

The interview with Nirmal Aryal in Nepali can be read online, click here!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
The interview with Nirmal Aryal in Nepali can be read online, click here!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
Yesterday (Sunday 15th October) Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from BU’s Department of Midwifery and Health Sciences presented a PhD Thesis Writing Workshop at Tribhuvan University (TU), the largest and oldest university in Nepal. The session was organised by Prof. Dr. Bhimsen Devkota in the Graduate School of Education, he is also Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences at BU. Prof. Devkota is currently also involved in a major grant application to the NIHR. This application is together with colleagues in Pakistan and led by Prof. Vanora Hundly in the Department of Midwifery and Health Sciences.
Most people, including students, in Nepal only have one day, Saturday off as weekend. So teaching on a Sunday is normal here. As you would expect from an audience of largely PhD students, during and at the end of the session there was a very good range of very good questions. The teaching session was also an opportunity to promote our textbook ACADEMIC WRITING AND PUBLISHING IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL SCIENCES. This book was published April last year in Kathmandu.
This week Bournemouth University organised two dissemination events for our risk of kidney disease study in Nepalese migrant workers in the Middle East and Malaysia. A previous blog reported on the first event in the capital Kathmandu (see details here!) . These dissemination events have generated a loads of media coverage in Nepal, both in Nepali and in English.
The study was led by Bournemouth University and a charity in Nepal which whom we have been collaborating for two decades, called Green Tara Nepal. This important study, the first of its kind, was conducted among the Nepalese migrant workers and a comparison group of non-migrants from the same community. This study was funded by The Colt Foundation, based in the UK. In the field it was supported by the Madhes Province Public Health Laboratory, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration and University College London (UCL).
Dr Pramod Raj Regmi (Principal Academic in International Health in Bournemouth University’s Department of Nursing Sciences) is the lead researcher and our team further comprises researchers Dr Nirmal Aryal and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen (both from BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences), and in Nepal clinicians: Prof Dr Arun Sedhai, Dr Radheshyam KC and Dr Shrawan Kumar Mishra.
Prof Edwin van Teijlingen
This mixed-methods study adopted Disadvantaged Populations eGFR Epidemiology Study (DEGREE) protocol which combines a questionnaire around living and working conditions abroad with biological measurements. This study, funded by the UK-based Colt Foundation, is the first of its kind in Nepal. The BU team comprises Dr. Pramod Regmi, Principal Academic and Dr. Nirmal Aryal, Postdoctoral Researcher, both in the Department of Nursing Science, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences. This event yesterday in Hotel Radisson in Kathmandu was first of two dissemination events, the second one will on Wednesday 11 October in the fieldwork area. In Kathmandu some 45-50 people attended including on of the regional ministers of Labour, Employment & Transport.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
The sessions with FCHVs are crucial capacity building as part of our interdisciplinary study ‘The impact of federalisation on Nepal’s health system: a longitudinal analysis’. I had the pleasure of saying a few words about our international project which started in 2020 and will run to 2024. It is funded by the Health System Research Initiative, a UK collaboration between three funders: the MRC (Medical research Council), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the Welcome Trust. The research team includes researchers from MMIHS (Kathmandu), and PHASE Nepal (Bhaktapur), the University of Sheffield, Bournemouth University, and the University of Huddersfield (the three original UK co-applicants), and researchers now based at the University of Greenwich, the University of Essex and Canterbury Christ Church University.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
Selective Travel offers interesting combinations of airlines to fly to far away destinations. This is great as it offers staff the opportunity to seek out the cheapest flight combination or the one with the shortest stop-over time, especially when traveling on research project funded by charities. What is not always clear is that these airlines in in your deal don’t share codes, as I found out at Heathrow two yesterday when I checked in for a my flight to Nepal. This trip to Nepal is part of The Colt Foundation study into the risk of kidney disease in Nepalese migrant workers. The first leg was with British Airways (BA) to Delhi and the onward flight was with Air India to Kathmandu. I could not check in online nor on one of the machines at Heathrow as BA treated this as a flight to India and I have no visa for India. I needed to queue thrice to speak to BA staff member who could check me in to Delhi, she also informed me that Air India and British Airways don’t code share, and I should get my onward ticket in Delhi. However, she could check in my luggage and send it on to Kathmandu! Arriving in Delhi I was told at the transfer desk for Air India that my ticket was not ready yet, as my luggage had to be located. after I told the guy my BA story. Luckily I had a stop-over of five hours, because after an hour or so there was still no sign of y ticket. It finally arrived a little later, and luckily I have traveled often enough in South Asia not to be worried by delays in paperwork, bureaucratic procedures, and the simple statement; “You have to wait, Sir”.
