Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Congratulations to HEMS’s Dr. Malika Felton, Dr. Vikram Mohan and Prof. Vanora Hundley on the recent publication of their academic paper ‘Acute cardiovascular responses to slow and deep breathing in normotensive men and women‘ [1]. 
The BU authors outline that there differences in cardiovascular responses to different methods of slow and deep breathing (SDB) delivery. They query whether utilising a multi-parametric approach to measuring cardiovascular variables reveal new/different responses. Their key findings are that all SDB conditions elicited similar cardiovascular responses to each other when compared with spontaneous breathing. However, lower breathing frequencies elicit greater blood pressure oscillations, and higher breathing frequencies (∼8 breaths min−1) may not fully optimise cardiovascular responses. This has implications on the practice of SDB for management of hypertension.
Well done!
Prof.Edwin van Teijlingen
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Yesterday the international journal Health Policy & Planning published our latest article with the title ‘Understanding the formulation of non-communicable disease policies in Nepal: A qualitative study‘ [1]. The paper is part of the PhD work (at the University of Hudderfield) by the first author, Dr. Anju Vaidya, who is originally from Nepal. Anju’s thesis was supervised by Prof. Padam Simkhada (University of Chester), Prof. Andre Lee (The University of Sheffield) and by Bournemouth University’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
The paper recognises that there is limited evidence about the process through which health policies were formulated in Nepal. This study used Kingdon’s multiple streams framework to explore how NCDs (non-communicable diseases) were recognised and prioritised, how policy alternatives were decided, how policy windows were opened, and which contextual factors influenced the policy formulation process. Anju’s PhD included a qualitative study to gain a comprehensive understanding of the formulation of major NCD-related policies in Nepal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 key stakeholders, and policy documents were analysed using framework analysis.
The NCDs were gradually prioritised through the convergence of global and local evidence, sustained advocacy, and international commitments. Policymakers encountered several challenges, such as competing health priorities, the chronic nature of NCDs, donor preferences for communicable diseases, financial constraints, and multisectoral complexities of NCDs. The Package of Essential Non-communicable diseases (PEN) interventions were adopted as a policy alternative, informed by global evidence, World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, and lessons from other countries. While coordinated efforts by stakeholders brought the problem, policy and politics streams together, the role of policy entrepreneurs was found to be less relevant in Nepal’s context.
Health Policy & Planning is an Open Access journal, hence the paper is available worldwide to anybody with internet access.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
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The editor of HIV Research & Clinical Practice informed us that the paper ‘Stigma in UK health care: A key barrier to reaching zero HIV transmission by 2030’ has been accepted for publication [1]. This paper is based on the PhD research currently conducted by Mr. Tom Weeks in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS). Tom’s thesis focuses on the perceptions of stigmatisation of People Living with HIV in care settings in the UK and the kind of education health care staff (clinical and non-clinical) receive in relation to HIV. His long-term aim in the PhD is to help improve education to reduce such stigma. Tom is being supervised by Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Both supervisors have a long experience in studying social and health promotion aspects of HIV and AIDS. Thirty years ago Prof. van Teijlingen worked in the NHS as a researcher in the Centre for HIV/AIDS and Drugs Studies based in Edinburgh. Whilst Dr. Regmi conducted his PhD research on sexual health and health promotion in young people in Nepal. Both supervisors themselves have published widely on the topic of HIV and AIDS [2-23]. The first of these many publication was a letter on community care for people living with HIV in the community which was published in the Lancet in 1993 [2].
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This week four postgraduate midwifery students from Bournemouth University attended the Royal College of Midwives annual Education & Research conference in London. Their contributions included studies on: (1) ‘A Unique Approach to Smoking Cessation During Pregnancy’ by Ph.D. student Louise Barton; (2) Investigating how women make decisions about prescribed psychiatric medication use during pregnancy by M.Res. student Jessica Correia; (3) Harnessing midwives’ research delivery expertise to encourage medics’ participation in research’ by M.Res. student Susara Blunden; and (4) ‘Personalised care for women of advanced maternal age, from conception to postnatal care: A mixed-methods study’ by Ph.D. student Joanne Rack. Joanne was also at this conference in her capacity of the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Practising Midwife.
