BU Research Blog

3 January 2015

First BU publication of 2015

Those working in the reproductive health field or in local media will be familiar with the phenomenon of the reporting of the first baby born in the New Year. For example, you may have read a short item of the first baby of 2015 born just after midnight with a lovely picture of the baby with proud parents and/or midwife.

This BU Research Blog is the equivalent of the first publication for 2015. I contributed a chapter called ‘Sociology of Midwifery’ to the edited book Sociology for Midwives published by Polity Press (Jan. 2015) and edited by Ruth Deery, Elaine Denny & Gayle Letherby.

The Polity Press website lists three reviews of the book by eminent academics in the field of midwifery:

“What is the point of sociology for midwives and midwifery? A sociological perspective can give us a different understanding of reproduction and maternity care. It can help us challenge our ‘common sense’ assumptions about how people and the world tick. This new book provides midwives and midwifery students with a readable comprehensive and up to date review of the field of sociology applied to reproduction and maternity care. The editors bring together a very impressive amount of material and present it in an accessible and clear way. Their facility for handling complex theoretical and detailed empirical material is admirable.”

Jane Sandall, King’s College London

“The editors and authors of this fine volume have produced a wonderful introduction to the value of a sociological imagination in the practice of midwifery.”

Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York

“The authors set out to ‘stimulate the sociological imagination’ of their readers. The combination of theoretical analysis and application of sociological theory to specific practice situations provides extensive opportunities for this to take place. Readers who are new to the sociology of maternity care will find ample material to excite and engage them. Those who already have dipped into this vast and fascinating field will find new applications, angles and perspectives that can cast a fresh light on why we do what we do in maternity care, and that provide possible routes for positive change in the future.”

Soo Downe, University of Central Lancashire

For more details of Sociology for Midwives, see: http://www.politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=0745662803

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

Bournemouth University

28 December 2014

Capacity Building in Health Research is Focus of International Symposium in Nepal

Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

On 3 January 2015, a day-long symposium dedicated to research capacity building in Nepal will feature mixed-methods research in health and health care. The event is jointly organised by Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal, two UK universities, namely Bournemouth University (BU) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), and the Confederation of Epidemiological Associations (CEA). The International Symposium on Mixed-Methods Research will promote the use of mixed-methods research designs. International experts from various health and social disciplines will come together to present and discuss best practices in the field.

“We have been working for more than ten years to help Nepal build capacity in health research” said Edwin van Teijlingen, one of the symposium presenters and BU Reproductive Health Research Professor. “The symposium is a great opportunity to learn about mixed-methods research and its potential for research into public health, care provision or health promotion.”

Presenters include Dr. Rose Khatri from LJMU will introduce the background to qualitative and quantitative research. Dr. Bibha Simkhada will illustrate the use of mixed-methods as applied in a largely qualitative maternity care study in rural Nepal. Dr. Brijesh Sathian, editor of the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology, will outline key quantitative issues in a mixed-methods approach. Dr. Padam Simkhada, Professor at Liverpool John Moores University will discuss some of the intricacies of mixed-methods approaches.

Dr. Sharada Prasad Wasti, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in Family Health International (FHI 360) Nepal on an HIV/AIDS (a programme funded project by the World Bank) will present some of the practical issues of working in the field of HIV research using mixed methods. BU professor Edwin van Teijlingen will discuss some of the more theoretical issues and offer some advice on writing up and publishing mixed-methods studies.

The symposium presenters have all conducted health research in Nepal and between them have more than one hundred scientific papers and book chapters on the country’s state of health and health care system. Both Prof. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Bibha Simkhada are Visiting Faculty at BU.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

18 December 2014

Building Public Health in Nepal

Awarded & submitted bids, Public engagement, Publishing, Research Ethics Edwin van Teijlingen

It has been a good end of year at BU for Nepal research. Last week we had an ethics paper accepted on ‘Cervical Cancer Screening: Ethical Consideration’ in the journal Medicolegal & Bioethics as well as a research paper on ‘Sexual health knowledge and risky sexual behaviour of Nepalese trekking guides’ which will appear in 2015 in the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences.

We also had an editorial accepted on the importance of mixed-methods research in Nepal by the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The latter is linked to our planned Mixed-Methods Symposium on Saturday January 3rd 2015 in the city of Pokhara, Nepal (see our earlier BU Research Blog).

