BU Research Blog | social sciences | Bournemouth University

28 August 2024

BMJ Global Health Blog online

BU Challenges, Delicious links, Fusion themes, international, open access, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today BMJ Global Health posted a blog (read it here!) about our recently publish paper ‘Socio-economic experiences of female community health volunteers matter: insights from Nepal’ which appeared last month in the Open Access journal PLOS Global Public Health [1]. In Nepal, about 50,000 Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) are a vital human resource for both government and non-government agencies delivering primary healthcare at community level. Their contribution to maternal and child health is recognised globally. Being an active volunteer brought some interesting issues for the FCHCs. For example, the social experience of working in one’s own village was not the same for all. While community recognition of volunteers’ work was seen as a motivator, most volunteers thought they were not given due respect by fellow community members. Too often community members mistook volunteers as paid health workers often due to their involvement in medicine distribution, a rare bi-annual activity.

Our recent paper in BMJ Global Health was highlighted in an earlier BU Research Blog (to read this click here!). This latest paper is the third one based on Dr. Sarita Panday’s PhD research conducted at the University of Sheffield [2-3]. It is the fourth Bournemouth University paper on FCHVs with last weeks publication in the Journal of Manmohan memorial Institute of Health Sciences [4]

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

References:

Panday, S., Barnes, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Exploring the motivations of female community health volunteers in primary healthcare provision in rural Nepal: a qualitative study, PLOS Global Public Health 4(8): e0003428
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2017) The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study, BMC Health Services Research 17:623 be/vz9C
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2019) Perceived barriers to accessing female community health volunteers’ services amongst ethnic minority women in Nepal: a qualitative study, PLoS ONE 14(6): e0217070 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217070
Bhattarai, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2024). Nepal Needs A Two-Pronged Approach to Secure Future of Its Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 9(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.3126/jmmihs.v9i1.68640

21 August 2024

The role of a journal editor

Delicious links, international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Am I getting grumpier or are academic getting lazier? Or both? This morning I had to write an email in my role as one of the editors of The Journal of Asian Midwives to a group of authors somewhere in South Asia with the following text:

‘I don’t think you have read the author instructions for our journal. The Journal of Asian Midwives is interested in promoting midwifery and maternity care in South Asia. Your article is about a different profession ‘nursing’ and worse it mentions neither midwifery, maternity care nor pregnancy. This manuscript is not appropriate for our academic journal.

Moreover, in terms of style, I am not impressed by an email addressed to me which ends with the following:

Best regards,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Affiliation]
[Your Contact Information]
[Enclosures: Main Document, First Page, Cover Letter]

Please, try (1) submitting to a nursing journal and (2) have a bit less of an AI-generated cover letter.

Yours, not impressed,

Prof. Dr. Edwin van Teijlingen

20 August 2024

BU PhD student invited to Safety 24 conference in India

conferences, international, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Bournemouth University PhD student Md. Shafkat Hossain has been invited to attend the international Safety 2024 conference in India in September. The 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention & Safety Promotion (Safety 2024) will be held 2-4 September at the Taj Palace in New Delhi. Safety 2024 global event will focus worldwide attention on safety and injury prevention. This conference will gather international experts in the field with a united goal of “Building a safer future for all: Equitable and sustainable strategies for injury and violence prevention”.

Shafkat will be presenting this PhD work to date under the title ‘Using Human-Centred Design (HCD) to develop community-led interventions to prevent drowning among children under the age of 2 in rural Bangladesh’. Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossain who has been selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of the Emerging Leaders in Drowning Prevention programme. This programme has been designed to create a cohort of younger leaders to join national and international efforts to raise awareness and strengthen solutions and political commitment towards drowning. This programme is hosted by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and provides a unique opportunity for people like Shafkat to develop leadership skills in drowning prevention, and be a part of a global community working to reduce drowning deaths. This first group of Emerging Leaders includes people from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Uganda, United States and Vietnam.

Shafkat’s PhD study is part of the interdisciplinary Sonamoni study. Sonamoni is coordinated by BU in collaboration with Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), the University of the West of England, Bristol, the University of Southampton, Design Without Borders (DWB) in Uganda, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). We are working to reduce drownings among newly-mobile children, generally under two years old. This £1.6m project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information about our ongoing research in Bangladesh, please visit the NIHR website.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Mavis Bengtsson

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

14 August 2024

PLoS ONE paper on kidney disease in Nepal’s migrant workers

international, open access, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Our research project on kidney disease in Nepalese migrant workers funded by the Colt Foundation has been published this week by PLoS ONE. The paper ‘Exploring lifestyles, work environment and health care experience of Nepalese returnee labour migrants diagnosed with kidney-related problems‘ [1] is led by Bournemouth University’s Drs. Pramod Regmi and Nirmal Aryal, both based in the Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health. This is one of the first qualitative papers to focus on the rising kidney health-related risks among Nepalese labour migrants in the Middle East and Malaysia.

