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)
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.
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A recent study of 43 journals in the global health field found that PLOS Global Public Health has the joint highest diversity index, whilst also recording the maximum geographic diversity score! [1] The paper by a team from Pakistan and Canada addressed the question: “What is the current state of ethics of diversity and representation in global health publications?” In order to be able to answer this question they developed their own Journal Diversity Index (JDI) to measure three parameters of diversity and representation, namely gender, geographic & socioeconomic status.
The fact that PLOS Global Public Health came out top is good news for the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) as we published a paper in this journal last month. [2] Our qualitative paper ‘Perceptions around COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: A qualitative study in Kaski district, Western Nepal’ comprises 19 interviews in the city of Pokhara and its surrounding rural areas.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
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Football has been referred to as ‘the beautiful game’. And to be fair, there has been some brilliant football at the men’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Qatar’s records on human rights have been widely criticised in the run up to this global event. The global media have spent a lot of time on commenting on several social and economic issues in Qatar, such as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, the role and status of women, and the exploitation of migrant workers. Migrant workers from South Asia, including those from Nepal, have helped build the stadiums and roads leading up to it, provide the security at venues, take the suitcases of the conveyor belts at the airport, and serve fans and visitors food and drink at the venues. Many of these migrant workers are exploited not just by employers in Qatar, but also by labour agencies in their home countries. The risks are high, especially for those migrant workers who do the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs (i.e. the 3Ds).
As researchers conducting research in the area of migration and health, we are worried that when the world cup finishes next weekend the world’s media will move on from Qatar and the attention will disappear from the exploitation of migrant workers in the Middle East (and elsewhere). We all know that the media’s focus will shift to on another global event, next week or next month. We want to make sure that spotlight stays on this global problem.
Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences
Yesterday (10th August) Prof. Sujan Marahatta from Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) gave an insightful talk under the title ‘Response to COVID-19 in Nepal’ to colleagues at Bournemouth University. Prof. Marahatta arrived in the UK yesterday morning and straight off the bus from Heathrow airport came to present in the Bournemouth Gateway Building. He is at Bournemouth University as part of the ERASMUS+ Key Action 107 which includes the exchange of academic staff and students between the UK and Nepal, between BU and MMIHS. His talk covered his role in writing the official report ‘Responding to COVID-19’.
He also spoke about the various joint studies conducted between MMIHS and academics in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. These collaborations include a range of BU academics, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Catherine Angell, Dr. Preeti Mahato (who recently moved to Royal Holloway), Prof. Carol Clark, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Dr. Nirmal Aryal, Dr. Shanti Shanker, and Prof. Vanora Hundley.
Erasmus+ is the European Commission’s flagship for financial support of mobility for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. The British Councill is the funding agency in the UK and coordinates the funding at a national level. BU is proud to be part of Erasmus+.
This past three weeks Bournemouth University (BU) has strengthened our existing collaboration with MMIHS (Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Science) in Kathmandu. Until 2023 we have a staff and student Erasmus+ student exchange with MMIHS. Currently one FHSS PhD student is in Nepal at MMIHS as part of this Erasmus+ exchange. Two weeks Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health, was here for the GCRF-funded health and migration workshop which was organised in Kathmandu jointly with MMIHS. See the BU Research Blog of 15th April for more details (click here!).
Yesterday Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen met colleagues from the UK and Nepal at MMIHS to analyse some of the data from the Nepal Federal Health System Project. This three-year major collaborative project examines the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure in 2015. This is a joint project led by the University of Sheffield with Bournemouth University, the University of Huddersfield, and two institutions in Nepal: MMIHS and PHASE Nepal. This interdisciplinary study is funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref. MR/T023554/1].
At BU we are looking forward to welcoming MSc students and academic staff from MMIHS to BU as part of this exchange. We hope to generate interest among Nepalese postgraduate student to apply for a PhD place at BU.
