Category / student research

New BU women’s health publication

Congratulations to Karim Khaled on the publication in the international journal Nutrients of his latest women’s health paper  [1].  The paper ‘A Structural Equation Modelling Approach to Examine the Mediating Effect of Stress on Diet in Culturally Diverse Women of Childbearing Age’ is co-authored with his PhD supervisors Dr. Fotini Tsofliou and Prof. Vanora Hundley.

This paper in Nutrients  is Open Access, hence available to read to anybody across the globe with internet access.

 

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

Reference:

  1. Khaled, K., Tsofliou, F., Hundley, V.A. A Structural Equation Modelling Approach to Examine the Mediating Effect of Stress on Diet in Culturally Diverse Women of Childbearing Age. Nutrients. 2024; 16(19):3354. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16193354

Iridescent Spider Webs: BU NCCA Undergraduate Student Success at SIGGRAPH’24

The 51st International Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH’24), the international annual conference for the Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM, the world’s foremost computing society) was held in Denver, Colorado in August.

Among the work showcased at the conference was the poster “O, What an Iridescent Web We Weave: Rendering Physically Inspired Spider Webs for Visual Effects” by Vaya Simeonova (Grigorova) from this year’s graduating cohort (Computer Animation Technical Arts – CATA, Level 6) of the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA, Faculty of Media and Communication) and co-authored by Dr Eike Falk Anderson.

Poster presented at SIGGRAPH’24

The poster paper is based on Vaya’s final year Research & Development Project unit project “An Exploration of the Optical Properties of Spider Web Fibres”, which resulted in the development of a physically inspired method for rendering CG spider webs that display the iridescent properties, observable in real-world spider webs.

The method achieves this in a manner that does not require a computationally expensive and bespoke/proprietary software solution, but instead works with industry standard, off-the-shelf, visual effects (VFX) software, meaning it can effortlessly be integrated into existing VFX production pipelines. The project was also one of five submissions featured in the SIGGRAPH’24 “Posters Highlights” video.

After being accepted as one of the 70 posters presented at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference, the world’s Premier Conference & Exhibition on Computer Graphics & Interactive Techniques, Vaya’s contribution (poster 32), was invited to the first round of the prestigious ACM Student Research Competition (SRC) sponsored by Microsoft, shortlisted as a semi-finalists, and presented to a panel of experts in the SRC Final Presentation. The jury, who enjoyed Vaya’s presentation and appreciated her demonstrated knowledge of prior research, were impressed by her execution of the work and its practicality, for which they awarded Vaya the Second Place in the ACM SIGGRAPH 2024 Student Research Competition in the undergraduate category.

Vaya Simeonova, presenting her poster (2nd place SRC, undergraduate category) at SIGGRAPH'24

After Ben Knowles (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who was awarded second place at SIGGRAPH’15 for “Increasing realism of animated grass in real-time game environments“, Teemu Lindborg and Philip Gifford (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who were semi-finalists at SIGGRAPH’17 for “Interactive parameterised heterogeneous 3D modelling with signed distance fields”, Quentin Corker-Marin (with Dr Valery Adzhiev and the late Professor Alexander Pasko) who achieved second place at SIGGRAPH’17 for “Space-time cubification of artistic shapes“, Bianca Cirdei (with Dr Eike Falk Anderson) who was awarded 1st place at SIGGRAPH’18 for her exceptional projectWithering fruits: vegetable matter decay and fungus growth” and Laura Mann (with Dr Oleg Fryazinov) who won second place at SIGGRAPH’19 for “3D printing for mixed reality hands-on museum exhibit interaction“, this is the first time since the start of the COVID’19 pandemic that an NCCA undergraduate student has progressed to the final round in this prestigious competition.

