For further details and how to apply click here.
Tagged / Health
Publication by BU midwifery student

Rebecca Weston, BU student midwife, on the publication of her article: ‘When all you want to do is run out of the room…‘ Rebecca published this reflective piece in May issue of the journal The Practising Midwife. She wrote it shortly after having been involved in “a traumatic, sudden and heart-breaking event in practice”. Reflection is certainly beneficial in experiential learning, developing critical thinking and integrating midwifery theory and practice.
It is my pleasure to wrote this BU Research Blog to congratulate Rebecca today on the International day of the Midwife.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
New edited Handbook published by Dr Samuel Nyman, The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion
NIHR Career Development Fellow, Dr Samuel Nyman (Dept. Psychology and Ageing & Dementia Research Centre), is the lead editor of a newly published Handbook.
It is published as an eBook and hardback (https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319712901), and a copy will be available in the BU library in the near future.
A summary of the book is below:
The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion
- Presents an ambitious, highly original and very timely addition to the social gerontology canon
- Offers a broad expertise across social science and health science, with a strong mix of senior scholars and early career academics
- Discusses critically the global issue of an ageing population
The ageing of our population is a key societal issue across the globe. Although people are living longer, they need to be living longer in good health to continue to enjoy quality of life and independence and to prevent rises in health and social care costs. This timely and groundbreaking volume will provide an up-to-date overview of the factors that promote physical activity in later life. Despite advances in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, sports and exercise science, sociology, health psychology, and public health, knowledge is largely contained within disciplines as reflected in the current provision of academic texts on this subject. To truly address the present and substantial societal challenges of population ageing, a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach is required. This handbook will inform researchers, students, and practitioners on the current evidence base for what physical activities need to be promoted among older people and how they can be implemented to maximise engagement. This handbook will be an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and students across the social sciences.
ADRC on the Malnutrition Task Force Board
Professor Jane Murphy from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) has been invited to join the Malnutrition Task Force (MTF) board (http://www.malnutritiontaskforce.org.uk/) as an associate board member to increase the breadth of knowledge and experience of the team. It offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to and shape the work of the MTF work programme and priorities to effectively tackle avoidable malnutrition across our society. Jane is currently undertaking funded work as Clinical Lead for the ‘Nutrition in Older People Programme’ with the Wessex Academic Health Science Network.
The MTF is an independent group of experts across health, social care, local government and industry united to address avoidable and preventable malnutrition in older people. Age UK provide the Chair and Secretariat. Jane attended the first meeting on 20th April 2018 to start the ball rolling!


Political and Policy – News & Publications
Health
Macmillian has published the specialist cancer adult nursing and support workforce census 2017.
The Education Policy Institute has published research on vulnerable children and social care in England.
On Tuesday there is a Westminster Hall debate on safeguarding children and young people in sport, and a Health and Social Care Select Committee examining childhood obesity.
Meindert Boysen has been appointed as Director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation.
On Friday Jeremy Hunt launched a review into the impact of technological advances on the NHS workforce.
On Wednesday there will be an adjournment debate on Mental Health Services
Other topics
Clive Efford has joined the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee as a member. On Wednesday this committee will meet to consider Fake News.
David Clark, Kenny Dey and Nick Terrell have been appointed as members of the Oil & Gas UK Trade Association.
On Tuesday the Education Select Committee will examine Alternative Provision.
On Tuesday the Home Affairs Committee will meet to discuss Policing for the future.
On Wednesday there will be a Westminster Hall debate on reducing plastic waste in the maritime environment.
APPGs
There is a new register of All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG). Check the list to see which fit with your research interests (scroll down past the country groups to the subject groups).
This week the following APPGs will meet: Social Work (on Tuesday), Industrial Heritage (Tuesday), Archaeology (Tuesday), Carers (Wednesday).
Catch up on last week’s policy news here, or email policy@bournemouth.ac.uk to subscribe.
First meeting Dorset Global Health Network great success!