Last, but not least, last week Prof. Vanora Hundley and I launched the book Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences in Kathmandu. This textbook has three chapter authors who are currently (or were recently) affiliated with MMIHS: Prof. Sujan Marahatta, Dr. Pratik Adhikary and Dr. Yubaraj Baral.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P.P., Hundley, V. with Shreesh, K. (Eds.) (2022) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books. [ISBN: 9789937117609]
Today Bournemouth University’s research on Nepali migrant workers and kidney problems was cited in The Sunday Times. In the preparation for the Qatar 2022 men’s football world cup The Sunday Times published an article under the title ‘Dying for the World Cup‘.
Dr. Pramod Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal were awarded funding from GCRF (The Global Challenges Research Fund) and Bournemouth University’s QR fund. This work resulted in an editorial highlighting that low-skilled migrant workers in the Middle Wast and Malaysia are at a disproportionately higher risk of kidney problems. The working conditions are often Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult (referred at as the 3Ds) include physically demanding work, exposure to a hot environment, dehydration, chemical exposures, excessive use of pain killers, and lifestyle factors (such as restricted water intake and a high intake of alcohol/sugary drinks) which may precipitate them to acute kidney injuries and subsequent chronic kidney disease [1]. And recently, a national survey of nephrologists (kidney specialists) on their perceptions of the size of the problem of kidney health in Nepali migrant workers [2].
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Last night I misread a call from BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. To be fair the email included two different request to contribute to two different kinds of blog posts with different set of instructions. Of course, I managed not to simply to swap these instructions around, but mix them up properly. The result is the text below that does not fit either of the two calls, I think.
The question I tried to address was: “Tell us how your research published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth has links to wider issues than health!. The actual call in the email was: “Tell us about your contribution to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) – We invite our Editorial Board Members who have research or personal interests related to the SDGs to contribute a blog post to our BMC Series Blog network discussing your work/interests as these relate to the SDGs”.My adopted question explains the title ‘Health is not a vacuum’. The short overview of the blog I drafted focused on all the papers I have published in this journal over a fifteen-year period from 2006-2021 [1-11]. Not surprising for a sociologist of health & illness, my argument is that there are nearly always issues wider than SDG 3 ‘Good health and well-being’ in the way health care/service or health policy factors affects maternity care and midwifery. Social, cultural and economic factors affect the way maternity services ares provided, used and perceived. SDG 5 ‘Gender equality’ springs to mind first, but also important is SDG 4 ‘Quality education’, especially of girls, and SDG 1 ‘No poverty’, of course strongly linked with SDG 10 ‘Reduced inequalities’.
Gender is highlighted or at least part of the argument in many of our papers in low- and middle income countries [2,3,5, 7,10,11], but also in a high-income context [1,6]. Education, both health education and education more generally, for example education levels of maternity service users, appears in several papers [1,6,8-11] whilst poverty is a key factors in several papers based on our work in Nepal [2,3,5,6,11]. Several of our papers address issues wider than health that are not strictly speaking SDG, such as paper on cultural differences in postnatal quality of life among German-speaking women living either side of the Swiss-German border [4], and of course, our paper on media and childbirth [6].
Last, but not least, all papers published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth are Open Access and freely available online!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health)
References:
Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi and Dr. Nirmal Aryal, both in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS), who co-authored of our latest health and migration paper which was accepted this week. This paper called “Nepali migrant workers and the need for pre-departure training on mental health: a qualitative study” will appear in the Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health [1]. This is the sixth paper published this year by this FHSS team of researchers on migration and health research about Nepal and the twelfth paper in total on the topic [2-12].
This important health and migration research in Nepal and about Nepali migrant workers is also the foundation of a Bournemouth University REF 2021 Impact Case Study.
Reference:
Yesterday ResearchGate announced that the paper ‘Academic authorship: who, why and in what order?’ [1] has been read 1000 times. The paper addresses two related issues in academic writing: (a) authorship; and (b) order of authors. The issue of authorship centres on the notion of who can be an author, who should be an author and who definitely should not be an author. The paper reminds the reader that this is partly discipline specific. The second issue, the order of authors, is usually dictated by the academic tradition from which the work comes. One can immediately envisage disagreements within a multi-disciplinary team of researchers where members of the team may have different approaches to authorship order. Prof. Vanora Hundley is the lead author and the paper is co-authored with Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, both in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), and BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada. Padam is Professor of International Public Health in the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University.