‘Snowflakes of Steel’: Creative pedagogy, reflective learning and student engagement

Is innovation and creativity in teaching and learning actually important?  Innovation is certainly mentioned in the BU 2025 Vision in respect of desirable graduate qualities, accompanied by the intriguing statement that ‘the BU learning experience is personalised, inter-disciplinary and consistently excellent.’  The Centre for Fusion Learning, Innovation and Excellence (FLIE) also refers to teaching ‘innovations’ as an indicator of pedagogic excellence. This leads to the question:  can an educator promote innovation without creativity? Conceivably it may be possible but it’s hard to see how.  So, assuming that creativity is part of what makes teaching innovative, let’s, for argument’s sake, assume it is so. What then might constitute those inspired creative turns that result in pedagogic innovation to produce an excellent, personalised learning experience for students in their opinion? For after all, as we have learned over recent years in the modern corporate university, it is the student as ‘consumer’ who is the final judge of what is a quality learning experience.  As a group of students and pedagogues, we argue that creative pedagogy is both inter-relational and transformative. Inter-relational in its ability to break down hierarchies whilst respecting the experiential subjective account in assignments in personal and human, as well as academic levels.  Transformative in understanding the developing and learning student self and the generation of that future self with knowledge and skills for continuous learning.

In this blog, five second-year social science students and two academics explore what creative pedagogy can look and feel like, based on our co-creation study of student engagement in creative assignments. The assignments were part of the second-year social science unit ‘Growing Up and Growing Old’ (GUGO), currently an option unit for students in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences as well as the Faculty of Science & Technology. The multidisciplinary nature of students opting for the unit is equally reflected in the rich interdisciplinary focus of its teaching content where a psychosocial perspective underpins the use of sociological, anthropological, psychology and historical concepts, perspectives and theorisation.

In GUGO, and in keeping with a feminist pedagogy, a democratisation of the learning experience through the personal is promoted. Students are enabled to develop an emerging reflective praxis by connecting pedagogic classroom content to actual lived lives through a biographical narrative, often choosing personal and family histories. Innovative assessment models have always been integral to GUGO in facilitating this praxis process to unfold. Here the generational lives and themes the students choose to thread together is elevated from the purely descriptive by a socio-historical, socio-cultural and socio-spatial geographical analysis of people, place and position. Within the assignments students may include photographs/images, genograms, culturagrams, diary extracts, official documents, recorded memories and artefacts of family significance. The completed work frequently become cherished family mementoes.

This year a short addendum was added to the Biographical Narrative – a ‘critical incident analysis’ (CIA), entitled ‘My Life So Far’, where students reflected on an incident in their lives they had identified as significant to their personal and cognitive development. CIA are used as learning devices in professional courses, such as social work, where the identification of the mundane/ubiquitous in the professional context is encouraged rather than the pivotal/exceptional personal incidents that students chose to highlight in GUGO.

For the co-creation study, volunteered anonymised assignments were used post-marking. The request for volunteered work was expected by the class having been informed about the study at the beginning of the semester, along with an invitation to become a co-researcher. Eventually fourteen CIA were volunteered, representing roughly half the class’s work.

The results of the study were fascinating: diverse and surprising, poignant and powerful, stories of such marked resilience emerged from a generation often vilified as self-entitled and emotionally fragile, offering fine examples of deep reflective learning by students.  The findings of the study are now in the process of being written up for submission to international peer-reviewed journals, which we know will help the future careers of our five intrepid student co-researchers, while the veteran academics in the team step happily into a well-earned semi-retirement.

We in the team are all evangelical about the rich benefits of embracing creative assignments as educators and learners. Yet we recognise that some academic colleagues will not feel comfortable with innovative pedagogy of this sort; preferring instead to remain with conventional assignments, which clearly have their established (and to-date hegemonic) place in the limited HE assignment repertoire. That these established forms are generally far easier to devise and to mark than a move to innovative, creative assignments may well be a point in their favour in time-poor academic environments.

Yet in the face of any academic scepticism, it must be noted that External Examiners have always been very complimentary about the GUGO unit, as led by the first author, noting how well students engage with its assessments.  This year was no different, despite the complexity of adding the CIA, with one External Examiner reporting, ‘I really like this assessment design as this allows for the students to connect academia and theoretical frameworks with reality and see the impact on their own lives or that of family members’.