Congratulations to these postgraduate students and their supervisors.
Profs. Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen
Last week, to coincide with International Women’s Day, the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee of published its report on improving menstrual health [1]. This report ‘Menstrual health of girls and young women‘ includes a submission by BU M.Res. student Susara Blunden [2]. Susara is currently conducting her M.Res. research on endometriosis, a condition which affects more women than many people realise. 
Susara Blunden balances her job as a women’s health research midwife at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust with a place on the National Institute for Heath and Care Research (NIHR)’s INSIGHT programme. 
Endometriosis is not a problem unique to the UK, as last week a national newspaper in the Netherlands also under the heading ‘So much pain that you can’t to anything anymore’ [3]. This same newspaper article added that on average women suffer seven years of pain before they are diagnosed with endometriosis. A similar delay can be found in the UK and the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee and Labour MP Sarah Owen noted more generally that: “The Committee is not convinced that the menstrual and gynaecological needs of young women and girls has been sufficiently prioritised in wider reforms to the healthcare system.”
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On Monday 9th March Prof. Sujan Marahatta visited Bournmouth University (BU) to speak about ‘Strengthening BU-Nepal collaboration AND Nepal’s experience of competency-based health professional education’. Prof. Marahatta is the Director of the Medical Education Commission in Nepal overseeing the education of health professionals in 15 areas including Medicine, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Midwifery. 
He spoke about long partnership between Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) and BU. This partnership is formalised in a Memoradum of Agreement (MoA) and over the years it has included joint research projects, staff-student exchanges (funded by ERASMUS+ and Turing scheme) and offering guest lectures at each others institutions.
One of the jointly conducted studies which Prof. Marahatta highlighted was the work on CPD (Continuous Professional Development) in nursing and midwifery in Nepal. Research on CPD started a decade ago and culminated in several papers [1-4]. The research was combined with sustained advocacy and stakeholder engagement, and resulted in the Nepal Nursing Council (NNC) formally introduced mandatory CPD as a requirement for nursing and midwifery re-registration earlier this year (15 January 2026). The National Guideline on Continuing Nursing and Midwifery Education (CNME) CPD for Nurses and Midwives refer to our work conducted by academics based at Bournemouth University. This is the foundation for one of BU’s REF Impact Case Studies for 2029.
Amongst other studies, Prof. Marahatta also highlighted a recent publication which was jointly authored between BU’s professors Clark and Hundley and himself on pain catastrophising in nulliparous women in Nepal, the importance for childbirth [5]. Prof. Marahatta’s visit was held in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS) in the Bournemouth Gateway Building.
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As members of the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health, we are passionate about sharing our knowledge to tackle societal challenges and benefit the community socially, culturally and economically. Through partnership working we have been collaborating with Dorset Women and NHS Dorset to improve health literacy among women in Dorset.
Reflecting on the Bournemouth University motto, Discere Mutari Est (“To learn is to change”), we worked with an interdisciplinary team of women, practitioners and academics in Dorset to co-create the Women’s Health Programme website.
A series of podcasts support this, covering aspects such as menopause, reproductive health and pelvic health. The podcasts feature informal discussions providing a window into the work of the team. You can find the podcasts here: https://dorsetwomen.org.uk/speaking-of-womens-health-podcast/
CMWH midwives and students have also been working with Dorset Women to facilitate education sessions for Afghan women in Dorset. Collaboration with volunteer partners, especially the support of a skilled interpreter, was vital for cultural awareness and effective communication. Women were signposted to useful websites, charities, support groups, and educational materials. Student midwives also created additional resources to address the very limited availability of existing information in Dari and Pashto.
