Category / Research communication

RKEO Drop-in sessions – cancelled due to unpopular demand

BU research, Guidance, Research communication

flyingIn response to positive feedback from academics about how much they benefit from face-to-face meetings with staff from RKEO, we set up monthly drop-in sessions for 2016.  Unfortunately, these were not as valued as we thought they would be, i.e. no academics chose to drop-in to the three held to date.  Therefore, all future sessions are now cancelled.

If there is a specific member of RKEO that you would like to meet with then please contact them directly to arrange a meeting.

Team-work on Team-based Learning Project : My experience as a URA

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

Blog post by Jade Offer, Undergraduate Research Assistant (Innovative Pedagogy)

I applied to become an Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) as I believed it would help me develop and learn new skills, and it did! As an accounting student, I enjoy working with numbers and that is why I initially applied. The field I choose was unrelated to my degree course and was something I knew little about: the teaching of pathophysiology to student nurses. Despite this I was fully immersed within the research and have really enjoyed my experience.

Fortunately enough I was chosen alongside a fellow student to work on a research project entitled: An Evaluation of Team-based Learning (TBL) in teaching Applied Pathophysiology to Student Nurses. Working with a fellow research assistant made the job even more fun, and was extremely helpful as we could talk and meet with each other to analyse the data, and to aid each other in inputting the data efficiently. We were welcomed into a team with the research leads; Dr Jonathan Branney and Dr Jacqueline Priego, both of whom provided amazing support for us both as we analysed and organised the research they had previously conducted. They both took time out of their schedules to teach us how to use the new research software we needed to use and made regular contact to assist us, which was greatly appreciated.

My involvement in the project

  • Attend regular meeting with the team to discuss next steps
  • Reading previous literature on TBL (relevant articles to our research)
  • Developing spread sheets to organise relevant exam results data
  • Using transcript software to analyse qualitative data
  • Using SPSS to carry out statistical analysis on the quantitative data collected
  • Communication Skills- Composing and delivering presentations

I also had the opportunity to be involved in SUREBU 2016, which is a showcase of research carried out by Bournemouth University students. We were both given the opportunity to present at national conferences, which we hope to attend, as it is an amazing opportunity and privilege. We have also been given the amazing opportunity to be involved in writing a professional research paper that our team hopes to get published, which is very exciting!

What I have gained

  • Presentation skills- delivering a verbal presentation of our findings and how the research was conducted
  • The importance of participant anonymity and the rules of handling important data
  • The important of research in making future changes and trialling new ideas
  • The development of a research project- from raw values to understandable statistics
  • A keen interest and knowledge of Team-based Learning
  • Knowledge in a new field which I would not have otherwise been exposed to

 I would highly recommend applying for a URA job, it has been such a beneficial experience for me; acquiring new skills, developing existing ones and meeting and working along side motivated and friendly individuals. Immerse yourself in the research job and you will find it an invaluable experience alongside your studies.

Jade Offer, BA (Hons) Accounting and Business student, year one

Dr. Jenny Hall on spirituality in midwifery: new publication

BU research, Publishing, Research communication

Dr. Jenny Hall in CMMPH published her latest article ‘Facilitating learning of spirituality in midwifery’ in the academic journal Spiritual Care [1].   She highlights that there has been considerable discussion in the literature around spirituality at the end of life but little relating to childbirth. Perhaps because of this facilitation of learning around the subject is limited. The aim of this article is to raise awareness of these issues and promote future discussion and research.

Congratulations

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

Hall, J. (2016) Facilitating learning of spirituality in midwifery, Spiritual Care 5(2): 81–88.  DOI: 10.1515/spircare-2016-0021,

Seminar, Prof Edwin van Teijlingen, ‘Maternal Mortality in Nepal’, Wed 20th April, Royal London House, R303, 13:00-13:50.

BU Challenges, BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, conferences, EU, Events, Featured academics, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research communication, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

Maternal Mortality in Nepal
Abstract: The session links various social and political factors that affect maternal mortality. Women dying in pregnancy and childbirth is very much a problem of and in low-income countries. This talk focuses on Nepal, one of the poorer countries of the world, to highlight a range of maternal health issues and wider influencing factors including globalisation and the influence of global organisations such as the World Health Organisation.

For further information regarding the Social Science seminar series, get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@boutnemouth.ac.uk).

Pritchard & Harding paper cited in top journal, but there’s a ‘but…’

Featured academics, Publishing, Research communication, Research Integritiy, Research news, Research Training, writing

cloudAs an ECR I am delighted to see that a research paper that Prof. Pritchard and myself wrote in 2014 has been cited in one of the most well regarded journals in the field.