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 event was organised by the Dorset Primary Care Workforce Centre in collaboration with Bournemouth University and the Wessex Global Health Network.
CMMPH PhD student Preeti Mahato publishes latest paper on Nepal
This week saw the pre-publication of ‘Qualitative evaluation of mental health training of auxiliary nurse midwives in rural Nepal’ in the international journal Nurse Education Today (published by Elsevier). The paper is a report of an evaluation of a THET-funded projectwhich run from 2015 to 2017. Bournemouth University led a team comprising Liverpool John Moores University and Tribhuvan University (the oldest university in Nepal). These three universities worked together on a training project of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in Nawalparasi focusing on key aspects of mental health and mental health promotion. The project was funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which is managed by a London-based organisation called THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust).
Mental illness is increasingly recognized as a global health problem. However, in many countries, including Nepal, it is difficult to talk about mental health problems due to the stigma associated with it. Hence a training programme was developed to train auxiliary nurse midwives, who otherwise are not trained in mental health as part of their pre-registration training in rural Nepal, on issues related to maternal mental health. After the training programme a selection of auxiliary nurse midwives were interviewed to establish their views on the training, its usefulness and ways to improve it.
Preeti Mahato is a PhD student in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) who undertook an in-depth evaluation of our project as part of her PhD research. This qualitative study has three themes emerging: (1) issues related to training; (2) societal attitudes; and (3) support for women. The ‘training’ theme describes the benefits and limitations of training sessions. ‘Societal attitudes’ describes society’s attitude towards mental health which is largely negative. ‘Support’ describes the positive behaviour and attitude towards pregnant women and new mothers.
The paper concludes that there is a need for continued training for auxiliary nurse midwives who are based in the community. This gives them the opportunity to reach the whole community group and potentially have influence over reduction of stigma; offer support and diagnosis of mental ill-health. There is still stigma around giving birth to a female child which can lead to mental health problems. It is imperative to increase awareness and educate the general public regarding mental health illnesses especially involving family members of those who are affected.
Reference:
- Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Angell, C., Ireland, J. on behalf of THET team (2018) Qualitative evaluation of mental health training of Auxiliary Nurse Midwives in rural Nepal. Nurse Education Today 66: 44-50. http://www.nurseeducationtoday.com/article/S0260-6917(18)30150-3/abstract
Dr. Regmi on Editorial Board Journal of Global Health Reports
Dr. Pramod Regmi, FHSS Lecturer in International Health has been appointed as an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Global Health Reports. This journal is affiliated with the Journal of Global Health (www.jogh.org). The Journal of Global Health Reports focuses on “Promoting local research to improve global health” It is open to all local, small-scale, context-specific studies in global health, both qualitative and quantitative, as long as they are conducted in a rigorous and replicable way and report their results properly.
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Dorset Global Health Meeting on 25 April ‘Focus on Nepal’
Next week the Dorset Global Health Network will have its inaugural meeting on April 25th. The meeting will focus on Nepal starting at 18.30 with a Nepalese buffet.
There will be three short presentations followed by the film ‘Hospital’.
- Voluntourism in Nepal : A lesson in the grey areas of global health (Dr Emer Forde, Bournemouth University)
- The challenge of perinatal mental health in Nepal (Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Bournemouth University)
- Supporting Training and innovative solutions to the provision of rural health care in Nepal (Dr Ollie Ross, Consultant Anaesthetist, Southampton General Hospital)
The Film “Hospital” 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. It will be introduced by Dr Ollie Ross, who is a consultant to the Nick Simons Institute working in Nepal.
This will be followed by a discussion about the development of Dorset Global Health Network.

