenkins, Adrian C. Newton, Philip Riris, Marc Vander Linden, Jennifer Bates, Elena Cantarello, Daniel A. Contreras, Stefani A. Crabtree, Enrico R. Crema, Mary Edwards, Tatiana Filatova, Ben Fitzhugh, Hannah Fluck, Jacob Freeman, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Marta Krzyzanska, Daniel Lawrence, Helen Mackay, Marco Madella, Shira Yoshi Maezumi, Rob Marchant, Sophie Monsarrat, Kathleen D. Morrison, Ryan Rabett, Patrick Roberts, Mehdi Saqalli, Rick Stafford, Jens-Christian Svenning, Nicki J. Whithouse, and Alice Williams. 2022. “Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée“ Sustainability 14: 10234. DOI: 10.3390/su14161023
Interested in health research in Nepal?
In order to open the meeting to other researchers in the UK studying Nepal the meeting will be hybrid and also available via Teams.
Meeting ID: 399 955 418 574
Passcode: 6Uzh5k
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Dr. Pramod Regmi
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Bournemouth University Turing Scheme recipient in Kathmandu
Last month Ph.D. student Sulochana Dhakal-Rai in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) returned from her successful trip to Nepal. Sulochana was awarded funding for her traineeship ‘Induction and sensitisation to field research health in Nepal.’ She presented at sessions organised for M.Sc. Nursing students at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Science (MMIHS) in Kathmandu. The feedback she received helped her prepare for her fieldwork in Nepal, moreover it was especially helpful in focusing her qualitative analysis of the thesis data. Soluchana also met with various academics at MMIHS to exchange ideas and research plans. Sulochana also took the opportunity to visit staff in maternity hospitals which are taking part in the Ph.D. research study which focuses on ‘The Rising Rates of Caesarean Section in Urban Nepal’. Sulochana has three FHSS supervisors, Dr. Juliet Wood, Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen as well as Nepal-based supervisors Dr. Ganesh Dangel (FHSS Visiting Faculty) and Dr. Keshar Bahadur Dhakal.
Sulochana also contributed to a one-day workshop introducing systematic reviews as a methodology which ran on Sunday 29th May. This event was jointly organised between MMIHS and Bournemouth University as part Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen’s visit to Nepal.
Can you help, sir?
Working in South Asia over the past two decades I have learnt to expect emails asking for help. Often from people I have met perhaps just once or twice or who are my friends on Facebook or LinkedIn. I tried to help if I can, but often I can’t. My friends and colleagues in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India have a slightly different idea of how UK officialdom works. Perhaps they have a better and more realistic idea than I have, but that’s a different blog one day.
This week I wrote a reference for an employee of Green Tara Nepal, a charity we have been collaborating with for decades. This is someone I have had general dealing with, not someone who work on one of our projects. I have had interesting research discussions with her in Kathmandu, so I was happy to write her a reference. This morning I received a request via Facebook from someone from Nepal whom I have been advising on a number of job applications in Australia and the UK. On my advice, he had recently applied to a post at a university in London. Yesterday I asked me what to do as he had not heard from them. I advised him to email HR at that university and ask for an update. This morning his question was: “Can you ask them on my behalf, Sir”. I kindly replied: “Sorry, not my university”, not going into confidentiality issues, the data protection act, etc.
What I find fascinating as a sociologist is the ‘traditional society’ thinking behind these questions, which must be something along the lines of: “Edwin is in a senior position, he must be powerful, hence, he has influence in high places. I know him so he can help me achieve my goals.” The interesting other side of the coin is, of course, that if I do something, speak to someone on their behalf, write a reference or recommendation, etc. and the person is successful this success is (partly) attributed to me. And when I say that that’s not the way decision-making works in the UK, it is likely to be regarded as false modesty.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
Celebrating FHSS Visiting Faculty’s contribution
It just occurred to me this morning that my last two scientific publications, including the one highlighted yesterday on the BU Research Blog are co-authored with academics who are FHSS Visiting Faculty. Yesterday’s paper ‘‘A survey of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety and Depression among Flood Affected Populations in Kerala, India‘ [1], was co-authored by two of our Visiting Faculty: Prof. Padam Simkhada (in the School of Human & Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield) and Dr. Brijesh Sathian (in the Geriatrics & Long-term Care Department at Rumailah Hospital, Qatar). Whilst last week’s publication ‘COVID-19 restrictions and psychological well-being of fathers with infants admitted to NICU (neonatal intensive care units)—an exploratory cross-sectional study‘ in the journal Acta Paediatrica [2] was co-authored by two Visiting Faculty members from University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. The two clinicians, who co-authored this international paper, are both based at Poole Maternity Hospital: Prof. Minesh Khashu (Lead Consultant Neonatologist) and Ms. Jillian Ireland (Professional Midwifery Advocate).
