Tagged / Edwin-blog-post

New international midwifery paper

international, open access, Publishing, writing

Today the editor of the European Journal of Midwifery emailed to announce the acceptance of the paper ‘Slovenian midwifery professionalisation: Perception of midwives and related health professions’ [1].   The first author from Slovenia, Dr. Polona Mivšek, has a long working relationship with BU’s Prof. Vanora Hundley (Professor of Midwifery) in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH).  The paper is the result of an international collaboration between the University of Ljubljana and Bournemouth University as well as an interdisciplinary collaboration between midwifery and sociology.

 

 

Reference:

  1. Mivšek, A.P., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., Pahor, M., Hlebec, V. (2021) Slovenian midwifery professionalisation: Perception of midwives and related health professions, European Journal of Midwifery (forthcoming)

BU celebrates International Day of the Midwife 2021

conferences, international, NHS, Publishing

Today, with midwives across the globe, the Centre of Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) celebrates the International Day of the Midwife 2021.  Since we are enable to celebrate in person in this challenging year, we planned and watch together online events around this year’s International Day of the Midwife theme: Follow the data: invest in midwives.  We also produced the poster on the picture with messages from BU students, staff and partners across the world.

 

Laura Iannuzzi, Juliet Wood, Debbee Houghton for the Midwifery Team.

 

Happy New Year 2078 (in Nepal)

international

Bournemouth University wishes all its Nepali students, staff and collaborators in both the UK and in Nepal a Healthy and Happy New Year 2078 today.

 

 

 

Graduation: End of an Era

international, PG research, student research

Four PhD students, whom I had the pleasure of supervising, graduated yesterday with a Ph.D.  I never had so many Ph.D. students graduating at the same time.  Not all of these four students started at the same time.  Moreover, two I was invited as a supervisor after the student had started, and for most I was not the lead/first supervisor .  All four students have an internationally focused thesis:

Alice Ladur with her Ph.D. focusing on: Male involvement in facilitating the uptake of maternal health services by women in Uganda.

Peter Wolfensberger with his Ph.D.: Creating meaning- Understanding the experiences of people living with mental illness in Switzerland- A Qualitative Study.

Shaqaieq AShrafi Dost with her thesis: Factors that affect the management capacity, leadership and employee performance in the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Afghanistan: A single embedded single-case study.

Orlanda Harvey with her Ph.D. study under the title: Male anabolic androgenic steroid-users: A mixed-methods study -The voice of the AAS-user.

Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis.  The newly introduced Integrated Thesis allows Ph.D. candidates to incorporate papers in their thesis (e.g. instead of a chapter).  Papers can be included that have been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. As the first BU student to submit an Integrated Thesis Orlanda paved the way with BU library staff to sort out the finer details around, for example, copyright issues and thesis formatting (https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2020/08/27/supporting-integrated-theses-at-bu/ ).

In this COVID-19 year the graduation was on ZOOM, something I didn’t think would work as well as it did.   I love the British-style graduation with the big audience, the ceremony, the gowns, the band, etc.  In previous years I had always looked forward to ceremony in the BIC, the Bournemouth International Centre.  This year because it was on ZOOM the event was smaller, shorter and more personal.  This offered the opportunity to talk to students and colleagues which is otherwise nearly impossible in the hustle and bustle of thousands of people in the BIC.

Being a graduation it is also the end of an era for the student and the supervisor, and the beginning of a new one.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)

Two new COVID-19 papers in FHSS

international, Publishing, writing

Today FHSS Prof. Jonathan Parker published an article (online first) on structural discrimination and abuse associated with COVID-19 in care homes in The Journal of Adult Protection [1].  Whilst Dr. Preeti Mahato, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and FHSS Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada had a COVID-19 paper published in the Journal of Midwifery Association of Nepal (JMAN) in late-January 2021 [2], although an electronic copy only reached their email inbox today.

 

  1. Parker, J. (2021) Structural discrimination and abuse: COVID-19 and people in care homes in England and Wales, The Journal of Adult Protection, Online ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-12-2020-0050
  2. Tamang, P., Mahato, P., Simkhada P., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) Pregnancy, Childbirth, Breastfeeding and Coronavirus Disease: What is known so far? Journal of Midwifery Association of Nepal (JMAN) 2(1): 96-101.