Meanwhile, the co-research study, developed from the CIA, has added a new strength to GUGO in enabling the inter-relational and the transformative to emerge even more strongly in assignments than even previously.

That said, while GUGO is undoubtedly a very rewarding unit to develop and teach, and its popularity among students is apparent, more importantly, the worth of the unit and its innovations is ultimately measured by students themselves. Our student co-researchers provided some candid comments:

Aimee:   ‘My Life So Far has been one of my favourite university assignments to date. It required me to consider a pivotal moment in my life in a way that I never had before, and to express my experience of it in a way that would make sense to an outsider. …I had never had to complete a creative writing assignment focused on my lived experience. It was so unfamiliar that I wondered whether my lecturer genuinely cared about my critical incident and how it made me feel, or if I was simply misinterpreting the brief. It was such a welcome change of pace from traditional university assignments. I feel that creative assignments are much easier to engage with as a student, and I would love for them to become more commonplace in university settings.’

Here we see an example of how the inter-relational aspects of the teacher-learner can be turned into a dyad of equality and respect rather than one of just simple hierarchies of authority and power. The intimacy of the accounts offered and the trust put in the educator to honour the messages in them, while fairly marking assignment efforts, was emancipatory and revitalising to everyone. Furthermore, unlike Aimee, not everyone found the assignment easy, for some it was surprisingly hard, discomfiting even, and yet also intriguing.

Ella:   ‘ In the beginning, I felt out of my comfort zone as it felt very unnatural compared to all my other assignments, but this also excited me and made me feel very interested and engaged with the unit due to it being different and more creative.’

GUGO’s ability to pluck students out of their lumpen ‘comfort zone’ was something several students referred to. It jolted them into an initial disorientation, to questioning, then realisation to the possibilities presented and finally full immersion into the assignment.

Becky:   ‘In my personal experience of creative assignments, specifically in GUGO, my comprehension and enjoyment of the unit content was much higher when compared to other units on my course. The creative assignment awakened me academically and allowed me to break out of the routine of regurgitating information from readings and lectures into a standardised essay assignment. … The CIA element of the assignment offered challenges and benefits. In my educational experience, my writing style is my main strength and writing essays has become my comfort zone. The GUGO assignments forced me out of this comfort zone and I feel that this, overall, benefited my academic ability. It has allowed me to see a different side of academia, a more creative side, relying less on standardisation, with less focus on the idea of pass or fail, instead focusing on ensuring the learning is innovative. This challenged my ability to approach assignments and I feel that this has had positive impacts on my professional and personal development.’

One criticism that is levied against non-conventional, creative assignments is that they are intellectual lightweights in comparison with the standard and indeed standardised formats of essays and exams we all grew up with.  The familiarity of the known form can be helpful to students, as Becky says, being a tried-and-trusted technique. Harder and more challenging still is the unfamiliar that requires a new set of cognitive-emotive skills in keeping with the developmental changes of accepting child to questioning youth to reflective adult (the very domain that GUGO as a unit is preoccupied with in fact).  That some students found these different assignments harder to master than more conventional ones speaks to any dismissiveness that creative assignments are potentially facile, unintellectual exercises.

Poppy:   ‘At first it was daunting as we don’t get taught on how best to express ourselves and be creative, as we (us Uni students) know the basic elements/structure of a more formal assignment. It is still hard to write those, but you know what to put in and how to write it. But as we don’t get many creative ones it always comes as a surprise and more nerve racking as you don’t know the best place to start and don’t know how creative to be or how this will get marked compared to formal essays… As a second-year student going into her third I have only had 2 creative assignments and they really are a breath of fresh air compared to the standardized conventional ones. In the conventional ones you don’t get much choice, so you know you are being compared to everyone else’s assignment and as an ALS student it is really hard to stand out.’

