Tuesday 30 November 2010

Cold feet, RSI and the common cold



Not only have a cold but now in danger of getting repetitive strain injury from fixing a little (ish) problem in the disaster management spreadsheet that our interns are working on. Lots of abstracts have been truncated as a consequence of being exported from RefWorks.  Note to self: Never ever use this method again - always export directly from SCOPUS. 

Am hoping to get the mended spreadsheet back up on our SharePoint site tomorrow.

Monday 29 November 2010

Back in the provinces




Successful couple of days in London, making some good contacts which I hope to follow up on soon.


Was especially intrigued by the complexities of choosing treatment for hirsutism - how women negotiate their way successfully through this minefield is a mystery to me. Am interested to see if there are any decision support aids available.

Also talked to Oriane who works for a company who've developed a novel system to enable women to monitor their menstrual cycles - to take more control over fertility.

Think I am getting a cold - why does this interfere with my ability to think properly?

Still waiting for the raucousness to kick in...

Thursday 25 November 2010

Big smoke for a couple of days



Rather annoyingly had news today that the student I spent half a day designing a personalised programme of retake work for last week didn't bother to turn up for the first scheduled meeting. Wondering sometimes why we bother...


Pleased to get an email today from someone who attended our motivational interviewing day yesterday, and hoping to develop an applied research collaboration as a result.  I always meet people working on interesting projects when I run these events, and it's nice to have a chance to find out more about their work.


Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days related conference activity.


Friday
PCOS UK (health professionals conference) , with topics including:

PCOS, Physical Activity and Insulin Resistance
Practical steps to tackling common dermatology issues

Living with PCOS - developing effective coping strategies
Reducing the quality of life impact of PCOS - top tips for primary care
Research Digest
Cardiovascular risk and PCOS - effective management strategies
The risks and benefits of bariatric surgery in the management of PCOS
 
Saturday
Verity (patient group for women whose lives are affected by PCOS), topics including:


Emotional impact of PCOS - Colette Harris
Get to know your menstrual cycle - Dr Lisa Webber
Alopecia and excess hair - Dr Alison Layton
Being slim with PCOS - Speaker TBC
Weight loss options for PCOS - Dr David Haslam
PCOS and your fertility - Professor Stephen Franks

Staying in a Travelodge so not taking my laptop and therefore no posts.  No offence Travelodge, I just don't fancy leaving it in boot of car all day.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

A better day



A more productive day today (I think):

Training workshop on motivational, interviewing with some very engaged and interesting delegates. 

Was rather nippy in the Jaguar Building, but we just about coped.

One of the things we discussed was the use of motivational interviewing with children.  I suspect that there may be a need to adapt the delivery - perhaps by using graphics, games and stories, etc. that take into account children's level of socio-emotional and cognitive development - but haven't come across anything in print.

A couple of related papers are:

Gance-Cleveland, B. (2007). Motivational interviewing: Improving patient education. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 21(2), 81-88.


Söderlund, L. L., Nordqvist, C., Angbratt, M., & Nilsen, P. (2009). Applying motivational interviewing to counselling overweight and obese children. Health Education Research, 24(3), 442-449.

We also (briefly) mentioned various systems for rating the quality of motivational interviewing. See:

Forsberg, L., Källmén, H., Hermansson, U., Berman, A., & Helgason, Á. (2007). Coding counsellor behaviour in motivational interviewing sessions: Inter-rater reliability for the swedish motivational interviewing treatment integrity code (MITI). Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 36(3), 162-169.


Madson, M. B., & Campbell, T. C. (2006). Measures of fidelity in motivational enhancement: A systematic review. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 31(1), 67-73.

Mastroleo, N. R., Mallett, K. A., Turrisi, R., & Ray, A. E. (2009). Psychometric properties of the peer proficiency assessment (PEPA): A tool for evaluation of undergraduate peer counselors' motivational interviewing fidelity. Addictive Behaviors, 34(9), 717-722.

Wallace, L., & Turner, F. (2009). A systematic review of psychometric evaluation of motivational interviewing integrity measures. Journal of Teaching in the Addictions, 8(1-2), 84-123.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Snag after snag



Past week has been a further series of technical difficulties - and not just with IT. That's my excuse anyway for lack of posts.