This qualitative study explored the lifestyles and work environment of returnee Nepalese migrants who were diagnosed with kidney health problems. In-depth interviews were carried out with twelve male returnee migrants, with half having worked abroad for at least a decade. Our analysis yielded seven themes: (a) living and lifestyles; (b) work environment; (c) exposure to pollutants; (d) Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) experience; (e) use of painkillers and healthcare; (f) medical expenses for CKD patients; and (g) pre-departure training. This study indicates that Nepalese migrants face numerous challenges, including limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, poor diets, exposure to occupational hazards, and overuse of pain medication, all of which may contribute to an increased risk of kidney disease. An enhanced pre-departure and on-arrival orientation programme focusing on kidney health-related topics, including the necessary advocacy at the country of destination to provide access to basic services, may encourage migrants to adopt healthy lifestyles and safe working environments, as well as help educate migrants to their kidney health risks.

The is the latest in a series of academic papers related in one way of or another to kidney disease in migrant workers from Nepal [2-5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

References:

Regmi, P., Aryal, N., Bhattarai, S., Sedhain, A., KC, R.K. and van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Exploring lifestyles, work environment and health care experience of Nepalese returnee labour migrants diagnosed with kidney-related problems, PLoS ONE 19(8): e0309203. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309203
Aryal, N., Sedhain, A., Regmi, P.R., KC, R. K., van Teijlingen, E. (2021). Risk of kidney health among returnee Nepali migrant workers: A survey of nephrologists. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 12(12), 126–132. https://doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v12i12.39027
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., Faller, E.M,, van Teijlingen, E., Khoon, C.C., Pereira, A., Simkhada, P. (2019) Sudden cardiac death and kidney health related problems among Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 9(3): 755-758. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/25805
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., Sedhain, A., KC, R.K., Martinez Faller, E., Rijal, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) Kidney health risk of migrant workers: An issue we can no longer overlook. Health Prospect 20(1):15-7
Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Aryal, N., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Excessive mortalities among migrant workers: the case of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences, 4:31-32. https://doi.org/10.46405/ejms.v4i0.455

10 August 2024

School WASH facilities and menstruation in Nepal

international, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Access to safe and sufficient drinking Water, Sanitation, and good Hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools play a crucial role in preventing numerous diseases, improving the learning environment in schools, and creating resilient communities living in a healthy environment. This study in Nepal explored the impact of combining WASH facilities on students’ health status, school attendance, and educational achievements [1].
A total of 24 participants, 16 students, and eight teachers were interviewed; data were audio recorded and analyzed thematically. Some of the results suggest that school-WASH facilities have a significant impact on students’ health and well‐being. Poor school‐WASH facilities hindered students’ school attendance, particularly for menstruating girls. School without separate toilets for girls, including menstruation hygiene facilities, lack of water and soap, sanitary pad, and secure toilet’s door often have higher rates of absenteeism among girls. It is important to note that inadequate WASH facilities affect not only students, but also teachers in the same school. The latest paper conclude that a lack of safe and sufficient drinking water, unimproved sanitation, and poor hygiene facilities were seen by students and teachers as reducing their health and well‐being, school attendance, and academic performance. Schools needs to provide better WASH facilities for the benefit of students’ health, attendance, and educational proficiency.

This is a follow-up from an earlier paper on the effect on educational achievement in the same population [2].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

Sharma MK, Adhikari R, Khanal SP, Acharya D, van Teijlingen E. (2024) Do school Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene facilities affect students’ health status, attendance,
and educational achievements? A qualitative study in Nepal. Health Science Reports; 7:e2293. https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.2293
Sharma, M., Adhikari, R., van Teijlingen, E., Devkota, B., Khanal, S. (2024) Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities at School and their Effect on Educational Achievement in Basic Level Students in Nepal, International Journal of Health Promotion & Education (accepted). https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2024.2314459.

9 August 2024

New BU women’s health workers’ paper

international, open access, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today we saw the publication of our latest paper about FCHVs (Female Community Health Volunteers) in Nepal [1]. This paper is Open Access and hence freely available worldwide, to anyone with an internet access. The FCHV programme is one of the most successful parts of the health system of Nepal. This programme covers over fifty thousand FCHVs distributed across the country. These women provide unparalleled services to help across communities to improve outcomes in communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and aid health promotion and education.