CMWH
After many emails about predatory journals and conferences, today I received an email about a predatory academic prize. Over the years there have been many BU Research Blogs warning readers about predatory journals, for example in 2014, 2015, 2018, and in 2019, and also about fake conferences (e.g. in 2017). It was inevitable that fake academic prizes would be the next trick. The email announces that for US$ 225 the prize is mine! This development fits in with the many messages I have received about having ‘won’ prizes on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Today’s predatory prize announcement is still very much in its infancy as scammers from the ‘Asia International Research Award 2023’ did not pick the greatest paper written in 2020 by the first author Dr Preeti Mahato, formerly in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, and now Lecturer in Global Health at Royal Holloway , University of London. If they had wanted to make the award scam more believable they would have chosen the PloS one paper from her BU PhD work in Nepal [1]. Instead the announcement list a paper with much older data based on secondary analysis [2], not a bad paper, but not a winner either.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References
Yesterday I wrote my resignation letter to the journal BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. After acting as Associate Editor for fifteen years the time has come for me to give it up, and I found ‘giving up’ very difficult. The enormous growth in my workload at Bournemouth University and the increasing requests to take on new papers as Associate Editor, on top of the many requests to review papers and grants, just became too much. It made me realize I needed to reduce several tasks and jobs to have a slightly better balanced work-home life.
I am still co-editor of the Journal of Asian Midwives, book review editor of Sociological Research Online, guest editor for a special issue of Frontiers in Public Health, and I am still on the editorial or advisory boards of: Birth (published by Wiley), Sociological Research Online (published by SAGE), Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, and Midwifery (published by Elsevier), so still plenty of work to be done.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Congratulations to BU’s PhD student Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain who has been selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of the Emerging Leaders in Drowning Prevention programme. This programme has been designed to create a cohort of younger leaders to join national and international efforts to raise awareness and strengthen solutions and political commitment towards drowning. This programme is hosted by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and provides a unique opportunity for people like Shafkat to develop leadership skills in drowning prevention, and be a part of a global community working to reduce drowning deaths. This first group of Emerging Leaders includes people from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Uganda, United States and Vietnam. Each Emerging Leader will be expected to participate in monthly sessions, both online and in person. The programme includes funding for Shafkat to attend the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Perth, Australia in December 2023 (wcdp2023.com/) and the World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Delhi, India in September 2024 (worldsafety2024.com/).
Shafkat’s PhD research focuses on aspects of the Human-Centred-Design element of the Sonamoni project.
Bournemouth University and the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) jointly lead research into the prevention of children drowning deaths in Bangladesh. The project, called ‘Sonamoni’, is being coordinated by BU in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). We are working with CIPRB to reduce drownings among newly-mobile children, generally under two years old. This £1.6m project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.
CMWH
The Masterclass is facilitated by (1) Vanora Hundley, Professor in Midwifery with experience of conducting systematic reviews of health care interventions in both low-and-high-income countries; (2) Edwin van Teijlingen, a medical sociologist with extensive experience in conducting systematic reviews. He has run similar workshops reviews internationally and has published on the importance of systematic reviews; and (3) Caspian Dugdale is Research Librarian with considerable experience in running health information literacy workshops for students, academics and postgraduate researchers.
The masterclass is suitable for anyone who wishes to explore the basic principles involved in conducting a systematic literature review. No previous knowledge is required. Attendees include health and social care practitioners, postgraduate students, and academics. There will be two online days – 8th and 15th November – which will focus on:
Booking Information:
The fee of £400 includes two full days with the course facilitators. We are happy to announce that NHS partner organisations are eligible for a reduced fee £200.
You are now able to book on line for our masterclass: https://www.applycpd.com/BU/courses/116678
The application deadline is 11th October 2023.
For more information contact:
Tel: 01202 962184 or email HSSRKEAdministrator@bournemouth.ac.uk
Half of the authors are associated with Bournemouth University, two are Visiting Faculty (Prof. Dr. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Brijesh Sathian) and the third one is Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH). The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is an Open Access journal and therefore the paper is freely available to read to anyone across the globe.
References:
We are grateful to the members of our International Advisory Board for volunteering to do this important work. We were struck by the dedication of the international team members this morning. We especially admire the International Advisory Board member who was online at 21.00 local time in Australia and even more perhaps our member in Canada for whom the local time was 3.00 in the morning.
Sonamoni is being coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). This project, with Prof. Dr. Aminur Rahman as Bangladesh lead, includes a BU-based PhD project. The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties through: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.
Today we were informed by Razi International Medical Journal that the paper ‘Management capacity in the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) Afghanistan: Political and socio-cultural issues’ [1] is finally out in print (i.e. online). I wrote a BU Research Blog (see copy of this here!) on May 1st to announce that this paper had accepted by the editors in late April. It has taken another four months at the editorial office to sort the publication details.
The lead author is Dr. Shaqaieq Ashrafi Dost, and this interesting paper is part of the dissemination of her Bournemouth University PhD research. The paper is in an Open Access journal and hence freely available online to read.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
References:
Ashrafi Dost, S., Arnold, R., van Teijlingen, E. (2023). Management capacity in theAfghan Ministry of Public Health pre-Taliban: A mixed-methods study of political and socio-cultural issues. Razi International Medical Journal, 3(1): 9-18. DOI:10.56101/rimj.v3i1.67
In the latest issue of the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences appeared two articles focusing on the ERASMUS+ programme. This new issue of the journal was published earlier this month, it is an Open Access journal hence its articles can be read free of charged. Unfortunately, due the UK leaving the European Union (EU), ERASMUS+ has just come to an end this summer for universities in the UK.