Our paper on the occupational backgrounds of Non-executive directors at NHS acute trusts, published in the Journal for the Royal Society of Medicine Open, was also the subject of an article in the now defunct Independent  newspaper and a post on this blog in May 2014.

Last year, in 2015, it was cited by a paper published in the Journal for Health Services Research and Policy. I won’t name which edition or paper because there is a ‘but…’, and it concerns the carelessness of the authors who cited our work.

There is a ‘but…’ because the authors got my name wrong – both in the in text citation and in the bibliography. The good news is that it still links on citation tracking systems (such as the function on Google Scholar) as a paper that I co-wrote. Yet as an ECR, who is trying to make his way in the ‘publish or perish’ world of academia, I can’t help but feel a bit frustrated. Here’s my name in a top journal, but it’s incorrect.

So I took action, I emailed the editors. To their credit I got a response within minutes, with an apology for the carelessness of the authors and that contact with the publisher had been initiated to see if it could be corrected. Yet, due to the inflexibility of doi, apparently this is unlikely.

This then got me thinking about my first publication. I have to admit I did not check the final galley proof thoroughly enough. Indeed, when it was published, it became apparent that I had not corrected some basic incorrect spelling of names in the bibliography. In other words, some very respected authors’ names were wrong! I can happily report that this was corrected, and no offence caused (I hope!).

But the lesson here – check final galley proofs. If you cite an article, I think the very least you can do, out of respect for colleagues, is to get the authors name right. I have made this mistake, and so have authors who have cited me, so it would scream hypocrisy if I was too mad! But it does show that it might be a relatively common problem, so again – check final galley proofs!

However, once the relative pain bypassed, one our papers has still been cited in a top journal – and that is very satisfying indeed.

 

Researching innovative pedagogy: An Evaluation of Team-based Learning

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

An Evaluation of Team-based Learning – 4-5pm in PG11, Wednesday 13th of April 2016

What is Team-based Learning?

Team-based Learning (TBL) is an example of the ‘flipped classroom’ concept whereby what might be described as traditional teaching content is accessed by students outside of the classroom while activities that might be termed ‘homework’ are conducted in class. In class, students have to answer questions as individuals to test them on their learning from the set pre-reading activities (termed the individual Readiness Assurance Test), then the same questions in allocated teams (team Readiness Assurance Test). Each team has a scratch card so that students can check if their agreed answer is correct (immediate feedback). Following that, teams then work on application exercises, where they have to apply their knowledge to problem-solving real-life scenarios.

Why bother with this approach?

TBL is thought to confer some advantages over traditional teaching methods in terms of student engagement and provides immediate feedback on student performance. While it does tend to mean some extra work for lecturers in terms of preparation activities, increased job satisfaction is commonly reported, and students report enjoying learning in this way. It is believed to improve critical thinking skills and in some cases improved exam performance has been reported. Further, this collaborative learning process promotes the importance of effective team-working, a skill desired of our graduates by many employers.

Do you want to find out more?

I am delivering a session on TBL at the CELebrate Conference 2016 next week. In this session, you will be introduced to TBL and get to experience a TBL session yourself! Quantitative (using the validated TBL-SAI instrument) and qualitative (focus group discussions) results from an evaluation of the implementation of TBL into a unit on the Adult Nursing degree programme will also be presented.

What to do now?

  1. Click here to watch this video before the session (it’s less than four minutes) -it’s a snippet from my online lecture on circulatory shock. Don’t panic if you’ve little knowledge regarding human physiology, it’s only to help illustrate the TBL approach – hopefully you’ll enjoy it!
  2. Then click here to book onto the session

Best wishes

Dr Jonny Branney

Sign up to EU RSS News Feeds to keep up to date

EU, Events, Funding opportunities, Info Days, Research communication, Research news

Hate that sinking feeling of finding out that you have missed out on a key funding Info Day or brokerage event?

Sign up now and be in the know.

The European Commission’s DG Innovation and Research provides subject-specific news feeds to help you to keep up to date with your research activities in your discipline and EU opportunities, including funding and networking events. To do this, the place to go is their RSS page. Instructions on how to add these to your news feed are also given on this page

Main topics include:

To see the full list and subsets of those listed above, please go to the main RSS page and find all the relevant RSS news feeds for you.

 

RKEO Drop-in sessions

BU research, Guidance, Research communication

flyingIn response to positive feedback from academics about how much you benefit from face-to-face meetings with staff from RKEO, we have set up drop-in sessions for 2016.

