Tagged / PhD

Leadership in disaster nursing

PG research, student research

On Wednesday (04/06) the Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH) and the Department of Nursing Science welcomed Kelsie Fletcher back to Bournemouth University to talk about her doctoral research – ‘Becoming leaders of change: adaptive moral navigation and the challenges of international disaster nursing‘. Kelsie, currently a Lecturer in Nursing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, is supervised by Professor Steve Ersser and Dr Linda Agyemang.

Kelsie presented some of her initial findings from her qualitative research in which she has interviewed nurses currently involved in teams engaged in disaster management around the world. In the coming week, Kelsie will be presenting her research again, this time to a much larger audience at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress in Helsinki. If you would like to know more about Kelsie’s research, please email fletcherk@bournemouth.ac.uk.

We all wish Kelsie well as she moves towards submission of her thesis for examination later this year.

The CWLTH’s next and final research seminar for this academic year will be on Tuesday 17/06 when Jess Correia will be speaking about her research on ‘Understanding the decision-making process for women with common mental disorders around prescribed psychiatric medication use during pregnancy‘. All are welcome to attend and for more information please contact CWLTH@Bournemouth.ac.uk.

PhD supervision is good for you

BU Challenges, international, Publishing, REF Subjects, student research, writing

Some people in academia (and many outside it) don’t appreciate the importance of PhD supervision .  An academic supervising PhD students is not merely for the educational purposes, or in other words, for the benefits of the postgraduate student.  The value of postgraduate supervision lies in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, about testing new ideas, new approaches or even new methods.

Interestingly, enough it means that PhD supervision for an academic is also about developing their own ideas, expanding one’s CV, and developing one’s career.  Whilst for the university it is also for the wider benefit of research for the wider society.  The latter means that PhD students help improve the REF (Research Excellence Framework) scores for a university, through metrics such as number and proportion of PhD completions, but also through papers based on PhD research co-authored with staff.  It always amazes me how some outsider regard PhD supervision as simply more of the same, i.e. not that different from supervising an undergraduate student.

Looking at my ow CV, some of my best papers have been co-written with PhD students, including my most cited paper on SCOPUS [1]. Moreover, as the graph of my h-index [checked SCOPUS for May 19th 2025] shows four of my top eight highest cited papers were co-authored with postgraduate students [1-4].  Papers that would not have been written without the postgraduate student conducting knowledge-advancing research!

Not surprisingly, three of the four former PhD students who co-authored these highly-cited papers are now in academic positions across the UK (the fourth one has retired).  These four highlighted papers are not just looking good on my CV, they are also highly ranked within their respective journals.  The first paper [1] is the 28th most cited paper in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, an impressive 28th position out of 12,762 articles ever published by this international journal.  Similarly, the paper ‘Women’s autonomy in decision-making for health care: Demographic study in Nepal’ [2] is the 10th most cited paper in Reproductive Health, whilst ‘ To tell or not to tell: Barriers and facilitators in family communication about genetic risk’ [3] is the 20th most article in Clinical Genetics.  Last, but not least, ‘Risk, Theory, Social & Medical Models: critical analysis of the concept of risk in maternity care’ [4] is the 17th most cited article (out of 3,910) in the international journal Midwifery.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

 

References:

  1. Simkhada, B., van Teijlingen E., Porter, M., Simkhada, P. (2008) Factors affecting the utilisation of antenatal care in developing countries: a systematic review of the literature, Journal of Advanced Nursing 61(3): 244-260.
  2. Acharya, D.R., Bell, J., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E, Regmi, P.R. (2010) Women’s autonomy in decision-making for health care: Demographic study in Nepal. Reproductive Health 9(15) reproductive-health-journal.com/content/pdf/1742-4755-7-15.pdf
  3. Forrest, K., Simpson, S., Wilson, B.J., van Teijlingen E, McKee L, Haites, N., Matthews E. (2003) To tell or not to tell: Barriers and facilitators in family communication about genetic risk,Clinical Genetics, 64: 317-26.
  4. MacKenzie Bryers H., van Teijlingen, E. (2010) Risk, Theory, Social & Medical Models: critical analysis of the concept of risk in maternity care, Midwifery 26(5): 488-496.