Previous papers focusing on FCHVs included the recently accepted paper in PLOS Global Public Health [2], as well as two previous papers based on the Ph.D. study by Dr. Sarita Panday on FCHVs [3-4]. The latest paper is co-authored with Sankalpa Bhattarai is is working with our long-term collaborating agency Green Tara Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

Bhattarai, S., & van Teijlingen, E. (2024). Nepal Needs A Two-Pronged Approach to Secure Future of Its Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences, 9(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.3126/jmmihs.v9i1.68640
Panday, S., Barnes, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Exploring the motivations of female community health volunteers in primary healthcare provision in rural Nepal: a qualitative study, PLOS Global Public Health (forthcoming).
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2017) The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study, BMC Health Services Research 17:623 be/vz9C
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2019) Perceived barriers to accessing female community health volunteers’ services amongst ethnic minority women in Nepal: a qualitative study, PLoS ONE 14(6): e0217070 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217070

1 August 2024

Sonamoni collaborator recognised for services rendered to water safety

Awarded & submitted bids, international Edwin van Teijlingen

All the members of the Sonamoni team would like to congratulate Dr. Aminur Rahman, the Co-PI of our project for his award this week from HRH Prince Michael of Kent. Dr. Rahman from CIPRB (Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) was awarded the HRH Prince Michael of Kent Certificate of Merit for services rendered to water safety. Dr. Rahman is visiting Bournemouth this week as part of a planning meeting for our project. This Sonamoni project has been made possible thanks to a grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme. For more information, visit the NIHR website.
In Bangladesh, drowning is the leading cause of death in children between one and two years old. This low-income country has one of the highest rates of drowning, especially among children, in the world.

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

31 July 2024

Authorship paper

international, Publishing, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Our paper ‘Academic authorship: who, why and in what order?‘ [1] has been cited 40 times according to ResearchGate.

Paper by Hundley et al. published 2013

We have since updated the information from this paper in our textbook Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences [2], which we published in Kathmandu, Nepal two years ago. However, there we spread the relevant information over three separate chapters [3-5], but textbook chapters usually don’t reach the same citation rates as academic papers!

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH

References:

Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E., & Simkhada, P. (2013). Academic authorship: who, why and in what order?. Health Renaissance, 11(2), 99–101. https://doi.org/10.3126/hren.v11i2.8214
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]
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V., Swoveet, P. (2022) Writing an Academic Paper, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 6-14.
Hundley, V., Luce, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Collaborative Writing for Publication, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 15-19.
Aryal, N., Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, B., Subedi, M., van Teijlingen, E., Wasti, S.P., Hundley, V, Khatri, R. (2022) Being Ethical in Writing and Publishing, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 153-161.

31 July 2024

Research Priorities for Nepal: Planning meeting

conferences, international, student research Edwin van Teijlingen

Last Friday (July 26) members of the GCPHR (Global Consortium for Public Health Research) held their second Annual Meeting at the University of Huddersfield. This year’s theme was “Research Priority for Nepal”. GCPHR is an international network of public health researchers, practitioners, and policymakers; for details click here! In addition to researchers from the University of Huddersfield, there were participants from Bournemouth University, Keele University, York St. John University, the University of Greenwich, Liverpool John Moores University, NHS England, the University of Bradford, the University of Wolverhampton, the University of Aberdeen, The University of Sheffield, Tribhuvan University (Nepal), Technical University of Kaiserslautern (Germany), Kids at School in Nepal UK, Green Tara Nepal, Global Banking School UK, QINET International, among others.

Bournemouth University was represented by Dr. Pramod Regmi, Principal Academic in the Centre for Wellbeing and Long-Term Health (CWLTH), Mr. Yagya Adhikari, Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS), and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH). Since the audience was very interdisciplinary with both academics and representative from development and research charities there were thought-provoking presentations at the GCPHR meeting resulting in stimulating debates. These will hopefully lead to future collaborations, grant applications and publications.

We thank Prof. Padam Simkhada, Dr. Rajeeb Sah, and many others from the University of Huddersfield for the excellent organisation of the event. Prof. Padam Simkhada is also Bournemouth University Visiting Professor in FHSS.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen & Dr. Pramod Regmi

25 July 2024

Workshop on longitudinal studies in three countries

international Edwin van Teijlingen

Today and yesterday (24-25 July) the Global Consortium for Public Health Research (GCPHR) met at the University of Huddersfield in a workshop to plan the multi-country (India, Nepal & Ghana) longitudinal cohort study. The workshop was attended by 15 people including Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Health & Social Sciences.