Yesterday we heard that we have been successful in our grant application to THET. Our grant forms part of the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) that funds health partnerships to carry out training and capacity-building projects in low-income countries. The Scheme is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by THET.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

15 December 2014

Symposium Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education on LSE Blog

BU Challenges, Fusion, Public engagement, Research assessment Edwin van Teijlingen

The LSE Impact Blog reports a piece by BU’s Zoë Sheppard, Vanora Hundley, Edwin van Teijlingen & Paul Thompson.

The LSE Blog presents the challenges of impact in healthcare recently discussed at a symposium held by the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education at Bournemouth University. As the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 are ut this week, the LSE Blog raises some timely issues on the implementation of impact point to further collaborations needed on the impact agenda in medicine and health care more generally.

The LSE Blog can be found at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/12/15/the-impact-agenda-in-healthcare/

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

13 December 2014

Masterclass Systematic Reviewing

Edwin van Teijlingen

We a happy to announce a two-day Masterclass on Systematic Reviewing at Bournemouth University led by Professors Hundley and van Teijlingen. One way of collating and assessing the best possible evidence is through a method called ‘systematic reviewing’. Systematic reviewing is a specific research method whereby a structured, rigorous, and objective approach is used to provide a critical synthesis of the available evidence on a particular topic. This masterclass will examine the rationale for systematic reviews and take participants through the various elements of a systematic review: selecting (electronic) databases; literature searching; data extraction; data synthesis; interpretation and reporting.

The Masterclass will be held in the Executive Business Centre, Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth on 9-10 February 2015.

Booking price and information:

The price of £200 includes lunch and refreshments and all class materials. Accommodation and travel costs are not included. Book your place online by 1 February 2015.

Find out more and book your place here >>

For more information call 01202 962184 or email us.

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

13 December 2014

BU collaborates in International Symposium in Nepal on Mixed-Methods Research

Training Edwin van Teijlingen

This international symposium introduces researchers and academics in Nepal to the basics of mixed-methods research. The symposium will be held on 3^rd January 2015 at Manipal Medical College in Pokhara, Nepal.

The symposium is jointly organised by Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal, Liverpool John Moores University, UK, Bournemouth University, UK & CEA (Confederation of Epidemiological Associations). Bournemouth University will be represented in Nepal by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. Prof. van Teijlingen is a medical sociologist in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health. He has conducted mixed-methods research for over two decades and he has published more than 200 papers and book chapters. Many of his publications are based on research that uses mixed-methods. Two of the other four symposium presenters at the symposium are Visiting Faculty at Bournemouth University (Prof. Padam Simkhada based at Liverpool John Moores University and Dr. Bibha Simkhada).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

11 December 2014

Festival of Learning 2014 not ‘finished’ yet!

Festival of Learning, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Whilst the call for 2015 Festival of Learning activities is already out, some of us are still busy with the 2014 one. This past year Prof. Vanora Hundley (Faculty of Health & Social Sciences) led a debate about the impact of the mass media on women’s view of childbirth. The debate was centred around The media is responsible for creating fear in childbirth.

Elizabeth Duff from the NCT and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen affiliated with the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health argued in favour of the motion and Joanne Dewberry independent blogger, journalist and successful business woman and Dr. Ann Luce from BU’s Journalism and Communication Academic Group argued against.

The audience were given the opportunity to vote on the motion before and after the debate. The interesting and wide-ranging debate has been written up and it now published in MIDIRS under the title ‘Fear in childbirth: are the media responsible?’

The full reference is: Hundley, V., Duff, E., Dewberry, J., Luce, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2014) Fear in childbirth: are the media responsible? MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 24(4): 444-447.

Professors Edwin van Teijlingen & Vanora Hundley

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

25 November 2014

BUDI talks museums and dementia at AHSW Annual Conference

mheward

Last week I was invited to represent Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) at the 9th Arts and Health South West (AHSW) Annual Conference held in Taunton. This was a great opportunity for me to talk about the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA’s) approach to involving people affected by dementia within their gallery space, as showcased in the MOMA Workshops held in May 2014 . I also discussed some of the work that local Dorset museums are undertaking to involve people affected by dementia, and ways to evaluate such activities.

The conference showcased a wide variety of innovative arts based projects, including: the therapeutic purposes of creative writing, doodling, and music and health from Live Music Now. The positive health impacts of arts based activities for a range of participants were highlighted in several presentations throughout the day.