All are welcome. Book your place at www.focusnepal.eventbrite.co.uk
Virtual Reality: the implications for open educational resources
OER18 conference ‘Virtual Reality: the implications for open educational resources’ presentation by BU staff. A conference presentation by Liz Falconer and Denyse King explored the meaning of open educational resources (OER) in relation to virtual reality (VR) technologies used for education. They argued that VR has been overlooked in the OER debate to date, and that the growth of educational VR platforms will require consideration of the many of the issues that arise from the more traditional concerns of open resources.

Liz and Denyse discussed Virtual Avebury and Virtual Urinalysis as two case examples that illustrate the issues that might arise, sharing their experiences of creating these learning environments in collaboration with university colleagues, commercial developers, and other interested parties such as Health Education England and patient representatives. The audience enthusiastically received their presentation and there were a number of interesting questions asked. The OER18 conference was also a valuable networking experience for Liz and Denyse, who met in person with delegates who had travelled from many different countries including America, South Africa and Brazil.
Following on from this successful experience they are hoping to be invited to present at the Future Technologies Conference in November 2018 to present Denyse’s virtual reality learning environments (VRLE) doctorate project – the Collaborative Immersive Learning Virtual Reality Series (CILVRS).
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Good representation BU research at 2018 BNAC conference
Today on the second day of the 2018 BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) conference there was a very good representation of Bournemouth University (BU) research at Durham University. BU’s Professor Michael Wilmore presented his paper: Construction of ‘Community’ in Research on Nepalese Commons. In the morning FHSS’s PhD student Jib Acharya had an oral presentation on Impact of Healthy Snacks on Children’s Health: An Overview of a Pilot Study.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen presented joint work between BU, Liverpool John Moors University (LJMU) and the University of Oxford on the topic Skills transfer, employability & entrepreneurship of returnee labour migrants in Nepal. Bournemouth University was involved in this project through Dr. Pramod Regmi, Dr. Nirmal Aryal and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

The final talk of the day (and of the conference) was by Prof. Padam Simkhada from LJMU. Prof. Simkhada is also Visiting Professor at the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health at Bournemouth University. He was presenting Debate on Educational Reform in Nepal: Outcomes of the International Conference on Quality of Higher Education in Federal Nepal on behalf of LJMU, Bournemouth University and Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal. Earlier this year BU signed a Memorandum of Agreement with MMIHS in Kathmandu.
BASES Student Conference 2018 – Day 2
The second day of the conference was open by Professor Graeme Close & Mr Michael Naylor with a lecture on “nutritional strategies for competition and performance.”
Follow up with the oral presentations and free communications. I found particular interest in the research of Mr Chynkiamis on the effect of VitaBREATHE on exercise tolerance in COPD patients and in the feasibility study of Miss Thomas on the effect of 10 weeks postural stability exercise on balance in elderly care homes residents. I am glad that I had the chance to discuss with Miss Thomas part of the outcomes and the methods she used for my undergoing research on falls prevention.
Later in the afternoon, I had the opportunity to talk more about inspiratory muscle training (IMT) with Mr Hopkins and Mr Gibb who are looking at the effect of IMT on time trial performance in trained cyclists.
After, the workshop “psychological challenges for physical activity uptake” by Dr Melissa Fothergill intrigued me as I believe it is a crucial matter of discussion, especially if working with frail populations.
The final motivational lecture titled “creating your future” by Dr Steve Ingham closed the 2018 BASES student conference with tips and advice on how to progress in the sport science carriers.

Concluding, it was a great experience as not only I had the chance to improve my network and meet peers with a similar background as mine but most important because in these two days I had increased my awareness and motivations.
A special thanks go to my supervisors Professor Alison McConnell, Dr James Gavin and Professor Tom Wainwright who pointed me at this event.