This longitudinal study is coordinated by Prof. Padam Simkhada from the University of Huddersfield, Padam is also Visiting Professor at BU. The main start-up funding for this three-country study comes from the University of Huddersfield. The workshop participants represented India, Ghana and Nepal, including the non-governmental organisation Green Tara Nepal. The participants discussed research process as well as more detailed health domains and questions to be included in the survey tools.

22 July 2024

New Bournemouth University public health paper

international, open access, PG research, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

The journal PLOS Global Public Health informed us that our paper ‘Exploring the motivations of female community health volunteers in primary healthcare provision in rural Nepal: a qualitative study’ [1] has been formally accepted in the Open Access journal. Dr. Sarita Panday is based at the Univeristy of Essex and Dr. Amy Barnes is based at the University of York. This paper is part of the first author’s Ph.D. project at the University of Sheffield, and it is the third second paper from her Ph.D. thesis as previous academic articles have appeared in BMC Health Services Research [2] and PLoS ONE [3].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

Panday, S., Barnes, A., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Exploring the motivations of female community health volunteers in primary healthcare provision in rural Nepal: a qualitative study, PLOS Global Public Health 4(8): e0003428
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2017) The contribution of female community health volunteers (FCHVs) to maternity care in Nepal: a qualitative study, BMC Health Services Research 17:623 be/vz9C
Panday, S., Bissell, P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P. (2019) Perceived barriers to accessing female community health volunteers’ services amongst ethnic minority women in Nepal: a qualitative study, PLoS ONE 14(6): e0217070 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217070

3 July 2024

Research capacity building

international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week I attended Bournemouth University’s Research Conference which focused on collaboration and participation. One the many issues discussed that day include international research teams, especially differences in culture and expectations as well as the very practical time differences across the globe. I was reminded of the latter this morning when I woke up at five AM to start a two-hour online training workshop on academic writing for our research colleagues in Bangladesh. This is one of the sessions we run as part of our internal research capacity building strategy on the Sonamoni project. Due to the time difference it was as 11.00 AM start in Bangladesh which meant sixteen people from CIPRB could attend, opening up the session to not jest those staff working on the Sonamoni project.

This project is an interdisciplinary study of nearly £1.7 million funded by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Sonamoni (meaning ‘golden pearl’ in Bangla) aims to reduce the deaths of newly-mobile toddlers (those aged under two) from drowning in rural Bangladesh. This multidisciplinary project is a collaboration of BU’s Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH), BU’s Department in Accounting, Finance & Economics and Department of Design & Engineering, and external partners, namely the University of the West of England, the University of Southampton, the Poole-based Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Bangladesh-based research organisation CIPRB (Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh) and Design Without Borders (based in Uganda).

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMWH

1 July 2024

New sociology paper Freedom from Academentia

international, open access, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Laura Favaro, Lecturer in Social Science in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, who published the paper ‘Let us be free from “ACADEMENTIA”’ this last weekend of June [1]. “Survivor of academentia” is how one former lecturer in sociology described herself when to Laura interviewed her for her ethnography of academia. In particular, the research explored the “gender wars”, namely the disputes around sex and gender that have escalated dramatically since the mid 2010s in Britain and increasingly also in many other countries. This article builds on feminist and other critical uses of the term academentia with original insights from interview and document data about the detrimental impact of queer theory and politics. The hope is to stimulate further inquiry into the push towards queering at universities, and beyond, as well as into the connections between the
transgender and mad movements.

The content of this paper has been covered by writer Victoria Smith in The Critic and Laura will be presenting about this exciting topic at a conference this summer.

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

Favaro, L. (2024) Let us be free from “Academentia”, Cuestiones de género: de la igualdad y la diferencia. Nº. 19: 659-92.

29 June 2024

Positionality in qualitative research

international, open access, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

At the online editorial board meeting today [Saturday 29th June] of the Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology I had the pleasure of seeing Bournemouth University’s latest paper ‘The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers‘ ahead of publication [1]. The lead author of this paper is Hannah Gurr and this methodology paper is part of her M.Res. research project in Social Work. Hannah is supervised by Dr. Louise Oliver, Dr. Orlanda Harvey and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS).

Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology is a Gold Open Access journal so when it appears online it will be free to read for anybody across the globe.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

Reference:

Gurr, H., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., Subedi, M.van Teijlingen, E. (2024) The Importance of Positionality for Qualitative Researchers, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 18 (1): 48-54.