Poppy has a point: for students with diverse learning abilities, the conventional assignment formats may prove a disservice to them, while dampening down any real passion for learning as opposed to merely doing and passing.

Back to Ella, for a summing up of the potential of creative pedagogy for all students.

‘I feel that this would be very beneficial for a lot of students, as it would allow them to express themselves, instead of just formal writing about a certain topic that they might not feel as inspired or engaged towards. I feel like you learn more and engage better with creative assignments, so overall you get more out of it.’

To conclude then, the transition from school/college to university marks a big change in standards, as any lecturer marking first-year assignments and subsequently dealing with glum faces thereafter, will know.  However, if the conventional assignment format remains the same exam/essay fare, then pedagogically an opportunity may be missed to ignite that fire for authentic, deep learning we long to cultivate in our HE students. Creative assignments shake that old model down for dusting, replacing it with something that yes, may initially worry students owing to its unfamiliar form, but will capture their interests, light the fuse of their imagination, and ultimately can produce work that will surprise academics with the quality and power of liberated, unleashed minds. We believe that students are owed transformative learning opportunities. They are, for sure, a demanding joy to develop for educators. Yet given our very positive experiences it seems overwhelmingly clear, students really do thirst for these creative educational opportunities, and when they get them they flourish most wonderfully.

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Becky Warner, Ella Smith, Poppy Harris, Aimee Evans, Asha Smith, and Jonathan Parker –  the ‘Snowflakes of Steel’ co-research team.

Congratulations to Dr Daisy Wiggins for her successful bid for NIHR Undergraduate Internship funding

Dr Daisy Wiggins was successful in her bid for NIHR Undergraduate Internship funding. This is a small aspect of a much larger body of work being done in collaboration with University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) with Minesh Khushu consultant Neonatologist at UHD, Dr Steve Trenoweth and Michael Lyne here at BU. Daisy, supervised by Prof Vanora Hundley and Steve T. will herself be supervising a BU undergraduate student who has just successfully interviewed. The intern will be looking at the literature available on women and families involved in care proceeding particularly looking at current support, interventions and help offered during pregnancy or at the removal of their baby. 

As of 2022, 86.9% of women attending court for care proceedings, had cases whereby the child/ren were less than 11 months old and a large majority were babies (Alrouh et al. 2022). The evidence is clear on how this has a significant impact on the newborn in the immediate postnatal period, but also in terms of future development. Furthermore the wider impact on the woman, families and care systems is well documented, what isn’t  however is currently available support and services for these children, women and families.  The intern will look at currently literature to contribute to a scoping review before supporting PPI with women who have experience of this to understand what provisions of care and interventions are needed.

It is hoped that the output from this internship will be a stepping stone into a larger PhD project that identifies pertinent factors (personal, social/ cultural, legal and health) to improve our understanding of the needs of women who are at risk of repeated care proceedings following birth.

With future aspirations of developing and testing a service level approach / pathway to meet the needs of pregnant women involved in care proceedings (and particularly those who are subject to repeat proceedings).

Check out BU_research and BU_midwifery for details of the focus groups to please share

Prize awarded for paper on rural tourism transport use in Bali

BUBS PhD student Rama Permana was awarded the Smeed Prize runner-up at the 56th Universities’ Transport Study Group (UTSG) Annual Conference 2024 held at University of Huddersfield earlier this month. Rama presented a paper entitled Sustainability Transitions in Rural Tourism Travel: Who are the ‘Switchable’ Visitor Segments? The paper draws on surveys at 3 rural sites in Bali following qualitative interviews on the first stage of his PhD study. Utilising hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis, this paper discovers traveller segmentation in the tourism destination based on their own rural travel practices.  (Image source: Huddersfield Business School)

New paper: Tourism and transport use in Bali, Indonesia

Congratulations to BUBS PhD student Rama Permana on the publication of his paper ‘The (un)sustainability of rural tourism travel in the Global South: A social practice theory perspective’ in the International Journal of Tourism Research. The paper draws on a series of semi-structured interviews with tourists and destination stakeholders which explore tourists’ rural travel practices in Bali, Indonesia. The paper uses a social practices perspective to explore how Bali’s transport provision has evolved to meet residents’ needs for travel and income generation, shaping the options for tourists. The paper highlights how transition to more sustainable transport use is challenging when local populations are invested in existing transport provision and how this provision has become part of the tourism experience. 