This paper is part of a larger set of papers by academic in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences addressing various aspects of academic writing and publishing. Many of these papers are in Open Access journals, hence easily available across the globe for anybody with an internet connection. The series has covered papers on selecting an appropriate title for an academic paper, the role of the journal editor, the publication process and many more [2-9].
References
Yesterday the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published its latest issue which included the paper on ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among the Flood Affected Population in Indian Subcontinent’ [1]. This Short Communication is co-authored by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and two members of the Visiting Faculty in our Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, namely: Prof. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Brijesh Sathian. The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is an Open Access journal hence this paper is freely available for anybody with internet access to read.
Dorset Global Health Network: Tech for Good:
The Dorset Global Health Network would like to invite you to an exciting session with two great guest speakers Andrew Moore and Waheed Arian on Wednesday 24 April on the 3rd Floor, Bournemouth University’s Executive Business Centre, 19.00 – 21:00 proceeded by a Light Buffet Dinner at 18:30.
Guest speakers:
Mr Andrew Moore from 3 Sided Cube is a Bournemouth based app and digital product company passionate about using Tech for Good on a global scale. Andrew will be telling us about their exciting and award winning work, including the worlds first blood donation tracking app.
&
Dr Waheed Arian from Arial Teleheal, a pioneering telemedicine charity, providing advice to doctors in war zones and low income countries. Hear Waheed’s inspirational personal journey from living in a refugee camp to being recognised as UNESCO Global Hero 2017 and winner of Rotary International Peace Award 2018.
Book your space at: https://bit.ly/2Nn0JJR
The Dorset Global Health Network is a forum for anyone interested in global health to meet, exchange ideas and experience.
This event has been organised by the Dorset Primary Care Workforce Centre (PCWC) in collaboration with Wessex Global Health Network.
Dorset Global Health Network invites you to its next meeting focusing on Africa on Wednesday 7 November 2018 in Bournemouth University’s Executive Business Centre. The meeting organised by Primary Care Workforce Centre starts with a dinner at 6.30 PM with the event running between 19.00 and 21.00. You can register here!
The second short presentation was by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen for BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perintal Health (CMMPH). His presentation with the title ‘The challenge of perinatal mental health in Nepal’ covered issues around maternal mental health, auxiliary nurse-midwives and stigma and culture in southern Nepal. The project brought together academics, midwives, nurses, and other health workers in Nepal and the UK to help in the training of auxiliary nurse midwives in Nawalparasi on key aspects of mental health and mental health promotion. The project led by Bournemouth University was funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which is managed by a London-based organisation called THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust).
The third speaker and final speaker Dr Ollie Ross, Consultant Anaesthetist at Southampton General Hospital, introduced the film ‘Hospital’. The film provides a portrait of a state-run hospital in one of the most remote and poor districts of Nepal and how individuals can make a difference to people’s lives. Dr Ross is also a consultant to the Nick Simons Foundation working in Nepal. According to The Nepali Times Nepal’s most accomplished documentary maker, Kesang Tseten, has a knack of bringing out in his films the best in people. He looks for the flower that grows amidst the squalour, and tries to spread a message of hope. His film, Hospital, returns to rural Nepal to portray a hospital in Kalikot where ordinary health workers accomplish extraordinary things.The event was organised by the Dorset Primary Care Workforce Centre in collaboration with Bournemouth University and the Wessex Global Health Network.
Approximately 3.5 million young Nepalese are working abroad. Unskilled construction jobs including labourer, scaffolder, plumber and carpenter are the most common jobs. Every year there are more than 1000 deaths and many hundreds cases of injuries among Nepalese workers in these countries excluding India. For example, the Foreign Employment Promotion Board of Nepal recently reported that 1002 Nepalese migrant workers died in the 6 GCC countries and Malaysia in the last Nepalese calendar year, of which 357 (36%) were documented as cardiac related. However, in a quarter of deaths, the cause was unknown. Postmortem examination of migrant workers in many destination countries is not carried out and official records of the destination countries tend to record these deaths as being ‘from natural causes’. Information on underlying causes, such as heat stress on construction sites, is often not available.