CMWH community collaboration is at the centre of what is known as Knowledge Exchange (KE):
the two-way exchange of knowledge, expertise, and capabilities between higher education institutions and external partners (businesses, government bodies, non-profits, and communities).
Worldwide there is a growing interest in interdisciplinary research, especially to help deal with large questions in life, the so-called wicked problems. These wicked problems (or questions) include climate disasters and global warming, globalisation, the drop in biodiversity, inequalities and international conflicts. Interdisciplinary research increasingly popular and widely promoted by grant-giving bodies, the UK REF (Research Excellence Framework), research councils and universities, to name but a few stakeholders.
However, it is often ignored, that interdisciplinary research presents significant challenges for discipline-specific experts. Doing interdisciplinary research requires specialised skills, team-player personality traits, and the ability to transcend one’s own academic boundaries. We have highlighted in the past that common barriers include managing conflicting research philosophies, navigating, and overcoming, methodological, and communication differences [1]. Those who have been involved in interdisciplinary research will agree that is not an easy option for the individual discipline expert. It requires individual skills, ability to see beyond one’s discipline and perhaps personality characteristics such as a great team player. Interdisciplinary research may involve a mixed-methods approach underpinned by conflicting, and according to some incommensurable, research philosophies.
It is also the case that some disciplines are perhaps more familiar with interdisciplinary working, disciplines such as Public Health [2] are traditionally less theory focused and more solution driven. But even in Public Health as a broad-ranging discipline covering sub-disciplines such as epidemiology, health education, law, management, health psychology, medical statistics, sociology of health & illness and a wide-range of research methods, conducting interdisciplinary research is not necessarily easy [3].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Pramod Regmi both are in the School of Health & Care, and Dr. Shanti Farrington, who is based in the School of Psychology.
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Yesterday (5th March) Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen published a topical piece in an online newspaper in Nepal called ‘NepaliLink. This newspaper article coincided with the national elections taking place in the country. This is the first general election since Gen Z protests overturned the Government of Nepal in the autumn of 2025. Migrant labour is key to Nepal’s economy as no country in the world relies so much on workers going abroad to work and sending money home. The latter is called remittance and the total amount sent home comprises more than a quarter of the national income.
Dr. Regmi and Prof. van Teijlingen have conducted a great number of studies on the health and well-being of migrant workers from Nepal. This includes a paper ‘A comparison of chronic kidney risk among returnee Nepalese migrant workers in the countries of Gulf and Malaysia and non-migrants in Nepal: a population-based cross-sectional study’ whixh was recently accepted for publication in BMC Nephrology. With a grant from the COLT Foundation, our BU team led the first large-scale population-based interdisciplinary study examining kidney health among Nepalese migrants. Conducted in mid-2023 in one of Nepal’s highest out-migration districts, the forthcoming study compared risks between migrants and non-migrants from the same community [1]. Our study identified significantly higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and obesity among male migrant workers compared to non-migrants. Interestingly, smoking and alcohol consumption were more common among non-migrant men. However, one in seven male migrants reported consuming potentially hazardous counterfeit or home-brewed alcohol while abroad. The findings suggest that both adverse working environments and lifestyle factors may contribute to increased heart disease among migrant workers.
Both Dr. Regmi and Prof. van Teijlingen are based in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS) and in the last five years alone they have published over twenty publications about the health and well-being of migrant workers [2-21].
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The editor of Frontiers in Public Health have accepted our latest article from the EPPOCH study. This latest paper ‘Prenatal substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: Associations with depression, anxiety, and pandemic stressors‘ focuses on the use of substances in pregnancy in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic [1]. Our previous EPPOCH paper, in line with several other population-based studies, highlighted that COVID-19 was associated with high levels of depression and anxiety during pregnancy in the UK [2].