Both papers are Open Access, and hence free to access for anybody across the globe.
References:
- Asim, M., Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Mekkodathil, A. A., Babu, M. G. R., Rajesh, E., Kumar, R. N., Simkhada, P., & Banerjee, I. (2022). A survey of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety and Depression among Flood Affected Populations in Kerala, India . Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 12(2), 1203–1214. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v12i2.46334
- Adama E.A., Koliouli F., Provenzi L., Feeley N., van Teijlingen E., Ireland J., Thomson-Salo F., Khashu M and FINESSE Group (2022) COVID-19 restrictions and psychological well-being of fathers with infants admitted to NICU—an exploratory cross-sectional study, Acta Paediatrica (forthcoming) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apa.16455
New BU disaster publication
Yesterday the latest issue of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology carried our paper ‘A survey of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety and Depression among Flood Affected Populations in Kerala, India‘ [1]. This paper was co-authored by two Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) Visiting Faculty, namely Prof. Padam Simkhada (in the School of Human & Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield) and Dr. Brijesh Sathian (in the Geriatrics & Long-term Care Department at Rumailah Hospital, Qatar). This study is longer-term follow-up of the 2018 floods in Kerala. The authors conducted a cross-sectional household survey between November 2019 to January 2020 in one district of Kerala with adults who had been directly exposed to the 2018 flood. The paper concludes that the vast majority of respondents (92% of women & 87% of men) still showed sub-clinical psychiatric symptoms one year after the flood. An earlier paper had argues for further research in India to explore “the long-term sequelae of catastrophic floods on physical and mental trauma on disaster-affected populations” [2].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
References:
- Asim, M., Sathian, B., van Teijlingen, E., Mekkodathil, A. A., Babu, M. G. R., Rajesh, E., Kumar, R. N., Simkhada, P., & Banerjee, I. (2022). A survey of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety and Depression among Flood Affected Populations in Kerala, India . Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, 12(2), 1203–1214. https://doi.org/10.3126/nje.v12i2.46334
- Asim, M., Mekkodathil, A., Sathian, B, Elayedath, R., Kumar N.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among the Flood Affected Population in Indian Subcontinent, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 9(1): 755-758. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/24003
Building International Partnerships
A current example he will highlight is one of Bournemouth University’s international research collaborations is the Nepal Federal Health System Project, led by the University of Sheffield. This three-year project (2020-2023) is funded by the Health Systems Research Initiative (incorporating the MRC, DFID, Wellcome Trust), it has partners in the UK and Nepal and bring together an interdisciplinary team of specialists in public health, sociology, health systems, social geography, health economic, political science, anthropology, medicine, emergency management, nursing & international development.
Sorry, the publication of your paper is being delayed because….
Yesterday a colleague in Nepal notified me that the publication of our latest paper has been delayed. This paper ‘Writing and publishing a reflective paper: Three case studies’ [1] is another method-type paper on aspects of academic writing and publishing published by BU academics and FHSS Visiting Faculty. A delay in getting in print is not uncommon in academic publishing, but usually the justification is that reviewers are sitting on the manuscript and not returning their report, or the journal editor can’t find academics to volunteer as reviewers, or the editor is ill. Occasionally the journal has too few papers to publish the next issue yet with your accepted paper in it, but this time the excuse was ever rarer.