The paper [1] which was recently published in SAGE’s Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health Journal, is jointly contributed by researchers based in New Zealand, Nepal, and FHSS’s Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr Pramod Regmi, Dr Pratik Adhikary (BU’s ex PhD student) and FHSS’s visiting Professor Padam Simkhada. The authors argue that despite the contribution made by migrant workers to the economic prosperity of the host countries, they often face many major difficulties accessing effective health care and are perceived as a burden on the local health care system. Therefore, greater efforts are needed to protect the health and well-being of migrant workers from Nepal and other South-Asian nations.
BU staffs and students can freely access this paper by visiting this link.
Congratulations to the all authors for bringing up this important public health issue.
Pramod Regmi
We have written in many previous BU blogs about progress of our THET-funded project in southern Nepal (e.g. here AND here ). Today’s blog reflects on the use on BU’s unique FUSION approach in our project ‘Mental Health Training for Maternity Care Providers in Nepal‘.
Our BU-led project brings highly experienced health professionals, such as midwives, health visitors or mental health nurses, to Nepal to work as volunteer trainers. The training is aimed at community-based maternity care practitioners and addresses key mental health issues relevant to pregnancy and for new mothers and offers the required communication skills. These health professionals will bring their experience as health care providers as well as trainers in the field of mental health and maternity care/midwifery, mental ill-health prevention and health promotion. They volunteer for two to three weeks at a time to design and deliver training in southern Nepal.
The Centre for Midwifery & Maternal Health (CMMPH) collaborates in this project with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), the Department of Health, and Physical & Population Education at Nepal’s oldest university Tribhuvan University’s (TU). The project is supported in the field by a local charity called Green Tara Nepal. Our project is part of the Health Partnership such as Nepal. HPS itself is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET (Tropical and Health Education Trust).
Our maternal mental health project is a good example of BU’s FUSION approach as it combines EDUCATION (through the training of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives in Nepal) by UK volunteers (representing PRACTICE) through an intervention which is properly evaluated (representing RESEARCH) is a perfect example of BU’s FUSION in action. Moreover, the project will be partly evaluated by FHSS’s Preeti Mahato as part of her PhD thesis research. This PhD project is supervised by Dr. Catherine Angell (CEL & CMMPH), BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada (based at LJMU) and CMMPH’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.BU’s focus on the FUSION of research, education and professional practice is a unique variant of the way UK universities (and many abroad) blend academic teaching, research and scholarship. FUSION is a key concept derived from BU’s strategic Vision & Values).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
On Friday the third cohort of UK volunteers will leave Heathrow as our education project ‘Mental Health Training for Community-based Maternity Providers in Nepal’ [1]. Mental health issues are a seriously underfunded and understudied area in Nepal, and not just in the field of maternity care. [2] Our project is a collaboration between the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), Tribhuvan University (Nepal’s oldest university) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The project receives funding from DFID, and is managed through THET and supported locally in Nepal by a charity Green Tara Nepal.
One of the three latest volunteers, BU Visiting Faculty and Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Jillian Ireland wrote about her forthcoming trainig visit (click here for Jillian’s blog). The other volunteers on this visit are midwife Andrea Lawrie from The Robert Gordon University/Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Aberdeen) and Dave Havelock, a mental health nurse specialising in high intensity therapy (IAP) from North Yorkshire.
Previous Bournemouth University Research Blogs (see here! and here! ) and blogs by one the earlier UK volunteers retired health visitor Ish Fawcett (click here!) have outlined details of our project. Bournemouth University has a great history of developing and delivering innovative education projects with the support of its Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
The forthcoming editorial in Midwifery (Elsevier) by FHSS’s Dr Susan Way highlights the importance of midwifery education and its educators.[1] This editorial makes reference to the recent series on midwifery in The Lancet.[2] Of course, midwifery plays a vital role in improving the quality of care of women and infants globally. Dr. Way reminds us that consistent, high-quality midwifery care has a vital role to play in the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality. Outcomes are enhanced when care is led by midwives who are educated, licensed, regulated, integrated in the health system, and working in interdisciplinary teams, with ready access to specialised care when needed.
Midwifery one of the leading academic journals globally in the field of midwifery and maternity care. Dr.Way is based in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health in FHSS at the Lansdowne Campus.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
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