22 November 2014

Congratulations to HSC student Mr. Jib Acharya

PG research, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

HSC PhD student Jib Acharya presented the preliminary results of his thesis research in a poster presentation entitled “A Comparative Study on Nutritional Problems in Preschool Aged Children of Nepal”

The poster was accepted at the 3^rd World Congress of Public Health Nutrition Conference in Gran Canaria, Spain, 2014.

Mr. Acharya’s poster was displayed as a traditional paper poster but also a digital poster on television screens around the conference. The thesis work is supervised in the School of Health & Social Care by Dr. Jane Murphy, Dr. Martin Hind and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. The attendance of this conference was made possible due to the support of a Santander award.

Congratulations

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

22 November 2014

Breastfeeding research presented in Cornwall

Knowledge Transfer, PG research Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Alison Taylor, senior lecturer in midwifery who presented preliminary findings of her PhD as keynote speaker last month at the Cornwall Real Baby Milk conference. Alison’s presentation ‘Women’s Breastfeeding Experiences – shared using video diaries’ was very well received. Alison’s fieldwork has been supported by the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust , she received the first Tricia Anderson award in 2008. Founded in 1983, the Trust supports midwives and student midwives to undertake further education and to carry out projects designed to improve the care of mothers and babies.

More details on the conference can be found at:

http://realbabymilk.org/couldnt-make-real-baby-milk-cornwall-conference-last-month/

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

15 November 2014

Congratulations to PhD student Rachel Arnold

PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

HSC postgraduate student Rachel Arnold just had the first paper from her research in Afghanistan accepted by the scientific journal BJOG. Her paper analyses the culture of a Kabul maternity hospital to understand its impact on the care of perinatal women and their babies. A heavy workload, too many complicated cases and poor staff organisation lead to a low quality of maternity care. Cultural values, social and family pressures influenced the motivation and priorities of healthcare providers.

The centrality of the family and family obligations in Afghan society has emerged as a major theme. Another theme is the struggle for survival – as health care providers work to support their families, to maintain the power that they have, and to survive within a hospital system where fear rather than compassion appears to drive and motivate. Rachel presented some of the key issues at the 2013 GLOW conference in Birmingham. Rachel is supervised by Professors Immy Holloway, Kath Ryan (LaTrobe University, Australia) and Edwin van Teijlingen.

Rachel’s paper Understanding ‘Afghan healthcare providers: a qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital’ can be found here. The paper is Gold Open Access.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

14 November 2014

Dorset Legacy Fund – addressing health inequalities in the region

Funding opportunities jcodling

The Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Local Authorities, supported by the Public Health team, are very keen to build on the success of the 2012 Olympics in Dorset and have developed a legacy fund to provide a significant resource for investment in innovative and evidence based local projects in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole. The aim of the legacy fund is to create a legacy and inspire communities by investing in projects that focus on the particularly vulnerable, marginalised and deprived communities in order to address health inequalities which exist in Dorset.

Project criteria:

Target vulnerable people or marginalised communities
Tackle identified health inequalities
Inspire people towards a healthier lifestyle
Have a lasting legacy

The second round of funding is due to open on 1 December with £200,000 funding available.

Congratulations to BUDI who were successful in the first round of funding.

For more information including the application process click here.

13 November 2014

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

PG research, Publishing, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Research from staff in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) was well represented at this week’s Royal College of Midwives Conference (RCM). The RCM Conference 2014 held in the International Centre Telford explore the theme Better Births: United in Excellence. At this midwifery conference HSC Dr. Sue Way chaired a session on ‘Perineal Care and the Management of the Second Stage’

Dana Colbourne, Postgradute student at Bournemouth University and midwife at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust presented a poster with the title ‘PhD student Leading the way – A case study of a student midwife led postnatal clinic’.

Dr Stella Rawson, senior lecturer in midwifery presented her poster ‘Listening to Women: Exploring women’s experiences of being part of a student midwife’s caseload’.

Jan Stoziek, senior lecturer in midwifery and also Prof Doc student at the University of Portsmouth presented her poster ‘Mother’s Experience of Breastfeeding after Breast Cancer’.