These sessions will be held on a monthly basis and anyone can attend with any queries for RKEO. RKEO staff will be available for two hours each session and so come along and have a chat. These are also great opportunities for us to gather feedback from you on the service that we deliver for you.

The planned sessions for this year are as follows:

Date Time Where
Wed. 20/04/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café
Tues. 17/05/2016 2-4pm Bournemouth House café
Wed. 15/06/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café
Thurs. 14/07/2016 2-4pm Bournemouth House café
Wed. 10/08/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café
Thurs. 08/09/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café
Wed. 05/10/2016 2-4pm Bournemouth House café
Thurs. 03/11/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café
Wed. 07/12/2016 2-4pm Talbot – Atrium café

Blog posts will be issued for each session, reminding you of the date, time and place and also informing you of who will be at the session from RKEO. If there is a specific member of RKEO that you would like to meet with at the sessions then please contact them in advance and see if they are available for a chat.

RKEO look forward to seeing you.

FHSS paper in Journal of Neonatal Nursing

BU research, international, Publishing, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Cover image volume 22, Issue 2The April issue of the Journal of Neonatal Nursing will publish the latest article written by a combination of Faculty of Health & Social Sciences staff and Visiting Faculty.  The paper ‘Experiences of fathers with babies admitted to neonatal care units: A review of the literature’ offers a systematic narrative review on issues affecting fathers, whose babies are admitted to neonatal units. [1] The authors include Visiting Faculty Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Jillian Ireland and Prof. Minesh Khashu (consultant neonatologist) and FHSS staff Jaqui Hewitt-Taylor, Luisa Cescutti-Butler, and Edwin van Teijlingen.  Twenty-seven papers in this interesting review highlighted four key themes: (1) stress & anxiety; (2) information (or lack thereof); (3) gender roles and (4) emotions.  This paper adds to the growing literature (and understanding) of the role and place of men in maternity care generally and for fathers of babies in neonatal care in particular.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. Ireland, J., Khashu, M., Cescutti-Butler, L., van Teijlingen, E., Hewitt-Taylor, J. (2016) Experiences of fathers with babies admitted to neonatal care units: A review of the literature, Journal of Neonatal Nursing [pre-published]

Free speech only applies to those with nothing to say…

Research communication, Research news

for-humanitySome things are worth fighting for… liberty, freedom of speech…people have died for these.

When the war between Iran and Iraq finished, I realised that we had lost some of the most courageous young men who lived through moments that one thought only existed in action movies.  I was old enough to understand death, the risks they took and the fact that we will never see them again…they were gone. Although we were quick to judge them, I knew they fought for what they felt was right. Likewise and more so, there were plenty of brave young souls who sacrificed their lives on cold and damp foreign soil during the First and Second World Wars. The soil still seems fresh in graveyards for the loss of soldiers in recent wars, God bless them all.

For those of us unlucky enough to have lost loved ones, the images of those young lives sit in frames on fireplaces or shelves where, if we are lucky we might get glimpse of the smile that they left for us. Could one wish more than if they could just touch them and feel the warmth of their scent one more time … they are gone.  For those of us left behind, what is their legacy? Do we see their legacy through planting poppies and celebrating their sacrifices in remembrance days? One minute’s silence would be enough to thank them? They were told they that they were fighting for freedom, have we done enough to make sure that was achieved? Liberty and freedom of speech are under constant threat and today more than ever with the terrorist threats around our world.

Recently we started a campaign aimed at challenging the narrative of the terrorist group known as ISIS. An inhumane group who have misused the narrative of religion in order to associate themselves with what they describe as a ‘pure’ version of religion. I grew up in the Middle East and went to school at a time when extreme values were at the forefront of every school curriculum and life. I do remember being called into the office of the headmistress when I was 15 because I was wearing socks that were white whilst wearing trousers and brown ankle boots. Days like these made me realise that freedom had been taken hostage and caged.  In those days questioning was a rare reality.  “You don’t questions some matters, you just do as you are told”. What about the thoughts inside your head? Was I not allowed to think about anything? Freedom is important.

In spite of everything that I have witnessed; a revolution, assassinations,  imprisonment, acts carried out by different sides, I have also been fortunate enough not to witness at first hand the acts of extremism in the 21st century, happening now in the Middle East. I have not seen the carnage that some people have carried out in the name of religion, in what is known as ISIS held territories. These territories that owe their foundation to the seeds that were originally planted by Saddam’s Baath party. I say this but I am puzzled, I remember their brutality in the longest conventional war of the 20th century from 1980 to 1988.  It still sits firmly in my memory when my eyes stared open in shock, when the religious study school teacher told us that they used naked women hostages, who they had first raped, as human shields.  In that conservative society I thought death was the easier option and I still do even now. Later on they didn’t even consider the lives of their own people and the Kurds, and so the scars of chemical attacks still lives on among those who fought them in the front line. The brutality of what we witness today is not new for those people that live in the region, it is just being carried out under a different name.