MRes studentship opportunities – application deadline extended to 14th August, 2024

Update about the NIHR INSIGHT programme MRes studentship eligibility which impacts on the current recruitment round.

Following consultation with the 12 regional leads for the NIHR INSIGHT programme, NIHR has agreed to Research Masters studentships being open to applicants with up to five years’ experience of practice in the health or care profession for which they hold the required registration. It is still possible to provide flexibility for instances such as career breaks or time out for caring responsibilities so long as experience of practice fits with this guidance.

In light of the above changes, the deadline for applications for the Research Masters Studentships for South West Central have been extended to Wednesday 14th August 2024 to allow for applications for those who may now meet the eligibility criteria.  Information about how to apply is available on our webpage: https://insight-southwestcentral.net/

There was also discussion about health and care professionals working on skilled worker visas and the requirements for Research Masters studentships in line with all applicants, only those with up to five years’ experience of practice (UK and international practice) will be considered. Those on skilled worker visas will need to be employed on a full-time basis and given clinical release to undertake the MRes programme (0.4FTE). The studentship stipend can be paid to employers to offset the cost of clinical/care release. However, this will mean that employers will need to subsidise the difference in salary costs. This will need to be discussed and negotiated on an individual basis where employers deem it appropriate.

If you have any queries, please contact  Carol Clark (cclark@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Theo Akudjedu  (takudjedu@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Les Gelling lgelling@bournemouth.ac.uk

Positionality in qualitative research

At the online editorial board meeting today [Saturday 29th June] of the Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology I had the pleasure of seeing Bournemouth University’s latest paper ‘The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers’ ahead of publication [1].  The lead author of this paper is Hannah Gurr and this methodology paper is part of her M.Res. research project in Social Work.  Hannah is supervised by Dr. Louise Oliver, Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology is a Gold Open Access journal so when it appears online it will be free to read for anybody across the globe.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

  1. Gurr, H., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 18 (forthcoming)

BU MSc Student, Sarah Clark, presents MSc dissertation research at BPS Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference 2024

Sarah, who is a BU MSc Student studying Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology, presented research from her MSc dissertation on Friday 7th June at The BPS Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference 2024.

Supervised by Dr Emily Arden-Close, Sarah’s dissertation delved into the daily experiences of autistic individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). This was lived-experience research as Sarah has both conditions herself, and therefore engaging with her study participants carried huge emotional relevance and importance to her personally.

The research found that traits commonly associated with autism, such as the need for routine and structure, significantly aid in planning daily activities and managing EDS symptoms. However, participants also highlighted the psychological challenges of having to adjust meticulously planned routines due to acute pain and fatigue flare-ups. This qualitative research underscores the complexity and challenges faced by those living with both hEDS and autism.

Sarah was diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (a rarely diagnosed genetic connective tissue disorder) in February 2020. This diagnosis came after fifteen years of physical symptoms which were misdiagnosed as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder. Sarah has an extremely rare co-condition called Median arcuate ligament syndrome (MALS) and has studied for her Masters degree on a prescription liquid-only diet, unable to eat food.

Sarah was diagnosed with autism in May 2022, after realising she is autistic thanks to the lectures on autism on her MSc course at BU!

Acknowledging the transformative impact of formal diagnosis on her life, Sarah has embraced lifestyle changes and effective self-management strategies for her hEDS and various co-morbidities.

Sarah sits as a patient expert in the EDS International Consortium, Psychiatric and Psychological Aspects Working Group, and Sarah presented her BMJ paper, “Help me trust you after my misdiagnosis,” at The EDS Global Learning Conference in Dublin last August.