Lesley Milne also presented a poster on the work around ‘Staff perspectives of barriers to women accessing birthing services in Nepal: A qualitative study’ with Prof. Padam Simkhada, HSC Visiting Faculty Ms. Jillian Ireland, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen,

13 November 2014

Reducing Avoidable Term Admissions’ eLearning project

Fusion, Public engagement, Training Luisa Cescutti-Butler

In the region covered by Health Education Wessex, over half of all admissions to neonatal units are babies who are considered term gestation. An audit of neonatal unit admissions undertaken by University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust uncovered three main reasons for term admissions:

(Mal) adaptation to neonatal life (27%)
Respiratory Distress Syndrome (18%)
Sepsis (13%)

The findings suggest that with better care in the immediate and subsequent postnatal period some of these admissions may have been avoided. It appears to be a national problem with NHS England recognizing an increase in term admissions as a key concern. Separating the woman from her baby can be emotionally upsetting and may impact on a woman’s ability to successfully breastfeed her baby. Babies when admitted onto neonatal units are subject to many interventions and may suffer short term morbidities. In addition to the impact on the woman and her baby there are implications for resources, it costs £500 a day to care for a baby receiving specialist neonatal care. Units who have reduced their term admission rates cite midwifery involvement as vital. Midwives work within multidisciplinary teams; therefore involvement of all healthcare professionals is crucial if term admissions are to be reduced. Standardization of protocols and guidelines appear difficult to achieve based on the various ways services are configured, therefore education on the basic principles of prevention is required.

Following an initial meeting with Kate Graham-Williams (Locum Consultant Neonatologist), Kim Edwards (Network Educator) and Teresa Griffin (Deputy Manager/Lead Nurse) to explore ideas of developing a learning package, a further meeting took place with Luisa Cescutti-Butler, Debbee Houghton and Carol Wilkins (Senior Midwifery Lecturers) to discuss educational outcomes.The meeting concluded with all parties agreeing to work collaboratively on an e-learning package and to explore possible sources of funding. Health Education Wessex has a responsibility to ensure that NHS employees are equipped with the right skills and knowledge to deliver excellent health and patient care, therefore they were approached and agreed to provide funding. Alison Potter (E-Learning Project Manager) joined the project and is managing all stages of the project. The project which involves Health Education Wessex, Thames Valley and Wessex Neonatal Network, Bournemouth University and selected supplier (LEO) have agreed to develop, implement and evaluate a multi-disciplinary eLearning module with an aim in reducing avoidable term admissions to neonatal units.

Luisa, Debbee and Carol are working with Kate on developing content (case scenarios) of the e-learning package and a workshop with all parties including supplier LEO will be taking place in December at Bournemouth University. A number of key professionals from the Wessex region have agreed to be reviewers including a set of parents who would have experienced their baby being admitted to a neonatal unit for medical input. The project aims to be ‘live’ in March 2015.

If you require any further information please contact Luisa Cescutti-Butler, Debbee Houghton or Carol Wilkins on the following email addresses: lcbutler@bournemouth.ac.uk, dhoughton@bournemouth.ac.uk , cwilkins@bournemouth.ac.uk

13 November 2014

Helping men to lose weight

Fusion, Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Research assessment Edwin van Teijlingen

High quality research from a collaboration of three UK universities has been turned into practical advice. The ROMEO project (Review Of Men and Obesity) by the University of Aberdeen, the University of Stirling and Bournemouth University found that men are more likely than women to benefit if physical activity is part of a weight-loss programme. Also although fewer men joined weight-loss programmes, once recruited they were less likely to drop out than women. The perception of having a health problem, the impact of weight loss on health problems, and the desire to improve personal appearance without looking too thin were motivators for weight loss amongst men. However, the type of reducing diet did not appear to affect long-term weight loss.

The charity Men’s Health Forum linked up with Public Health England and published a ‘How to’ guide based on the evidence of our ROMEO study. This ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide offers advice for local authorities, commissioners and weight management providers, who are trying to attract men to weight-loss programmes. The guide highlights, for example that:

Programmes that include exercise and behaviour change components as well as dieting are more successful in helping men to lose weight.
Men respond well to programmes that have a higher degree of personalisation, such as setting individual goals, as it increases their sense of control.
Weight-loss programmes based in the workplace or associated with professional sports clubs have been particularly successful.
Using humour and encouraging camaraderie makes programmes more attractive to men as does knowing that there will be other men there.