This new publication reports on a cross-sectional analysis of baseline EPPOCH data (n = 3292; June – Nov. 2020). Participants reported alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and illicit drug use before and after recognition of pregnancy, alongside validated measures of depression, anxiety, pregnancy-related anxiety, and pandemic stressors. Linear regression models examined associations between mental health, COVID-19 stressors, and substance use after pregnancy recognition. A qualitative thematic analysis of 380 open-ended responses explored perceptions of substance use post-pregnancy recognition. Results: Alcohol was the most commonly used substance before pregnancy. Following pregnancy recognition, tobacco (8.75%) and alcohol (8.60%) were the most frequently reported substances, followed by cannabis (1.49%) and illicit drugs (0.12%). Tobacco use after pregnancy recognition was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and pandemic stressors, including perceived personal health threat and not receiving necessary care. Prenatal co-use of substances was associated with higher depressive symptoms and pandemic-related financial difficulties. Qualitative themes included continued substance use until pregnancy detection, vaping as a perceived safer-use strategy, and midwifery advice influencing prenatal substance use decisions.
In this large UK pregnancy cohort recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use following pregnancy recognition – particularly tobacco – was linked to depression and pandemic-related stressors. These findings highlight the importance of equipping midwives and other healthcare professionals with clear, evidence-based guidance on prenatal substance use, particularly during global health crises.
This interdisciplinary project is led by Dr. Melanie Conrad in Germany. The lead author for the paper is Ph.D. candidate Swarali Datye, whilst three members of the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH): Dr. Latha Vinayakarao and Prof. Minesh Khashu both working in University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) and both Visiting Faculty at BU and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are team members and co-authors on this paper.
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Last week we opened the Evidence Synthesis Centre in the School of Medical Sciences at Kathmandu University in Nepal. The centre is part of a wider initiative is funded by The British Academy and supported in the field by Green Tara Nepal. Earlier parts of this initiative included online workshop on systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis as well as face-to-face training in Nepal late last year. The project involved Bournemouth University’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen both in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences. 
This capacity-building project is led by Prof. Padam Simkhada from the University of Huddersfield and takes place at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS). This new Fellowship scheme is an international collaboration led by the University of Huddersfield in the UK, in close collaboration with Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (in Nepal), the Nepal Health Research Council, and several UK universities: Bournemouth University, the University of Sheffield, Canterbury Christ Church University, Keele University and the University of Chester. The Evidence Synthesis Centre and The British Academy grant grew out of an editorial written four years ago and published in the Journal of the Nepal Health Research Council [1]. The wider British Academy funded project on strengthening evidence synthesis for health policy-making in Nepal has been described in two recent publications [2-3].
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Prof. Sujan Marahatta from Nepal will be presenting at Bournemouth University about Competency-based education of health professionals in Nepal. He will be speaking on Monday March 9th in a session jointly organised by the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) and the Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH). The session will be in the Bournemouth Gateway Building (BGB) room 407 from 10.00 till 12.00. Prof. Marahatta is currently the Director of the Medical Education Commission in Nepal overseeing the education on the country of a wide range of health professionals including nurses and midwives. Prof. Marahatta is Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences (FHEMS)and has been so for nearly a decade. He is also a co-author on many publications with several past and present academics in the Faculty of Health, Environment and Medical Sciences [1-20]. Former BU academics with whom Prof. Marahatta is a co-author include: Bibha Simkhada, Nirmal Aryal, Malcolm McIver, Preeti Mahato, Elaine Asbridge, Jana Kuncova, and Anneyce Knight, whilst co-authors currently based at BU include: Dr. Catherine Angell, Prof. Carol Clark, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Prof. Vanora Hundley, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
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We are currently recruiting to the INSIGHT MRes Programme for September 2026. These fully funded M.Res. studentships are available to nurses, midwives and allied health rpofessionals as well as final year nursing, midwifery and allied health students working towards professional registration in the UK. More information can be found here!
