Research - extract from our annual report

Professor Julie Jomeen, Associate Dean

Julie Jomeen

The Faculty of Health and Social Care has had a successful year in research terms. The establishment of three clear research development groups (RDG's) in the faculty has provided a strong focus for research and is promoting the growth of critical mass in key areas. The three groups comprise:

·         Long Term Conditions

·         Maternal, Reproductive, Relationships & Sexual Health

·         Health Technology, Interventions & Innovations

The concept of promoting well-being works as a central theme crossing all planned activity. The RDGs focus on those underpinning mechanisms that ensure and enhance health and wellbeing.  The groups have worked as a base for the development of early career researchers, supported by the faculty’s fast track programme, now in its 2^nd successful year, and many of those individuals have gone on to publish some of the papers showcased in this report.

Researchers in the faculty have been proactive in developing relationships with external partners and internally across-faculties to promote the growth of grant based activity. The projects in our 2012/13 work-stream highlight our commitment to a collaborative and applied approach to our research. Projects have been developed around RDG areas of expertise and successfully underpinned a growth in research grant applications across a range of grant awarding bodies, from local organisations and charities to research councils. The research income for the last year totalled £399,000, supporting projects across all three RDG's. Some examples of projects from the last year include:

·         Preparing to Care: A longitudinal study of personal qualities, values, and readiness to engage in caring work among students in nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy at the Universities of Hull, York and York St John.

·         Development of the MOLES Index – a measure of barriers and levers to skin self-examination

·         Empowering Health Visitors to predict and detect deleterious mental health during pregnancy and the postnatal period and promote optimal care for childbearing women

·         Intimate Partner Violence: Exploring the Perspective of the Muslim Community: A Community Consultation

·         Evaluating use of telehealth in Hull care homes (ATTICS project)

·         Preventing repeat unplanned teenage pregnancies

·         The experiences of innovators in learning and teaching: lessons for leadership development

·         Evaluation of Air Products telehealth project in NHS East Riding of Yorkshire

The faculty has made a significant and valuable contribution to the Research Evaluation Framework (REF) in UoA 3, with faculty staff making contributions in terms of both outputs but also impact statements. The number of staff that have returned with 3* papers demonstrates a significant increase in the number of staff returning from the previous RAE 2008 and lucidly highlights the progressive trajectory the faculty is on in terms of research activity.