 

 

 

CWLTH Research Seminar

PG research, student research

The next Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH) Research Seminar will be at 13:30-14:30 on Wednesday 4th June in BG-108. Kelsie Fletcher (Lecturer in Nursing at the University of the Sunshine Coast and PhD student at BU) will be speaking about her doctoral research on ‘Becoming leaders of change: adaptive moral navigation and the challenges of international disaster management‘. Kelsie will be submitting her doctoral thesis later this year. Everyone is welcome to join us to learn more about Kelsie’s research.

For more information about the CWLTH please contact cwlth@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Building Research Capacity: The key role of PhD students

BU Challenges, Knowledge Exchange, writing

Postgraduate students, especially PhD students dramatically expand a university’s research capacity. They contribute significantly to data collection, analysis, the day-to-day management of research projects, and publications that might otherwise be impossible to sustain. Postgraduate students are central to progressive research-active communities. PhD student also frequently serve as mentors to undergraduate researchers or Masters’ students, creating a cascade of learning that benefits all participants.

Beyond individual projects, postgraduate students help build research infrastructure through their contributions to lab management, protocol development, the exchange of innovative ideas, and so on. These contributions create lasting benefits to staff as well as higher education institutions.  Academic communities with PhD students often promote collaboration, provide emotional and intellectual support, and create spaces where ideas can be tested and analyses refined before wider dissemination.

This expanded capacity allows universities to pursue more ambitious research agendas and respond to complex challenges requiring multidisciplinary approaches. The postgraduate journey requires carefully planned mentorship, giving students increasing autonomy, and ownership of their scholarly contribution. This apprenticeship model has proven remarkably effective in preparing the next generation of academics for centuries.

 

This blog was created as part of the Professional Discourse in the Age of AI: an interactive writing workshop facilitated by Prof. Debbie Holley and Prof. Carol Clark in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University.  Since last week’s workshop was on the topic, we have used the help of AI in the writing of this BU Research Blog!

 

Dr. Kathryn Collins, Prof. Vanora Hundley & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Research into the consequences of parental migration in Nepal

student research

At today’s Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH) Research Seminar, Yagya Adhikari, a PhD student supervised by Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr Pramod Regmi, presented part of his doctoral research focusing on ‘Parental migration for work and psychosocial problems among left-behind adolescents in Nepal‘. Yagya is part of the CWLTH’s Marginalised Groups Workstream and will be submitting his thesis later in 2025.

An astonishing 2,000 people leave Nepal everyday to work overseas and it has long been known that this has an impact on the families left-behind. Yagya’s research explores a new dimension by focusing on the experiences of the left-behind adolescents. The findings Yagya presented today demonstrate that left-behind adolescent boys and girls have poorer results on measures of psychosocial well-being when compared to similarly aged adolescents not left behind by a parent. Yagya’s research has genuine potential to have a positive impact in Nepal.

If you would like to know more about Yagya’s research he can be contacted at yadhikari@bournemouth.ac.uk. For more information about the CWLTH contact cwlth@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

 

Unique PhD processes – why they are important.………..

Centre for Excellence in Learning, PG research, Publishing, REF Subjects, student research, Training, writing

Most people only really think about the processes involved doing a PhD study when they are doing their own unique research project at one specific university. It is often only when talking to other PhD students at a conference or listening to their supervisors reminiscing about doing theirs at a different university and in a different time, that they realise there are important differences in processes between universities, and even across disciplines within universities. This is true both nationally and globally.  These differences can exist at many different stages of the PhD and Bournemouth University academics have written about several of these differences within a national context (1-6).

PhD aspects can differ from the start, e.g. the expected format of a PhD proposal (5) to the very end, e.g. possible outcomes of a viva (4), or whether the PhD includes clinical or practice components to help bridge the gap between academia and practice (2).  Variations across universities also occur in the expected layout and format of the theses (1), or the way supervisors are expected to supervise by different universities (3), or the format or timing of transfer or progress viva(6).

You might ask why this uniqueness of the postgraduate research journey matters? We argue that academics need to celebrate the diversity of the PhD process and of our postgraduate research students and recognise that excellent research can be achieved in different ways. A personalised process can ensure that postgraduate students are successful in achieving their goals.

