New Faculty Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Dr Mary Laurenson has been awarded:

Mary Laurenson

a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy

Nicola Credland's Uganda diary - entry 2

I have had the most amazing, emotional, eye opening day today. I have been to the local Christian orphanage, Divine Mercy. Children from birth to 16 are cared for here, usually coming from homes where parents have HIV/TB/typhoid, are very poor or who simply do not want them. Most of the children are under 6 years including a 1-week old baby girl. First impressions...the children are so happy! They have nothing except each other, no one who loves them, clothes that are dirty, falling apart and they all have to share, they have a very basic diet and little stimulation apart from the morning spent in school (forget iphones, ipads and ipods). I spent the morning helping in an English class - they thought it was amazing I was actually from England. I took my camera and showed them how to take pictures and a short video which they had clearly never seen before. We drew some pictures of their school which they held up proudly to be photographed. We did some singing and dancing which I videoed and played back to them. The wonder in their eyes was truly heartbreaking.  

My caring nature as a nurse and my instincts as a mother well and truly got the better of me.  They are without money, families, and a proper education but they are probably the happiest group of children I have ever me. Who got the most from the visit? - me probably (I cried leaving them all - and am again writing this). Without exception, ALL of our student nurses visiting Mburara should visit Divine Mercy. We have so much to learn from these children.

Nicola Credland's Uganda diary - entry 1

Uganda Diary

18th March 2014

After a mammoth five hour drive from Entebbe I have finally arrived. AGIP hotel is great (much better that the flight hotel I stopped in at the airport!). The drive from Entebbe to Mburara was amazing. Loads of tiny children (3-4 years old) running around naked and with stocking feet. Fantastic scenery and a running commentary from a brilliant taxi driver (Moses). Literally checked in and then decided to walk to the university to meet Mary Sebert, a Lecturer in Nursing at MUST (Mburara University of Science and Technology) . Uphill, in 28C heat and about a mile away so not the easiest start to my visit! Seemed to make quite a stir as not seen another white woman since I got off the plane.

Mary is fantastic and we hit it off straight away. First things first, a tour of the hospital. I had tears in my eyes on numerous occasions. The general wards have one nurse to approx 50 patients. Nurses have little time to do anything other than dispense medication. The families wash, feed and care for the patients - none of this is provided by the hospital. The interns do vital signs but again this is spasmodic due to lack of equipment and lack of available treatment. Very little documentation is done - none at all by nursing staff. Patients simply do not get treated if they have no money to pay. There is limited access to medication (metronidazole is the only antibiotic) and they are prohibitively expensive (most families cannot afford even a single dose). Patients even have to provide their own oxygen. There are adults and children alike dying of completely treatable diseases. There is no s cardiac arrest team or trauma team and little understanding of the importance of recognition and rescue of the deteriorating patient (patients and their relatives simply cannot afford that level of care and the equipment and medication is not available). The “intensive care unit” is a world away from what I am used to. They have two ventilators and all the beds have cardiac monitoring; however, the staff do not know how to use them. They rarely ventilate patients (again down to cost) and when they do, rarely have oxygen. One suction catheter has to last 24 hours. The electricity fails between Friday and Sunday on a weekly basis and there is no back up generator - the relatives have to hand ventilate with an ambubag. The NICU has no ability to ventilate babies. I saw a man in A&E in partial airway obstruction - the family could not afford treatment so we had to walk past. This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my whole career. A five year old had a perforated bowel due to typhoid - the family could not afford the operation and after care costs - andthe child was left to die. According to Mary these are everyday dilemmas.

However, the student nurses that I met are passionate, enthusiastic and are so excited to learn. They are like sponges mopping up every little bit of information I could give to them. They are so excited about being taught by a nurse 'from England'. This is both invigorating and humbling to the same degree. I wish I could bottle 'it' and bring it home. The NHS could learn a lot from these nurses.

Faculty staff have paper accepted at NET2014 Cambridge

Jacqueline Hutchison and Mike Parker have had:

Jacqueline Hutchinson

Mike Parker

Sharing teaching and learning practice internationally: Why bother? An evaluation of a cross-cultural collaboration: A case study of a Swedish exchange

At the NET 2014 Conference 2-4 September 2014 at Churchill College, Cambridge

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.

Statement from the Dean about the outgoing BSc Nursing and Advanced Diploma in nursing programmes

Steve Ersser

Professor Steve Ersser says:

As many of you will know - the outgoing BSc Nursing and Advanced Diploma in nursing programmes have now drawn to a close, apart from a few students who still need to complete.  Over the years these programmes have been very successful in producing skilled professional nurses who have become valued members of the NHS and partner organisations workforce.  I am delighted see that a notable number of students on the Advanced Diploma, who were accepted with  low entry tariffs and who transferred onto the BSc -went on to achieve good degrees. This is a testament to their motivation to succeed and the quality of support they received from academic and administrative staff. The final results that were formalised in February this year revealed outstanding achievements. Of  the 28 students graduating I believe that 10 were awarded firsts and 7 awarded 2:1s; as such it could be said that the programmes finished on a high note. 

I would like to send my thanks and congratulations to  all staff who contributed to these programmes, it is time to look forward to the continued success of our students on the new BSc Nursing and other pre-qualifying programmes.

Regards

Steve

Professor Steven Ersser

Dean, Faculty of Health & Social Care

The University of Hull, UK

T: +44 (0) 1482 464581

Towards a dementia friendly Hull

Mark Gretton and Joanne Hatfield have been contracted by Hull City Council to survey people living with dementia and their carers about their lives and activities in the city of Hull and what they believe Hull needs to be a more dementia friendly city.

Mark Gretton

“Dementia friendly communities” are a key element of the government’s strategy to tackle dementia. The aim is to support people living with dementia by increasing awareness of dementia amongst the community at large. This includes a focus on certain key areas of contact, such as those provided by emergency, health and social care services, but also on day-to-day activities where people with dementia may have difficulties; going shopping, using public transport, and leisure activities including visiting restaurants and pubs.

Mark and Joanne have collected completed surveys from 103 Hull respondents (57 people with dementia and 46 carers) and presented their initial findings at the Hull Older Person’s Event at the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel on Wednesday 12^th March. This event, reported in the Hull Daily Mail, was sponsored by Hull City Council and opened and attended by Councillor Helena Spencer, the council’s portfolio holder for Prevention & Safeguarding Children & Young People and Adults. The council intends to use information from this work to inform its strategy on dementia and in particular its work on creating a dementia friendly city, which is being done in conjunction with the Yorkshire and Humber Dementia Action Alliance.

The Faculty of Health and Social Care will receive £18,701 for this work.