Last month I had the honour of chairing a committee to review the first three years of the MSc in Midwifery in the Netherlands. Since all Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the Netherlands offer this joint degree there is only one in the country. This national collaboration meant there were very few academics working in the field of midwifery who can claim to be independent. All midwifery educators/academic midwives are employed by one of the HEIs participating in the joint Master’s degree. Hence, two of the four committee members, including myself came from abroad.
Today’s blog highlights that there is a different way to the UK version of external examining as a form of quality control in Higher Education. In the UK each undergraduate programme, or year in a programme, or module has its own external examiner, who is appointed typically for three years to act as independent assessor. External examiners typically reviews all education aspects of the programme/module and discuss their assessment examiners’ meetings held at the host university. For more details on external examining in the UK, see also:”Acting as External Examiners in the UK: Going Beyond Quality Assurance” [1].
The Netherlands and Flemish-speaking Belgium has a single cross-national organisation which is responsible for assessing the quality of higher education degrees. This organisation, the NVAO [Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders], has an accreditation system that covers Associate Degree, Bachelor’s, and Master’s programmes in the Netherlands. First, there is the need for initial accreditation of a new programme, valid for a period of six years. Secondly, the accreditation of an existing programme, which, following a positive assessment, is valid indefinitely, as long as the programmes passes the six-yearly assessment by a panel of independent experts (peers engaged by the NVAO). Between these periodic assessments there is no equivalent of the UK’s annual external examiners’ meeting.
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Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
After several little hiccups in our Sonamoni research project we can now show some of the work. Sonamoni is a four-year research study led by the University of Bournemouth and the Centre for Injury Prevention Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) with the University of Southampton, the University of the West of England (UWE), the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Design Without Borders (DWB) to develop a number of interventions to prevent drowning in children under the age of 2 years in rural Bangladesh. After several stages of well-planned research we worked with local communities and stakeholders to propose six interventions with the prospect of been taken further to a full community-based feasibility study.
These six interventions are being piloted in Bangladesh as I am writing this. This pilot phase is made more difficult at the moment as the country is in the ban of the forthcoming national elections. These elections are particularly challenging for the people in Bangladesh and CIPRB as the local research partner. The previous national election resulted in violent changes, and the lead up to this election has been, and still is, a difficult period.
We would like to highlight one of the six interventions in a little more detail, as the Human-Centred Design approach, resulted in a neat, simple and low-cost playpen. The colourful pictures shows the first batch of flatpack playpens in the CIPRB office and some being delivered to rural villages. However, getting the first sixty developed in Bangladesh turned out more difficult than expected. 
Our collagues in Bangladesh approached several small to medium-sized companies in the country with the production capabilities to produce a large number of playpens. In the end only one way interested to try and this company took much longer than agreed to produce enough for our pilot stage. The good news is that the first stage of the pilot is underway, although now we have the difficulty of forthcoming national election slowing down our research.
This interdisciplinary study is funded through the NIHR Research on Interventions for Global Health Transformation programme (Ref: NIHR203216). The Bournemouth University team comprises staff from across the university covering all three faculties: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, and Ph.D. student Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain. For more information about our ongoing research in Bangladesh, please visit the NIHR website.
Congratulations to Joanne Rack, PhD student (Clinical Doctorate) in the Faculty of Health , Environment & Medical Sciences (HEMS) who has been appointed this month as the new Editor in Chief of The Practising Midwife. 
Joanne is doing her Clinical Doctorate in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH) specialising in personalised care for women of advanced maternal age (AMA). This PhD study is matched-funded by University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) NHS Foundation Trust and Bournemouth University. Her PhD is supervised and supported by Profs. Vanora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen at BU and former BU Professor Ann Luce (who has recently moved to the University of the West of Scotland) and Dr. Latha Vinayakarao in Bournemouth Maternity Hospital.
Well done!
Prof. Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen
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BU academics publish in Nepal national newspaper
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