 

Dr. Orlanda Harvey, Prof. Vanora Hundley, Dr. Vincent Marmion, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Way S, Hundley V, van Teijlingen E, Walton G, and Westwood G. (2016) Dr Know. RCM Midwives Spring 64-65.
  3. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HPROSPECT/article/view/32735/28111
  4. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education and Research 12(2),61-74. https://doi.org/10.51474/jer.v12i2.624
  5. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  6. van Teijlingen, A., Marmion, V., Harvey, O., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) PhD Progress and Transfer Vivas at Universities in the United Kingdom, Journal of Education and Research, 14(1): 104-116, https://doi.org/10.51474/jer/16196

 

CWLTH Research Seminar & Centre Meeting

PG research, student research

The Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH) will be hosting their next Research Seminar and Centre meeting at 11:00 on Tuesday 22nd April. PhD student Yagya Adhikari will be presenting their doctoral research exploring ‘Parental migration for work and psychosocial problems among left-behind adolescents in Nepal.‘ Click HERE to join this meeting on Teams. Contact CWLTH@bournemouth.ac.uk for more information about the Centre.

The order of things: Starting an M.Sc. after your Ph.D.

PG research

In the 1990s after I had completed my Ph.D. in Medical Sociology my first lectureship was in Public Health at the University of Aberdeen where my job title included that of coordinator of the B.Sc. Health Sciences.  At the time I was required to do a variety of training modules and workshops on education at university level. Since there was the option to register for the Master of Education (M.Ed.) in the Department of Education at the University of Aberdeen, I thought I might as well gain more insight into education and learning than the required basic training and get a degree out of it at the same time.  For a long time, I considered myself as odd, starting a lower degree after having completed a higher one.  I bit like the guy I met thirty years ago who had completed to Ph.D.’s, one in Chemistry and then afterwards one in Divinity.

My view changed a few years ago when a colleague (with a Ph.D.) commenced an M.Sc. for a different reason.  On this occasion to become a qualified practitioner, through the completion of a practice-based M.Sc. in Mental Health Nursing.  The M.Sc. programme started a decade after the completion of a Ph.D. in Public Health.

And the idea for this blog sprang on me this morning when a colleague with a Ph.D. in Statistics and Epidemiology asked me for a reference to support his application for a place on an M.Sc. in Neuroscience.  His argument for starting such M.Sc. is that he is actively involved in several neuro-psychology research projects and as a quantitative researcher he wants to have a greater understanding of the underpinning science and the wider topic area.

Having successfully passed your Ph.D. viva is evidence that you study and learn effectively on your own, the subsequent M.Sc. can offer licensure (the right to practice) or greater insight into an academic field different from your Ph.D. one.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

PhD Viva Success!

PG research, student research, Women's Academic Network

Congratulations to Dr. Assemgul Kozhabek on getting her Doctorate. She successfully passed her PhD Viva defense with the thesis entitled:

Complex Urban Road Networks: Static Structures and Dynamic Processes

The examiners commended her on her solid theoretical knowledge. Her PhD was match-funded by BCP and involved collaboration with University of Cambridge.

Over her PhD journey, besides publications, she has also been active; participating and presenting in different events (e.g., Alan Turing Institute Data Study Group, Dorset COP 2024), won multiple awards (including twice OpenBright awards and two consecutive BCS GreenIT competitions) and awarded Scholarship for Events on Complex Systems from the Young Researchers of the Complex Systems Society (yrC-SS).

Supervisors: Dr Wei Koong Chai and Prof. Vasilis Katos.

Congratulations!

 

First FHSS PGR Student Conference

conferences, PG research, student research

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

On 6th June the Faculty hosted the first FHSS PGR Student Conference.  The half-day Conference opened with a Keynote presentation in which Professor Edwin van Teijlingen shared his considerable experience of supporting PhD students and highlighting important considerations for students as they progress with their doctoral studies.  Edwin challenged students to not always agree with their supervisors.

The Conference also showcased some of the innovative PGR research happening in the Faculty, with presentations from Cathy Beresford, John Tarrant, Chloe Casey, Peter Philips, Preetee Gokhale, Amanda Hensman-Crook, Paula Shepherd, Christine Vincent and Naomi Purdie.