28 June 2024

BU academic visiting Malaysia

Awarded & submitted bids, international, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Nirmal Aryal, who is a part-time researcher in the Department of Nursing Sciences, is in Malaysia this week to prepare further migrant-health research collaborations and plans. His trip is part of the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) seed-corn funding for Early Career Researchers. In Malaysia Nirmal has conducted several PPIE (Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) events with migrant workers and stakeholders, including current Nepalese migrant workers. Nirmal is working closely with Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (both based in FHSS) in the field of the health and well-being of Nepalse migrant workers. Today Nirmal also met with the Ambassador of Nepal in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) who expressed a great interest in our work.

Nirmal is on a double mission as building links in Malaysia is also important for our latest funded project ‘ENSURE‘. ENSURE is a project led by La Isla Network in the United States of America. La Isla Network, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (based in the U.S.), the Nepal Development Society and Bournemouth University are leading the first-ever international effort to research and address trafficking among Nepalese labour migrants. The work is funded by a $4 million cooperative agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, International Programs.

16 June 2024

FHSS academics’ paper cited 1,000 times

international, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

This morning ResearchGate alerted us that our paper published two decades ago ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies’ has now been cited one thousand times [1]. This methods paper in the Nursing Standard is very often used by authors quoting a paper in their research methods section when they have done pilot or feasibility study for a larger-scale study. This paper is also our second top cited paper with 1,982 citations on Google Scholar and, interestingly enough, on SCOPUS it is not listed at all.

Pilot studies are a crucial element of a good study design. Conducting a pilot study does not guarantee success in the main study, but it does increase the likelihood of success. Pilot studies fulfill a range of important functions and can provide valuable insights for other researchers. There is a need for more discussion among researchers of both the process and outcomes of pilot studies.

This paper is one of several methods paper focusing on pilot studies we have published over the past 22 years [2-7].

Professors Vanora Hundley & Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

References:

van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2002) ‘The importance of pilot studies’ Nursing Standard 16(40): 33-36. Web: nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf
van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.
Simkhada, P, Bhatta, P., van Teijlingen E (2006) Importance of piloting questionnaire on sexual health research (Letter), Wilderness & Environmental Medical Journal, 17(4): 295-96. wemjournal.org/wmsonline/?request=get-document&issn=1080-6032&volume=017&issue=04&page=0295#Ref
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2001) The importance of pilot studies, Social Research Update Issue 35, (Editor N. Gilbert), Guildford: University of Surrey. Web: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU35.html
Hundley, V., van Teijlingen E. (2002) The role of pilot studies in midwifery research RCM Midwives Journal 5(11): 372-74.
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(3): 219-21.
van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2003) Pilot study, In: Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods, Vol. 2, Lewis-Beck, M., Bryman, A. & Liao, T. (eds.), Orego, Sage: 823-24.

9 June 2024

Health of Nepalese migrants workers research

international, PG research Edwin van Teijlingen

Today, Sunday 9th June, our paper ‘Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad was highlighted by ResearchGate as being widely read. This scientific paper which was part of Dr. Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences has been read 1,000 times.

6 June 2024

Another rejection…

international, Public engagement Edwin van Teijlingen

Rejection is a key part of an academic’s life. Typically, your scientific paper gets rejected at least one before getting accepted for publication. Whilst it is common knowledge among academics is that your average grant application has a chance of about one in eight, and Innovate UK Smart grants have a “public” success rate of just 5%. As academics we all have to learn to live with ‘failure’ . However, when we received a rejection this week to be part of the ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council) Festival of Social Science 2024 for our research project Preventing drowning of children under two in Bangladesh: An interdisciplinary approach, it was a first!

We thought we had a decent chance as (1) our interdisciplinary team includes an anthropologist, an economist and a sociologist. (2) This year the call for Festival of Social Science was for a joint Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton programme, and our NIHR (National Institute for Health Research)-funded Sonamoni project is an international joint project between Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton, working with the University of the West of England, the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute), CIPRB in Bangladesh and Design Without Borders in Uganda. (3) We had included an element of Virtual reality as this year’s festival theme will be ‘Our Digital Lives’. Finally, (4) I have been successful before in the past applying for inclusion into the ESRC Festival of Learning, for example highlight our research in Nepal and India in 2018 or our Breastfeeding Debate in the 2017 Festival of Learning. Obviously past success is no guarantee for future success! Hopefully, we have better luck next year when we have more results to present in a knowledge exchange event like this.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)

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