Alongside being a student here, Sarah also works at BU as a Student Ambassador, Digitial Marketing Ambassador and a member of BU PIER (as a member of the public). Passionate about medical education and raising awareness of rare health conditions, Sarah regularly engages in public awareness, volunteering, and charity fundraising.

Influenced by her own health journey and navigating the complexities of the healthcare system, coupled with Complex PTSD from childhood trauma, Sarah has developed a keen interest in various aspects of the diagnostic journey.

In March 2024, Sarah’s art exhibition “Seeking Meaning in Diagnosis” was held in the Atrium Gallery at BU. Sarah recently won the SUBU Award in the “Outstanding Contribution to Equality” category.

As well as being a patient expert, photographer and blogger Sarah is also a keen yogi and she was featured in Hotpod Yoga’s Move with Purpose Campaign, discussing her late-autism diagnosis.

To learn more about Sarah’s inspirational diagnostic journey – visit her website.

The Missing Persons Indicator Project: Research Collaboration for Knowledge Exchange

The Missing Persons Indicator Project, initiated several years ago by Professor Melanie Klinkner and Andreas Kleiser from the ICMP, has recently been enhanced by a visit to the ICMP, aimed at optimising knowledge exchange. Its goal is to showcase each state’s relationship with missing persons through comprehensive data analysis. This initiative began as a collaborative effort, with data gathering undertaken by undergraduate students at Bournemouth University, engaging students in real-world research and ensuring the project’s sustainability by welcoming new students each September.

Since its inception, the project has been fortunate to work with many enthusiastic students who have completed the first round of Structural Indicator 1. This indicator demonstrates the commitment of states to international legal instruments. The table below outlines the current indicators involved in our data collection process:

Context Indicator A qualitative assessment as to whether the state has experienced extraordinary events that may be correlated to a rise in missing persons cases.
Structural Indicator 1 The commitment shown by states to international legal instruments is an indicator of their duties and obligation in relation to missing persons.
Structural Indicator 2 Domestic legislation by states as an indicator of their duties and obligation in relation to missing persons.
Structural Indicator 3 Institutional framework(s) established by states as an indicator of their duties, obligation, and enactment of legislation in relation to missing persons.

Thanks to HEIF funding, the Missing Persons Indicator Project recently had the opportunity to employ four student volunteers over the past two weeks. Their task was to accelerate the data collation for these indicators. By working through each indicator on a state-by-state basis, they developed a comprehensive understanding of each state’s unique situation. This method also allowed them to recognise and utilise specific details that might recur across the different indicators.

Every day, a designated “data-checker” reviewed previously inputted data to identify and correct any anomalies. This rigorous review process ensures the data’s accuracy, ethical integrity, and suitability for international dissemination.

Throughout this process, the students have been deeply engaged, asking insightful questions that challenged our perspectives and prompted us to consider aspects we might have overlooked. The atmosphere has been a hub of activity and intellectual growth.

We are extremely grateful for the hard work and dedication of our student researchers. Their contributions have demonstrated that a student ‘data-lab’ is an excellent model for conducting research and achieving meaningful results.

As this term draws to a close, we are keen to alert teaching staff to the potential for their students to join the Missing Person Indicator project in September as we recruit a new cohort for the new academic year. To learn more about the project please visit our website!

New guide to Practice-Based Research published today!

Book cover image with title, subtitle, author. Background is variegated orange, with the white outline of a human figure holding an upside-down light bulb.Designing and Conducting Practice-Based Research Projects: A Practical Guide for Arts Student Researchers by Bournemouth University Associate Professor Lyle Skains is available from today.

The book is aimed primarily at upper undergraduate and Master’s students undertaking practice-based research in the arts, though it is also suitable for PhD candidates and researchers and supervisors new to practice-based research projects.

The discussion starts with definitions and a brief background to practice-related research in the arts and contextualization of practice-based methods within that frame. The bulk of the text is a step-by-step approach to designing, conducting, and writing-up practice-based research projects; each step is supplemented with examples of practice-related research, exercises for progressing methods design and evaluating research approach, and lists for further reading.