We had submitted our paper to a brand new journal. A research collaborator in Kathmandu had asked me to submit a paper for the journal’s inaugural issue, which we did as we saw this a part of our role in academic capacity building in Nepal. The delay in publishing this journal is the shortage of ISSN [International Standard Serial Number] numbers in Nepal. Every good academic journal across the globe will have registered for a unique ISSN number [2]. Apparently the office issuing ISSN numbers in Paris head office has not delivered ISSNs to Nepal, and according to my colleague “many journals are waiting for a number …It’s not good news for the academic writers and scholars but we’re really sorry for late due to the unavailability of ISSN.”
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health
References:
- Arnold, R., Ireland, J., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., (2022) Writing and publishing a reflective paper: Three case studies, Welham College Journal (accepted for publication)
- van Teijlingen, E.R., Dhakal Adhikari, S., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, A., Aryal, N., Panday, S. (2021). Publishing, identifiers & metrics: Playing the numbers game. Health Prospect, 20(1).
Workshop ‘Sensitive Pasts and Difficult Presents: working with young people through participatory arts’ – 27th June, 2022
Some of you might be interested in this workshop, titled ‘Sensitive Pasts and Difficult Presents: working with young people through participatory arts‘, taking place this upcoming Monday, 27th June 2022, at BU (Talbot Campus). The workshop aims to bring together colleagues from across BU’s research centres, exploring how working with and for young people in sensitive contexts, both, locally and across the world, can be informed by interdisciplinary approaches (including Social Sciences, the Arts, and arts-based technologies).
Several colleagues will provide short presentations and thought pieces based on their research and experiences in the application of participatory arts-based methods in such contexts. Including a ‘world café’, the workshop aims to provide a forum to compare and exchange our experiences, learning and research outcomes rather than a classic, entirely lecture-based format.
This event is organised by the Centre for Seldom Heard Voices (Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers; RA Emily Fisher). The workshop includes colleagues from CEMP, CESJ, EMERGE, and further members are warmly invited to attend. We hope this event will be of particular interest to colleagues working in and through the participatory arts, specifically with vulnerable or marginalised groups, internationally or closer to home.
New paper on federalisation of health system in Nepal
Earlier this week the editor of the Journal of Nepal Public Health Association informed us the journal had accepted our latest paper ‘Health System Strengthening: The Role of Public Health in Federal Nepal’ [1]. This article addresses some of the key Public Health approaches around the ongoing federalisation of the state of Nepal and the associated decentralisation processes in its health system. This is the third paper of our three-year project, which is UK-funded by the MRC, Wellcome Trust and DFID under the Health Systems Research Initiative and led by Dr. Julie Balen and Prof. Simon Rushton based at the University of Sheffield. The first two papers introduced our international research project ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’ [2], and focused on COVID-19 when examining the effects of changing Nepal’s constitution towards a federal republic on its health system [3].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health Research)
References
- Sapkota, S., Panday, S., Wasti, S.P., Lee, A., Balen, J., van Teijlingen, E., Rushton, S., Subedi, M., Gautam, S., Karki, J., Adhikary, P., Marahatta, S., Simkhada, P. for the Nepal Federal Health System Team (2022) Health System Strengthening: The Role of Public Health in Federal Nepal, Journal of Nepal Public Health Association (forthcoming).
- Rushton, S., Pandey, S., van Teijlingen, E., Subedi, M., Balen, J., Karki, J., Simkhada, P. on behalf of the Nepal Federal Health System Team (2021) An Investigation into the Impact of Decentralization on the Health System of Nepal. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 7(1): 3–14. https://doi.org/10.3126/jmmihs.v7i1.43146
- Adhikary, P., Balen, J., Gautam, S., Ghimire S., Karki J.K., Lee A.C., Marahatta S.B., Pandey S., Pohl G., Ruston S., Sapkota S., Simkhada P.P., Subedi M., van Teijlingen E.R., on behalf of the NFHS Team. The COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: Emerging evidence on the effectiveness of action by, and cooperation between, different levels of government in a federal system. Journal of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. 2020; 3(3)
British Academy Writing Workshop in Nepal: Call for participants
We are inviting expressions of interest for Nepal-based academic with an interest in gender and development issue to participate in our Writing Workshop: “Promoting Publishing in the field of Gender and Development in Nepal”. Bournemouth University is leading two separate three-day workshops for early career researchers (ECRs) working across various universities in Nepal to encourage and support them to publish in peer reviewed journals in the field of social sciences, in Kathmandu (from 17-19 August 2022), and in Pokhara (from 21-23 August 2022). The funding for these exciting workshop is provided by the British Academy.