From those extreme groups such as ISIS, whose brutality did not spare the innocent lives of journalist or aid workers from Steven Sotloff, David Haines, James Foley, Alan Henning, Abdul Rahman (Peter) Kassig to the hideous attacks that recently took place in Paris, there is a connecting issue. The liberal democracies of Western society has provided the fertile ground that helps them promote their cause and yield the “reaction” that they live for, because they know that people in Western Societies place a much greater value on lives and property than they do in many of the countries where these terrorist groups are formed. This, alongside the powerful western media, combined with the virulent nature of social media, reinforces the civilian shock and works in favour of their goals of intimidation and publicity with wider targets and victims in Muslim communities.

The campaign we have launched under the title of ‘for humanity’, challenges violent extremism in general but in particular, counters the falsehoods spread by ISIS in a positive manner, with an assertion of shared humanity.  The reach of our campaign will address those in the Muslim community feeling distanced from the rest of society, building on the notion of “concentric loyalties” to expand the horizon of vulnerable segments of the community and encouraging them towards assimilating more fully into their wider community.  We set up the campaign to voice our idea of bringing the community together no matter what the religion, colour or race, we thought we could stand up for the loss of freedom and civil liberties and the very basics of humanity with the weight of the legacy which was left standing on our shoulders.

However, it transpires that this is not an easy thing to do in a society that is tolerant. We were told by some that our message, “I am against ISIS for humanity” is in fact “offensive”Offensive to whom? Would you be offended if I said I am against football hooligans? Don’t get me wrong, political correctness has its place in fighting racism, gender attacks etc.  But does it really have its place when fighting inhuman behaviour?  But political correctness can become as much a cancer as the evil that ISIS breeds.

I believe Britain to be a tolerant society, but to whom do we show that tolerance? Where do we stand as a society in this 21st century world? A tolerant society that values freedom of speech? Or a society that is indifferent and turns a blind eye? Or maybe we have just come to realise that our ‘tolerance’ has been caged by our own political correctness?

In meetings I am sometimes told “don’t mention this or that because it gets minuted”, does free speech not get minuted? If free speech is not minuted where is the record of the legacy of those that fought for us over the centuries? If we speak out against the brutality that we see happening in the world can this really be considered to be offensive? Does freedom of speech only apply to people who have nothing to say?

 

Support us with liking this great campaign :  https://www.facebook.com/FHcommunity

 

Invitation to NERC webinar on national capability research

Events, Research communication, Research Training

On 7 April, NERC will be hosting a live webinar showcasing our new investments in multi-disciplinary national capability research within our centres. This will provide an opportunity for the wider academic community to learn more about these programmes and help to generate ideas for strategic research for submission to the NERC Strategic Programme Advisory Group (SPAG).

NERC has challenged its centres to develop a set of core multi-disciplinary programmes which capitalise on centre expertise across the breadth of NERC’s remit. These multi-centre programmes are expected to commence from April 2016. These new collaborative programmes redefine problems outside individual centre boundaries and will provide outcomes based on a new understanding of complex situations. The national capability funds are not new or additional money; the multi-centre programmes are focused plans as to what centres intend to do with a portion of their existing allocations over the next five years.

During the webinar, leads for each programme will present an overview of their research plans and anticipated outcomes. This will allow participants to understand the significance of this strategically-important work, and inform individual plans for strategic research for which these programmes could form the platform.

Programme for the day

09:15 Webinar open, people register and join.

09:30-09:40 Introduction and format of webinar

09:40-10:10 Ocean regulation of climate through Heat & carbon sequestration and transports (ORCHESTRA)

10:20-10:50 Land ocean carbon transfer (LOCATE)

11:00-11:30 The north atlantic climate System: integrated study (ACSIS)

11:40-12:10 UK Earth system modelling project (UKESM)

12:20-12:50 Achieving sustainable agricultural systems (ASSIST)

12:50 Close.

Registration for this event is via the online registration form . Please note that, as numbers will be limited, we would encourage colleagues to participate together where possible, providing one contact point for registering for this ‘shared access’.

Please also note that the event will be recorded, so if you are unable to participate on the day, you will be able to access the slides later from the NERC web site.