Furthermore, this ‘How to’ guide includes, amongst other advice, a list of Ten Top Tips.

This is an excellent example how research conducted between three different universities has been turned into easy to understand advice for man who are overweight. The past decade or so has seen an increasing interest in making academic research ‘useful’ to society. Creating and measuring the impact of research conducted at universities has been introduced as key element on the REF, the Research Excellence Framework. The REF assesses the quality of research in, and affects the amount of government money each university in the UK receives.

For a traditional academic publishing the HTA report would be a success in itself. Which, of course, it is to culmination of a large-scale and extensive review, well conducted, published through Open Access, which also attracted considerable media attention from across the globe when it came out. However, ROMEO did not stop there. Due to the involvement of the Men’s Health Fora right from the start of ROMEO, the Men’s Health Forum in England linked up with Public Health England to create and publish ‘How to make weight-loss services work for men’ guide is published today.

The ROMEO project, led by Prof. Alison Avenell (University of Aberdeen), examined the evidence for managing obesity in men and investigated how to engage men with obesity services. The evidence came from trials, interviews with men, reports of studies from the UK, and economic studies. ROMEO was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Programme (NIHR HTA Project 09/127/01). Our full report is Open Access and can be freely downloaded here.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

School of Health & Social Care

Bournemouth University

12 November 2014

Congratulations to Dr Sarah Hean & colleagues!

Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Hean in the School of Health & Social Care and her colleagues Staddon, Clapper, Fenge, Heaslip and Jack on the acceptance of their article: ‘Improving Collaborative Practice to Address Offender Mental Health: Criminal Justice and Mental Health Service Professionals’ Attitudes Towards Interagency Training, Current Training Needs and Constraints’ by the Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education.

The paper is Open Access funded by BU! A copy is available in BU’s repository BURO: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/21462/

Well done

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

2 November 2014

Surrogacy, legislation & exploitation

Public engagement, Publishing Edwin van Teijlingen

A few months ago Jillian Ireland (BU Visiting Faculty) and I wrote a short Bournemouth University Research Blog on the case widely reported in the media about the Thai baby abandoned by the Australian parents who had ‘placed the order’ for the surrogate child. Following this Blog, Dr. Vijay Sharma, Consultant Physician in Chelmsford, sent me a very interesting paper that appeared in last week’s BMJ.

The paper ‘Taming the international commercial surrogacy industry’ is written by health journalist Sally Howard. She highlights the different laws (or absence thereof) governing surrogacy. She cites an Australian lawyer as saying: “there are no international conventions and agreements …. Legal issues relating to parentage and immigration vary so widely that the process can result in dramatic outcomes, such as a child born via surrogacy who is both legally orphaned and stateless.”

Howard makes a very good point that legislation in low-income countries such as Thailand, India or Nepal is important to help protect surrogate mothers and their off-spring, but equally important is the role of high-income countries to legalise the commercial surrogacy market within their own borders. High-income countries such as the UK, Australia, the USA and the Netherlands have a moral duty to legislate for (restrict) our citizens to help protect poor and vulnerable people in low-income countries from engaging in unethical and/or exploitative commercial surrogacy transactions.

Visit vizecounselor.com if you’re looking for a Thai lawyer for class action lawsuit.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University.

31 October 2014

Congratulations to Wendy Marsh

Awarded & submitted bids Edwin van Teijlingen

BU lecturer-practitioner Wendy Marsh based in Portsmouth has just been awarded The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Luke Zander Research Support Bursary. The prize of £500 and a year’s membership to the RSM was established to honour Dr. Luke Zander a founding member of the Forum and an innovator in maternity care.

Wendy Marsh will receive the prize on 25 November at a meeting entitled ‘Looking back to the future: Challenges and opportunities in maternity care’, which will mark the 30^th anniversary of the Maternity & the Newborn Forum.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Tagged / Health

Symposium Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education on LSE Blog

Masterclass Systematic Reviewing

BU collaborates in International Symposium in Nepal on Mixed-Methods Research

BUDI talks museums and dementia at AHSW Annual Conference

Congratulations to HSC student Mr. Jib Acharya

Breastfeeding research presented in Cornwall

Dorset Legacy Fund – addressing health inequalities in the region

HSC research at RCM Conference this week

Reducing Avoidable Term Admissions’ eLearning project

Congratulations to Wendy Marsh

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