There will be a mixture of presentations, group discussion and other interactive exercises, and independent writing exercises. The workshop involves practical sessions to help attendees to make their research idea clear and compelling to reviewers, and finalise their papers for publications. One-to-one sessions with our expert advisers will allow attendees to work through different aspects of their own research papers, methods and ideas.
How to apply: If you are an ECR based in Nepal and have some idea (or/and data) to work towards publication in gender and development, then please send us:
- A short CV – 3 pages maximum;
- An abstract or summary of the proposed paper you wish to develop through the writing workshop- (300 words maximum) by 30thJune 2022.
Female ECRs are highly encouraged to apply. Please use Subject British Academy Writing Workshop 2022 and email to sdhakaladhikari@bournemouth.ac.uk, with a copy to both: pregmi@bournemouth.ac.uk and rashmi.rajkarnikar@cdec.tu.edu.np . The faciliators will inform you about your selection for the workshop by the middle of July 2022. Selected participants will be asked to to submit their first rough draft by 3rd August, so that this can be discussed further during the workshop (17-19 August 2022).
The Writing Workshop facilitators are three BU scholars, Dr Shovita Dhakal Adhikari, in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Sciences, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Department of Midwifery & Health Science in collaboration with Dr. Rashmee Rajkarnikar, at Nepal’s oldest and largest university, namely Tribhuvan University.
Horizon Europe Case Study Request
Universities UK international (UUKi) is currently receiving regular requests from UK and European media outlets for interviews with academics who have been directly affected by the uncertainty surrounding UK association to Horizon Europe. They believe this type of media engagement can help our cause by drawing attention to the urgency of the situation and the damage that is being done to efforts to tackle global challenges and create new knowledge. Therefore, UUKi are asking members to report if there are researchers who have been adversely affected by the delay in confirming association and would be willing to provide interviews or comments to these media outlets. This may either be because the projects have been abandoned, or because you’ve been forced to leave a consortium or accept a reduced role. If you have been affected by this and are willing to participate in one of UUKi’s media opportunities, please get in touch with GlobalBU@bournemouth.ac.uk
Teaching exchange through ERASMUS+ with Nepal
Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen just completed their ERASMUS Plus exchange with Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal. This was a very successful collaboration with colleagues in Nepal, despite the various turns of fate that were sent to challenge us. Indeed, the Profs toiled with the idea of giving this BU Research Blog the heading ‘The show must go on’ or ‘One man down….’ or even the far less punchy ‘The irony of doing a workshop by ZOOM in Nepal from a hotel 200 meters across the road’! In the end we decided that excellent collaboration requires resilience and a wee bit of ingenuity.
The trip to Nepal was marred by many little hiccups. It started at Heathrow where the airline insisted that they complete a now obsolete form about COVID-19 for the Government of Nepal, otherwise they would not let us on the flight. Arguing that Edwin had been to Nepal in April, and that no one then had asked for that particular piece of paper was fruitless. A quick online completion solved that first hurdle. The next hurdle was the flight leaving Heathrow over two hours late, which in turn meant missing the connection in Doha. Fortunately, the airline booked our academics on a replacement flight which left only hours after the original onwards flight had been scheduled to leave for Kathmandu. ingenuity. The trip to Nepal was marred by many little hiccups. It started at Heathrow where the airline insisted that they complete a now obsolete form about COVID-19 for the Government of Nepal, otherwise they would not let us on the flight. Arguing that Edwin had been to Nepal in April, and that no one then had asked for that particular piece of paper was fruitless. A quick online completion solved that first hurdle. The next hurdle was the flight leaving Heathrow over two hours late, which in turn meant missing the connection in Doha. Fortunately, the airline booked our academics on a replacement flight which left only hours after the original onwards flight had been scheduled to leave for Kathmandu.