COVID-19 in Qatar

international, open access, Publishing, writing

Peer reviewing is the backbone of academic publishing. It is this peer review process to ensure that papers/publications have been vetted scientifically prior to publication by experts in the field, i.e. one’s peers. However, the process is not without its problems. One such problems is the delay in academic publishing. For example, a few days ago we published a substantive editorial on COVID-19 in Qater [1].  When we submitted this in July 2020 the information in our editorial was very up to date, and it still was when the Qatar Medical Journal accepted it on 26th July 2020.  Unfortunately, with all the incredibly rapid developments in vaccine development, approval and roll out some of the paper now reads like ‘historial data’.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

Reference:

  1. van Teijlingen, E.R., Sathian, B., Simkhada, P., Banerjee, I. (2021) COVID-19 in Qatar: Ways forward in public health & treatment, Qatar Medical Journal 2020(38): 1-8 https://doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2020.38

New interdisciplinary COVID-19 paper

international, open access, Publishing, writing

An evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach on risk zoning, personal and transmission risk assessment in near real-time, and risk communication would support the optimized decisions to minimize the impact of coronavirus on our lives. This interdisciplinary paper [1], pubished today in Scientific Reports, offers a framework to assess the individual and regional risk of COVID-19 along with risk communication tools and mechanisms. Relative risk scores on a scale of 100 represent the integrated risk of influential factors. The personal risk model incorporates age, exposure history, symptoms, local risk and existing health condition, whereas regional risk is computed through the actual cases of COVID-19, public health risk factors, socioeconomic condition of the region, and immigration statistics. A web application tool (http://www.covira.info) has been developed, where anyone can assess their risk and find the guided information links primarily for Nepal. This study provides regional risk for Nepal, but the framework is scalable across the world. 

The authors comprised researchers from the University of Bristol, Science Hub (Nepal), University of the West of England, Public Health Perspective Nepal, Nepal Open University, Center for Molecular Dynamics Nepal, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, the University of Huddersfield and Bournemouth University.

 

Reference:

  1. Parajuli, R.R., Mishra, B., Banstola, A. Multidisciplinary approach to COVID-19 risk communication: a framework and tool for individual and regional risk assessment. 21650 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78779-0

The PhD examiner

international, PG research

Being asked to examine a PhD thesis is a honour for most academics.  As an examiner you always learn something new.  If not about the topic itself, you may learn different ways of applying a research method or new theoretical explanations or even new ideas for supervising your own PhD students.  It is a joy to have an in-depth scientific discussion with a dedicated and motivated candidate. Usually the candidate is a little nervous, especially at the start of the viva, and I see it as one of my tasks as an examiner to help the candidate to relax a little.

Today I had the pleasure of being one of the examiners for a PhD at the University of Maastricht (the Netherlands).   The PhD candidate (now Dr.) Franka Cadée was a little nervous according to her supervisors, although it did not show during the viva.

Interestingly, enough I also felt nervous!  Before today I had examined 50th PhD thesis in seven different countries.  However, I probably had not felt this nervous since my own viva nearly three decades ago.  Why was I nervous?  First, although I am Dutch and I have studied in the Netherlands and the UK, I had never attended a PhD examination in the Netherlands.  And PhD examinations really do differ between the UK and most northern European countries, especially the public defence of the thesis by the candidate in front of examiners, colleagues, friends and family.  Secondly, the candidate today is the president of the ICM (the International Confederation of Midwives).  Of course, this does not make any difference in the examination process, this candidate was treated the same as any other student would have been.  Thirdly, and most importantly, the ICM had globally advertised the public defence of Dr. Cadée’s thesis to midwives, maternity policy-makers, member of International Non-Governmental Organisations and maternity care providers and invited ‘everybody’ to watch on ZOOM.

I really think it was the latter that made me more nervous than the much more private UK PhD viva with perhaps five or six people in a small class room, or, these days, on ZOOM.

Finally, my congratulations to Dr. Franka Cadée on the successful defence of her thesis Twinning, a promising dynamic process to strengthen the agency of midwives.

 

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

Productive week CMMPH

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Some weeks are more productive than others and this week the  academics in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) have been very busy.   Professor Hundley published  a paper  ‘The initiation of labour at term gestation: physiology and practice implications’ with two midwifery colleagues [1].   The further two CMMPH paper accepted this week were systematic reviews: (a)  Perceived Stress and Diet Quality in Women of Reproductive Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis; and (b)  ‘Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature’ [2-3].  Fourthly, CMMPH PhD student Sulochana Dhakal-Rai had a poster accepted at this year’s GLOW conference, which will be held, for the first time, online.  This poster based on her PhD ‘Factors contributing to rising caesarean section rates in South Asia: ​a systematic review’ is supervised by Dr. Juliet Wood, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Prof.  Ganesh Dangal (based in Nepal).

 

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

References:

  1. Hundley V, Downe S, Buckley S (2020) The initiation of labour at term gestation: physiology and practice implications. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology 67: 4-18  https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/best-practice-and-research-clinical-obstetrics-and-gynaecology/vol/67/suppl/C

  2. Khaled K, Tsofliou F, Hundley V, Helmreich R, Almilaji O Perceived Stress and Diet Quality in Women of Reproductive Age: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Nutrition (in press) 

  3. Vickery M, van Teijlingen E, Hundley V, Smith GB, Way S, Westward G. Midwives’ views towards women using mHealth and eHealth to self-monitor their pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature.  European Journal of Midwifery (in press)