Designing and Conducting Practice-Based Research Projects has been requested and should soon be available through the Bournemouth University Library.

Studying for M.Res. in CMWH

Now accepting research students in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

A Master’s by Research (M.Res.) is a great introduction to the research process, enabling the student to explore a specific area under the supervision of experienced researchers. It contains little or no formal taught component. This type of study gives you the chance to explore a research topic over a shorter time than a more in-depth Ph.D.  M.Res. students can undertake a one year full-time or two years part-time Master’s degree.  For more details see here.

CMWH is currently accepting MRes (and PhD) applications in the following areas:

Early / latent phase labour (Prof. Vanora Hundley)

Infant feeding (Asso. Prof. Catherine Angell)

Pain management, pain education, musculoskeletal and pelvic pain,  pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, women’s health (Prof. Carol Clark)

Women’s health in a changing global climate (Dr. Becky Neall)

Drowning prevention in  low-and-middle-income countries (Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen)

Cardiometabolic health during pre-conception and pregnancy (Dr. Sumanto Haldar)

Exercise and pregnancy (Dr. Malika Felton)

Chronic musculoskeletal pain, lifestyle factors, human metabolism, and the use of data science in the pain field (Dr. Omer Elma)

Women’s alcohol consumption and nutritional status (Dr. Chloe Casey)

Nutrition in women’s health (including LGBT+ populations) (Dr. Sarah Hillier)

2nd HSS PGR Conference – submission deadline 19th April

HSS conference poster

Last chance to submit…

The Conference Committee welcome all PGRs in HSS to submit an abstract to present at the 2nd annual department conference, which will be held on Tuesday 4th June.

Last year’s inaugural conference was very successful, with evaluations celebrating the welcoming and supportive atmosphere for sharing aspects of our PGR work. It was fantastic to hear from students across the faculty and to see the breadth of research being carried out. You can see some highlights on X, by searching for the tagline #FHSSPGRConference2023
We welcome applications from all HSS PGRS, at any stage of the research.  Please submit your abstract, for either an oral presentation (20mins/3mins) or a poster presentation at https://forms.office.com/e/uwMMNxstEYNB the deadline for submissions has been extended by 1 week. Closing date Friday 19th April.
 
We have 2 keynote speakers organised to present on the day.
Dr. Mona Seyed Esfahani will deliver a keynote on new technologies in healthcare in the morning.
Dr. Holly Henderson will deliver a keynote on AI in research in the afternoon.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me on wardl@bournemouth.ac.uk or Tanya Andrewes on tandrewes@bournemouth.ac.uk.
Best wishes
Louise Ward, on behalf of the Conference Committee

New research paper published by PhD student Hina Tariq

PhD student Hina Tariq, currently undertaking the Clinical Academic Doctorate program at the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work (SSSW), published a new paper titled, “The Delphi of ORACLE: An Expert Consensus Survey for the Development of the Observational Risk Assessment of Contractures (Longitudinal Evaluation)” Open Access in the journal of Clinical Rehabilitation.
This paper is co-authored by her academic supervisors, Professor Sam Porter and Dr Kathryn Collins, her former academic supervisor, Dr Desiree Tait and her clinical supervisor, Joel Dunn (Dorset Healthcare University Foundation NHS Trust).

Summary: This paper used the Delphi method to provide expert consensus on items to be included in a contracture risk assessment tool (ORACLE). The items were related to factors associated with joint contractures, appropriate preventive care interventions, and potentially relevant contextual factors associated with care home settings. The promise of a risk assessment tool that includes these items has the capacity to reduce the risk of contracture development or progression and to trigger timely and appropriate referrals to help prevent further loss of function and independence.

The paper has already crossed over 250 reads. The full text can be accessed by following this link: The Delphi of ORACLE: An Expert Consensus Survey for the Development of the Observational Risk Assessment of Contractures (Longitudinal Evaluation)