The first five days in Kathmandu went well, apart from the to be expected tummy problems that go with monsoon in all low-income countries in South Asia. The teaching at MMIHS mainly focused on methodological issues. Our scheduled teaching sessions focused on the first-year MSc Nursing students (Vanora) and the first-year MSc Public Health students at MMIHS (Edwin).
A more informal one-hour tutorial session was organised for the second-year MSc Public Health students who had applied to come to the UK as part of ERASMUS Plus. This question-and-answer-type session was run by both Vanora and Edwin as well as BU PhD student Sulochana Dhakal-Rai. Overall, the teaching was all organised at very short notice, but BU’s professors are flexible and had a broad range of expertise to share.In addition, with extra funding from GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund), Bournemouth University and MMIHS supported by the local charity Green Tara Nepal planned ran a one-day research workshop in Kathmandu. This GCRF- funded ‘Systematic Review on Dementia Research Workshop’ was very well attended. Although the workshop budgeted for 30 people the attendance register shows that nearly double (n=59) the number of people attended at least part of the workshop. However, running the workshop was not without is problems. Two-days before the workshop Prof. van Teijlingen first had a positive COVID-19 lateral flow test followed by a positive PCR test. This put the burden of running the show very much on Prof. Vanora Hundley with Edwin being called in through Zoom. This is where the potential ‘irony’ title comes in. The irony of doing a workshop by ZOOM in Nepal ….. not from halfway across the globe but from a local hotel 200 meters across the road from MMIHS! The hotel’s internet connection was not as good as most of us have grown used to in Dorset, which added to the difficulty of running the workshop smoothly.
Despite all these challenges, the result was a very successful workshop that will continue to build our collaboration with colleagues in MMIHS and more widely across Nepal.
Finally, to end the story of hiccups, MMIHS forgot to inform the hotel that Edwin would be staying four extra nights. On the day he was originally scheduled to leave Nepal he received a phone call from reception asking what time he was checking out. When he said he thought extra nights had been booked for him, there was no reply. A little later he was told he could get another night, but he would have to move to another floor, and it would be for one night only, since all 91 room of the hotel were booked for the weekend for a big Asian wedding party. Luckily MMIHS found him another hotel a bit more outside the city centre for the remaining three nights.
We are incredibly grateful for the support of colleagues and friends in Nepal and at home in the UK, which helped smooth out some of the more interesting challenges.
Lessons learnt:
· Be ready to change and adapt to the needs of the situation.
· Strong relationships will help you deal with the unexpected.
· Keep positive when things get tough.
In the words of Steve Maraboli “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
Successful GCRF Systematic Reviewing in Dementia Research Workshop in Nepal
Last Sunday (29th May) Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen from the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) run a hugely successful introduction to research workshop in Kathmandu. Their Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded the Systematic Review on Dementia Research Workshop on Sunday, which was very well attended. They expected (and had budgeted for) 30 people to attend and in the end the audience was closer 50 people.
The event was organised by our colleagues at Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Kathmandu and it was supported by the charity Green Tara Nepal. Professors Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen are currently in Nepal as part of the BU-MMIHS ERASMUS+ exchange and added this one-day workshop to their schedule. The audience included Master students in Nursing and Public Health, MMIHS lecturers and post-doctoral researchers. This capacity-building workshop offered an introduction to all aspects of a systematic review, from formulating the systematic review research question at the start to the publication of a systematic review paper. The workshop also benefited from a short presentation by CMMPH PhD student Mrs. Sulochana Dhakal-Rai who also happened to be in Nepal as part of the BU-MMIHS student-exchange.
The planning nearly went wrong as two days before the workshop Prof. van Teijlingen tested positive for COVID-19 on a lateral flow test which was later confirmed by a PCR test. The fact that the event went ahead despite my quarantine in a nearby hotel room was only possible because of Prof. Vanora Hundley hard work on the day. Vanora led the workshop on the whole day whilst Edwin appeared in several sessions via ZOOM. Ironically, sitting only 200 meters away from the university venue in his hotel room. The connection was not always great, it broke up several times during the day, but it worked well enough. The MMIHS colleagues were very thoughtful when it came to the group photo at the end as they included the laptop with his ‘live’ presence on Zoom.