The conference is now over, and by the time you read this post, I will be already on my way back to Bournemouth.
Thank you for reading,
Francesco.
#TalkBU on Thursday – Coping with stress in changing health behaviours
#TalkBU is a monthly lunchtime seminar on Talbot Campus, open to all students and staff at Bournemouth University and free to attend. Come along to learn, discuss and engage in a 20-30 minute presentation by an academic or guest speaker talking about their research and findings, with a Q&A to finish.
Often our New Year resolutions involve changing unhealthy habits in the coming year. But how many of us have actually managed to change our unhealthy lifestyle and maintained it? Changes can be stressful, but how one manages the change can potentially ease that stress and make the change more achievable, which can potentially impact our physical and psychological well-being.
In this talk, Dr Fiona Ling will discuss her research that centres around physical activity behaviour change, and the extended implications on changing other health habits and public health promotions in order to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
When: Thursday 19 April at 1 – 2pm
Where: Room FG04, Fusion Building
Register here to attend
Click here to find out more about our future and previous #TalkBU events.
BASES Student Conference 2018 – Day 1
Every year the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) organise the student conference, as an opportunity to discuss and exchange views on contemporary issues in sport and exercise science (including clinical exercise, biomechanics, performance, physiology and psychology).

This year the venue is Northumbria University, and the programme includes international speakers from the applied and research worlds.
The conference started with the lecture “not all that can be counted counts – why we should listen to Einstein?” by Mrs Esme Matthew & Miss Laura Needham, who brought they experience as members of English Institute of Sport (EIS) and their work with the UK Olympic team.
It was particularly inspiring to see how the lab works moved into the field of applied science and the relationship that bound researchers and athletes.
Next, after the usual coffè break, it was the time of free communications and oral presentation, where I had the opportunity to attend to the following:
Mr Dray, and his work on the effect of high-intensity interval training on obese men.
Mr Parmar about the difference in maximal aerobic speed in filed-based tests compared to laboratory-based treadmill tests.
Miss McNulty on low-volume, high-intensity priming activity.
Miss White and his work on plyometric training team gym gymnasts.
Mr Addey about the effect of unilateral strength training on recreation runners.
Then, it was the time for poster exhibition, where I presented my research titled: “The effects of 8 weeks of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on the balance of healthy older people: a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial”.
I was excited, and most important the comments and feedback collected satisfied my expectations.
In particularly I had the chance to discuss IMT with a couple of students from Portsmouth, that today are going to present their works on IMT in athletes.
I also met Mr Tahmosybayat, and his research on 6 weeks of exergaming compare to OTAGO exercise training in healthy older adults and we discussed the outcomes, methods and methodologies of our research.
After there was a range of workshops available from which I chose “a demonstration of how exergaming is used to improve postural control” by Dr Gill Barry at the sport central physiology lab.
Here members of the lab staff showed us their facilities in particular exergame, Kinect, and Biodex BioSway and how they measure balance in frail populations.
At the end of the conference, there was still time for the lectures on “contemporary recovery: translating research to application” by Dr Jonathan Leeder, Dr Jess Hill & Mr Luke Gupta. Who discussed how to optimising recovery following exercises, the efficacy of compression garments on recovery from strenuous exercises and sleep management in elite sports.
Then we moved to the home of Newcastle United FC, where before dinner we had a motivational/inspiring speech by Mr Nick Grantham specialist in athletic preparation, combat sports and strength training.

Concluding, it was a very productive day and I am looking toward tomorrow where there are going to be more lectures, oral presentations and posters oriented on frail populations and nutrition.
If you would like to follow the conference live use the Twitter Wall: http://bases2018.tweetwally.com/
Thank you for reading.
Francesco.
#TalkBU presents… Coping with stress in changing health behaviours