The first article is an editorial that outlines the benefits of the staff and student exchange between Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal and Bournemouth University [1]. The paper concludes that the world is rapidly becoming a smaller place with globalisation occurring everywhere. The process of internationalising higher education institutions through partnerships like ours, brings benefits to both MMIHS and BU and to both staff and students. For the latter, it offers new ideas, alternative ways of thinking, insights in the other people’s value systems and cultures, etc. It equips students and staff with knowledge, skills and dispositions to work in culturally diverse and international contexts, providing them with a wider diversity of knowledge and greater understanding of global issues and challenges. In short, the partnership offers many opportunities to gain new experiences, explore new sources and perspectives, and improve their cross-cultural capabilities and, ultimately, their employability.
Secondly, there is an article co-authored by the seven MMIHS students, who came to BU in late 2022-early 2023, highlighting what they had learnt from one of the modules they attended [2]. This paper has as it central feature involving patients and the general public in all aspects of research, which was very much a new idea for these seven MSc students from Nepal.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
References:
This week the Journal of Asian Midwives published its latest issue. Celebrating a decade of publishing, this is the first issue of volume 10. The journal is Open Access and freely available online for anybody who wants to read it (click here!). In the editorial of this new issue the editors highlighted online events around the International Day of the Midwife, the ICM (International Confederation of Midwives) Triennial Congress in Bali, Indonesia in June, and the acceptance of the Journal of Asian Midwives by SCOPUS [1]. The editorial finishes by highlighting new additions to the journal, including the opportunity to submit short research proposals, or proposals for improvement in service or practice, blogs and from the next issue onwards, short view point articles.
Reference:
Today ResearchGate alerted me that our paper ‘Women, Midwives, and a Medical Model of Maternity Care in Switzerland’ [1] has been read 2,500 times. This paper published in the International Journal of Childbirth focuses on the organisation of maternity health care in Switzerland. Switzerland has a costly health care system with high intervention rates within an obstetric-led maternity care model. Evidence has shown that midwifery care is associated with lower cost, higher satisfaction rates among women, and less intervention. However, in this model, midwives are both marginalized and underused.
The article focuses on the distribution of power and knowledge between midwives, women, and the medical profession. The varying power structures that shape the maternity care system in Switzerland are examined, using a case study approach that draws on Foucault’s concepts of the gaze, surveillance, disciplinary power, and the docile body. This article critically analyzes the model of maternity care received by women in Switzerland and how it negatively impacts on both women’s personal and midwives’ professional autonomy while simultaneously driving up costs.
A better understanding of the underlying power structures operating within the maternity care system may facilitate the implementation of more midwifery-led care currently being endorsed by the Swiss Midwifery Association and some government agencies. This could result in reduced cost and lower intervention rates with reduced associated morbidity.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
Reference:
A few days ago a group of researchers from the UK, Nepal and South Korea listed as the top five authors writing on migrant workers’ health-related research in Nepal. Their recent paper ‘Migrant workers’ health-related research in Nepal: A bibliometric study’ was published last week in the journal Dialogues in Health (Elsevier) with as lead author Dr. Sharada P. Wasti from the University of Greenwich [1]. The team conducted a systematic search of published literature on Nepalese migrant workers’ health was conducted in Scopus, Medline, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO and Web of Science, followed by a bibliometric analysis. The search of databases retrieved 520 records, and a total of 161 papers were included in the analysis. Bibliometric analyses were performed to create visualisation maps. The team found that most articles were published on infectious diseases, followed by health and lifestyle, sexual and reproductive health, access to health services, workplace safety, maternal health, and health systems and policy.
Their search found that 533 researchers originating from 24 countries contributed to the pool of literature. It also lists the top five authors in the field in Table 5. We were proud to find out that all five top author positions are affiliated with Bournemouth University (BU): three are current BU staff, Dr. Pratik Adhikari one is a BU PhD graduate, and Prof. Padam Simkhada from the University of Huddersfield, is BU Visiting Faculty.
References:
The British Sociological Society’s (BSA) journal Sociological Research Online is seeking a new second book review editor. All Editors, including the book review editor, have to be BSA members throughout their term of office and previous engagement with the BSA is desirable. The term of office is three years with the possibility of an extension, starting mid-November 2023. The deadline for applications is 11th October 2013.
Sociological Research Online is published by the international social science publishing house SAGE. The editorial team has just been informed this week that the Impact Factor of the journal has increased to 1.6.
Interested candidates should submit a pro forma application of no more than 2 pages and a short CV. To receive a pro forma application, please contact Selina Hisir, BSA
Publications Coordinator, at email: sro.journal@britsoc.org.uk
As current book review editor I am very happy to talk to interested sociologists informally.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health
Email: evteijlingen@bournemouth.ac.uk