My experience of the Turing student mobility programme in Nepal
I am Yagya Adhikari, PhD student at BU’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). I am honoured to participate in the Turing Scheme (Traineeship) in Nepal. For me this student mobility programme ran for four weeks. In Kathmandu, I attended the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) sessions. I also presented my proposal and discussed it with both MSc Public Health students and teachers and had the privilege to attend the lectures delivered by MMIHS academics. Furthermore, I shared my UK university experiences with the students and faculties. Some of the MMIHS students and faculties will soon participate in the ERASMUS+ exchange programme at BU.
Additionally, I invited to present my research proposal at the “Migration and Health Research Capacity Building Workshop for Early Career Researchers”, organised by BU, the University of Huddersfield, MMIHS and the charity Green Tara Nepal. It provided a forum for discussion and feedback from the participants. Similarly, I took part in the “Academic writing and publishing” book launch workshop at Nobel College, Kathmandu. It was facilitated by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr Pramod Regmi both from FHSS.
As my PhD research title is “Parental migration and its impact on health and well-being of left-behind adolescents in Nepal,” I plan to conduct fieldwork next year. Thus, the visit allowed me to familiarise myself with Nepal’s current socio-economic context and understand the ethical procedure prior to data collection and fieldwork.
Networking is another outstanding achievement for me. I interacted with researchers involved in migration and health research in Nepal. One of the cardinal benefits of the tour was the exchange of knowledge and expertise between BU and MMIHS. It was also crucial to strengthen the network amongst public health sector professionals of both nations and establish new connections. The visit helped me understand the recent challenges of conducting research at the field level and gave me the insight to mitigate the issues. In addition, it helped me lay the foundation of my study and proffered me the prerequisite tools to address my research question.
I forged ties with several organisations working in health, migration, and mental health. Some of the key associations we shared our expertise with were Green Tara Trust and Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation Nepal (TPO Nepal). Furthermore, I discussed the proposed research tools for my PhD and the availability of validated questionnaires in the Nepali translated version. It was a win-win visit for both BU and MMIHS Nepal. As a research student, I returned with a rich experience, and I look forward to fostering collaborations in future. Overall, it was a fantastic opportunity to explore and interact with students, academics and researchers internationally.
Preparing for ERASMUS+ exchange to Nepal
Earlier this spring Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health in the Department of Nursing Sciences, traveled to MMIHS as part of this exchange. His visit in April 2022 included running the ‘Migration and Health Research Capacity Building Workshop for Early Career Researchers’ in Kathmandu. Bournemouth University organised this two-day event jointly with the University of Huddersfield, MMIHS, and the charity Green Tara Nepal.
Two current Faculty of Health & Social Sciences Ph.D. students are also benefittng from being involved in this exchange. Yagya Adhikari returned back to the UK a week or so ago whilst Sulochana Dhakal-Rai will be arriving in Kathmandu tomorrow. Both will use this ERASMUS+ opportunity to developed aspects of their Ph.D. thesis.
Reference:
- Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P.P., Hundley, V. with Shreesh, K. (Eds.) (2022) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books. [ISBN: 9789937117609]
Dr. Shanti Shanker publishes book chapter
Last week Dr. Shanti Shanker, senior lecturer in Psychology, published ‘Selecting an Appropriate Journal and Submitting Your Paper’. [1] Finding the most appropriate journal for your academic paper is a skill. There are many scientific journals, with new ones appearing every year in just about every academic discipline. Prospective authors must ensure they pick an appropriate one. In selecting a journal, academics may want to consider their target audience, the standing of the journal within their discipline, the journal’s readership, and its reach and impact factor. Scholars may also want to consider whether there are constraints such as a high rejection rate of submitted manuscripts, the maximum prescribed number of words and/or tables, and whether or not there are submission or publication fees to be paid. But most important of all, the chosen journal needs to be appropriate for the paper in question.
Congratulations!
Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH.
Reference:
- van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Shanker, S. (2022) Writing an Academic Paper, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 20-31.