#TalkBU is a monthly lunchtime seminar on Talbot Campus, open to all students and staff at Bournemouth University and free to attend. Come along to learn, discuss and engage in a 20-30 minute presentation by an academic or guest speaker talking about their research and findings, with a Q&A to finish.
Often our New Year resolutions involve changing unhealthy habits in the coming year. But how many of us have actually managed to change our unhealthy lifestyle and maintained it? Changes can be stressful, but how one manages the change can potentially ease that stress and make the change more achievable, which can potentially impact our physical and psychological well-being.
In this talk, Dr Fiona Ling will discuss her research that centres around physical activity behaviour change, and the extended implications on changing other health habits and public health promotions in order to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
When: Thursday 19 April at 1 – 2pm
Where: Room FG04, Fusion Building
Register here to attend
Click here to find out more about our future and previous #TalkBU events.
Developing Global Higher Education Partnerships
As part of the new plan BU2025, “we want to continue to develop our global partnerships and links with other institutions and organisations”. This is an admirable aim, and it is, of course, the best way forward for a truly global Higher Education Institution like Bournemouth University (BU). But to translate this general aim into a particular global partnership we need to consider the underlying processes of initiating and developing such partnerships. We published a paper [1] on the issues one needs to consider in developing a partnership, based on the example of BU’s partnership with Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (MMIHS) in Nepal.

In late February this year MMIHS signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with BU at a ceremony in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, where Prof. Stephen Tee represented BU. This MOA is an agreement between us that provides a basis on which the parties will consider potential future collaboration. The UoA formalises a long-standing collaboration between the two institutions, and indicates a desire to collaborate further in the future. MMIHS and BU academics have jointly applied for research grants, conducted collaborative research and published together and it is exactly this personal link between people that allows this, and many other, global partnerships to flourish.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
- van Teijlingen, E., Marahatta, S.B., Simkhada, P., McIver, M., Sharma, J.P. (2017) Developing an international higher education partnerships between high & low-income countries: two case studies J Manmohan Memorial Inst Health Sci, 3(1): 94-100.
Congratulations to two FHSS PhD students
Congratulations to two Faculty of Health & Social Sciences PhD students, Preeti Mahato and Elizabeth Waikhaka, who co-authored a paper published in the WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health. Their paper is called ‘Social autopsy: a potential health-promotion tool for preventing maternal mortality in low-income countries’.[1] Co-authors include Dr. Puspa Pant from the Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West of England (Bristol) and Dr. Animesh Biswas based at the Reproductive & Child Health Department, Centre for Injury Prevention & Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
The authors argue that verbal autopsy is used to attribute a clinical cause to a maternal death. The aim of social autopsy is to determine the non-clinical contributing factors. A social autopsy of a maternal death is a group interaction with the family of the deceased woman and her wider local community, where facilitators explore the social causes of the death and identify improvements needed. Although still relatively new, the process has proved useful to capture data for policy-makers on the social determinants of maternal deaths. This article highlights the potential role of social autopsy in health promotion.

Reference:
- Mahato, P.K, Waithaka, E., van Teijlingen, E., Pant, P.R., Biswas, A. (2018) Social autopsy: a potential health-promotion tool for preventing maternal mortality in low-income countries. WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health 7(1): 24–28.
CMMPH PhD student published in BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth
Today BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth published the latest paper by a PhD student at Bournemouth University. Our congratulations go to Alice Ladur in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), who published `Whose Shoes?’ Testing an educational board game with men of African descent living in the United Kingdom [1]. This paper is based on her PhD research and co-authored with her supervisors.
The paper addresses issues around men’s involvement in programmes or interventions aimed at the improvement of maternal health. One such innovative intervention is an educational board game which offers a unique approach to present health information where learning is reinforced through group discussions supporting peer-to-peer interactions. The authors would like to thank Gill Phillips for permission to use the Whose Shoes? board game and all participants for their participation in the PhD study.
Alice PhD is focused on Uganda and this particular paper reports a qualitative study with men from Uganda who live in the UK on their views of an educational board game. This pilot study explored perceptions on whether a board game was relevant as a health promotional tool in maternal health prior to implementation in Uganda.

Reference:
- Ladur, A.N., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2018) `Whose Shoes?’ Testing an educational board game with men of African descent living in the United Kingdom, BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth 18:81. http://rdcu.be/JXs0