Cathy Beresford

The Conference was organised by PGR students Tanya Andrewes, Cathy Beresford, Hina Tariq and Helen Allen, with minimal support from the FHSS Doctoral School.  It is hoped that this Conference will become an annual event organised by students with the 2024 Conference being bigger and better than 2023 … the challenge is set.

Massive congratulations to all involve in planning the Conference, to the presenters and to those present who challenged the speakers with interesting questions.

50th PhD viva as external

international, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing

Late last week I had the pleasure of conducting my 50th Ph.D. viva as an external examiner.  The first Ph.D. viva as external examiner was in 2004 at the University of Durham.  Over the years most have been at universities in the UK, but I have also had the pleasure of conducting viva in Ireland, the Netherlands, Nepal, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark and New Zealand.  Technically three of these were not a traditional Ph.D. viva, as it included one Doctorate in Professional Practice (at The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen), a D. Phil. at the University of Oxford and acting as pre-examiner for a Ph.D. at a university on Finland.  In addition I have also acted six times as an internal examiner at the University of Aberdeen (n=3) and Bournemouth University (n=3).  Over the years some of the experiences related to examining and supervision Ph.D. theses have resulted in papers and book chapters [1-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4.
  3. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  4. Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Converting your Master’s or Doctoral Thesis into an Academic Paper for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 184-189.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education & Research 12(2): 61-74.

The PhD viva and then….

Centre for Excellence in Learning, international, PG research, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing

Today the Journal of Education and Research published online our paper ‘Reflections on Variations in PhD Viva Regulations: “And the Options Are …”’. [1]   The paper outlines that examining PhD research in the form of a doctoral thesis is specialist work, which is why few people know the potential variations. This paper highlights the different options that are available for PhD examiners. There are four general options: (1) pass, (2) rewrite and resubmit; (3) lower degree, with or without resubmission; and (4) fail the PhD. However, from our experience, of both being examined for our own PhDs and examining others at a range of different universities, we have noted a considerable variety in detail within these common options. This paper outlines a variety of outcomes of a PhD examination, followed by four short case studies, each reflecting on a particular aspect /differences we experienced as examinees or as examiners. This paper further aims to alert PhD candidates and examiners to study the examination rules set by the awarding university, as the details of the PhD examination outcome, and hence the options available to both examiners and the students may differ more than one might expect.

This publication adds to our earlier work on the roles of PhD supervisors providing in-depth discipline-specific Public Health knowledge and technical (e.g., methodological) support to the students, encouraging them towards publications or conference presentations, offering pastoral support for student wellbeing, and finally preparing them to defend their thesis by conducting a mock viva. Our earlier paper focused on the responsibilities, opportunities, and sometimes the challenging nature of being a PhD supervisor in the field of Public Health in Nepal. [2]

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P. ., Simkhada , P. ., Hundley, V. ., Poudel, K. C. (2022). Reflections on Variations in PhD Viva Regulations: “And the Options Are …”. Journal of Education and Research, 12(2), 61-74. https://doi.org/10.51474/jer.v12i2.624
  2. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021). PhD supervision in public health. Health Prospect, 20(1), 1-4.

Webinar: Develop a career in research methodology with the NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship – 8 December

Funding opportunities, NHS

NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship

Discover more about the NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and what makes a competitive application in this interactive webinar.

8 December 2022 at 1pm

The NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellowship supports people in England starting or advancing a career in health and social care research methodology.

It offers early career researchers the training, support and funding to undertake a PhD in their chosen methodology, or to develop a methodology career in roles relevant to health and social care research.

This one hour webinar will provide the background of the scheme, outline the eligibility and application process, and share hints and tips how to develop a competitive application.

Attend the webinar to:

  • Learn about the scope of the scheme, the application process and details of the next round launching in January 2023
  • Understand the benefits of undertaking a Pre-Doctoral
  • Fellowship first hand from past award holders and what can be achieved through undertaking the award
  • Receive information about what makes a competitive application

Register for the webinar

 

Your local branch of the NIHR RDS (Research Design Service) is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) should you need help with grant applications. We advise on all aspects of developing an application and can review application drafts as well as put them to a mock funding panel (run by RDS South West) known as Project Review Committee, which is a fantastic opportunity for researchers to obtain a critical review of a proposed grant application before this is sent to a funding body or if you’re hoping to resubmit the panel can provide some excellent tips and feedback.

Contact us as early as possible to benefit fully from the advice

Feel free to call us on 01202 961939 or send us an email.

New BU PhD education paper

BRIAN, Centre for Excellence in Learning, international, Student Engagement, writing

This week the editor of the journal Journal of Education & Research informed us that our paper ‘Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”’ has been accepted for publication [1].  This paper grew out of a discussion between the six authors about the apparent differences between the outcomes of the PhD viva at different universities.  We have all acted as internal or external examiners for a PhD viva and had noted inconsistencies between universities, either in the regulations or in the interpretation of their PhD regulations.  The authors are based at three different universities, on two different continents and, between them, have examined PhD theses submitted to universities based in at least ten different countries.  Three authors are based in BU’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (Prof. Vanora Hundley, Dr. Pramod Regmi & Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen), two authors are based in the School of Human & Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield (Prof. Padam Simkhada & Dr. Bibha Simkhada and both are Visiting Faculty at BU), and one author is based in the Institute for Global Health in the School of Public Health & Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA (Prof. Krishna C. Poudel).

This paper outlines the range of outcomes of a PhD examination.  It also includes four short case studies, each reflecting on a particular aspect /differences we experienced as examinees or as examiners. The authors aim to alert PhD candidates and examiners to study the examination rules set by the awarding university, as the details of the PhD examination outcome, and hence the options available to both examiners and the students, may differ more than one might expect.  This is the latest CMMPH education publication around aspects of the PhD [2-5].

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education and Research (accepted).
  2. Way, S, Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E, Walton, G., Westwood, G. (2016) Dr Know. Midwives 19: 66-7.
  3. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P.P., Hundely, V. & Shreeh, K. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  4. Hundley, V., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Converting your Master’s or Doctoral Thesis into an Academic Paper for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 184-189.
  5. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HPROSPECT/article/view/32735/28111

Some thoughts about PhD supervision in Public Health

international, PG research, Publishing, Training

Recently, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health published our article on ‘PhD supervision in Public Health’ [1].  The lead author is Dr. Pramod Regmi, with co-authors Prof. Padam Simkhada (FHSS Visiting Faculty) from the University of Huddersfield and Dr. Amudha Poobalan from the University of Aberdeen.  The paper has a strong Aberdeen connection, the fifth oldest university in the UK.  Three of us (Poobalan, van Teijlingen & Simkhada) use to work in the Department of Public Health at the University of Aberdeen (one still does), and three of us (Poobalan, Regmi & van Teijlingen) have a PhD from Aberdeen.

Reference:

  1. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HPROSPECT/article/view/32735/28111

The PhD examiner

international, PG research

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

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

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

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

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

 

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)

 

New publication on essential fatty acids in donor human milk in the UK

PG research

Congratulations to FHSS PhD student Isabell Nessel who published part of her integrated PhD thesis in the Journal for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition last week.

The paper “Long‐Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Lipid Peroxidation Products in Donor Human Milk in the United Kingdom: Results From the LIMIT 2-Centre Cross-Sectional Study” resulted from a collaboration between BU (Isabell Nessel, Prof Jane Murphy, Dr Simon Dyall – now at the University of Roehampton), Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Prof Minesh Khashu), and St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Laura De Rooy) (1). Full text can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jpen.1773

This paper shows for the first time that donor human milk in the UK has very low levels of essential fatty acids, which are important for brain and eye development. Furthermore, donor human milk has higher lipid degradation than preterm and term breast milk. This could have important implications for preterm infant nutrition as exclusive unfortified donor human milk feeding might not be suitable long term and may contribute to the development of major neonatal morbidities.

This study followed from a narrative review Isabell and her supervisors Prof Minesh Khashu and Dr Simon Dyall published last year, which suggested that current human milk banking practices might have detrimental effects on essential fatty acid quality and quantity in donor human milk (2).

Isabell

inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

Reference

  • Nessel, Isabell, et al. “Long‐Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Lipid Peroxidation Products in Donor Human Milk in the United Kingdom: Results From the LIMIT 2‐Centre Cross‐Sectional Study.” Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition(2020).
  • Nessel, Isabell, Minesh Khashu, and Simon C. Dyall. “The effects of storage conditions on long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, lipid mediators, and antioxidants in donor human milk–a review.” Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids(2019).