While something nasty has been growing under our stealthily leaking bathroom at home (actual mushroom-shaped mushrooms! urgh) I have also been:

  • Writing a draft of a research paper on PCOS and healthcare experiences.
  • Biting my nails in dread of getting a rejection letter relating to the last paper I submitted to a journal.
  • Setting up a SharePoint group and blog for the interns working on the Disaster Management project.
  • Checking for consistency the answers prospective interns gave to the online coding quality/consistency test they have to pass in order to move onto data coding in earnest.
  • Updating my knowledge in motivational interviewing to make sure that I am prepared for a particular group of delegates attending our motivational interviewing course tomorrow - some are forensic psychologists and some health psychology researchers working with young children.
  • Setting up a programme of work and online materials for a student who failed a module last year, who is entitled to retake it, even though the programme no longer exists.
  • And sundry other bits of admin, marketing, etc.
The prospect of my sabbatical ending at the end of December and my having to be back on campus more is a little daunting, but I am looking forward to attending the research seminars we have on Wednesdays.  here are some of the forthcoming talks for the new year:

12th January
Simon Goodman
Coventry University
How race and racism are removed from anti-asylum arguments

26th January
Christine Grant
Coventry University
The development of actionable work life balance measures in the context of e-working an their relationship to well being and job effectiveness’

2nd February
Carol Percy and Stacey Harris
Coventry University
Learning and leisure aspiration of people with physical disabilities: A placement research project with Ryder Cheshire Volunteers

9th February
Leigh Harkins
University of Birmingham
The Impact of Denial in Sex Offenders

2nd March
Karen Littleton
Open University
Educational Dialogues: Understanding and promoting productive interaction

9th March
Sarah Butterworth
Coventry University
Male experience of breast cancer

16th March
Claire Taylor
ARC/HLI
Enhancing and assessing fidelity of delivery of health behaviour change interventions in Primary Care’

23rd March
Ben Roberts
Coventry University
Extra-Sensory Perception: Fact or Science Fiction? Experimental and Qualitative Studies of Psi Phenomena

30th March
Steph Waldron, Sophie Bowry, and Gemma Gray
Coventry University
Context dependent memory; Gum chewing and stress

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Fog, frost and technical snags



Sent a large part of yesterday on the M6, travelling to and from and meeting with colleagues in the North.  Managed to skip most of the fog and car mishaps, and the visit was well worth while - for me anyway.

I met some healthcare colleagues I'd last seen at the Endocrine Nurse Update event in September.  They were kind enough to show me around their PCOS clinic and let me sit in a for a while.  We also had some early stage discussions about possible applied research collaboration.

Writing an outline draft of a paper today and responding to various emails about the Disaster Management research.  We have had a few technical problems and have had to resort to delivering data in person.  I hope everyone is wrapped up well...

Clunky link but: The weekend saw progress with both the leaf clearing and my new home made coat.  Had to stop at the pockets as I was having a bit of a mental block interpreting the instructions. But I've worked it out now and might get it finished next weekend.

Friday 12 November 2010

Can it really be Friday already?



Where does the time go???

Packaged up some data from my PCOS research and sent it off for independent analysis by my two colleagues Lynne and Rachael.  Will be really interesting to get together and compare our analyses.  Having others look at data you've collected is great as they always spot things you haven't.

Ran through the online coding test I've designed for interns on the disaster management project.  It seems to be working ok so I should be able to post the link to individuals once they've gotten through the literature searching task on SCOPUS.

Prepared a presentation for Monday to talk through with NHS colleagues I am meeting in the North of England.  Looking forward to seeing them again, and sitting in on their clinics.

And for the weekend: if the wind and rain stops I shall mostly be sucking up leaves from the garden.  If it doesn't, I hope to make a Butterick Pattern B5297. It says "FAST AND EASY" - that remains to be seen...

Thursday 11 November 2010

Testing the interns



Slower going today:

Writing some instructions on literature searching, and designing a test for our (so far) six prospective interns on the disaster management project. Applicants need to pass so we can ensure the quality and consistency of our data analysis.

Also happily signed off the ethics screening protocol for Felicity's survey of assistance dog providers. Looking forward to the data coming in.

Oh and meanwhile... while my hubbie was out treating an elderly patient the other night, he saw a farm offering private allotments.  I talked to them them today and should be getting one in January.  After several years on the waiting list in Warwick I am reaching a fever pitch of excitement!

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Trying not to be mechanical...




Busy on campus day today:


Earlier part of morning attending the opening of the conference I mentioned yesterday. Inspired by colleagues’ presentations.

Late morning dealing with usual bunch of emails.

Excellent meeting with three co-researchers, to agree who was going to do what regarding two major data sets: women’s experiences with polycystic ovary syndrome, and families’ experiences with assistance dogs. Looking forward to both.

Then pitched the Disaster Management research internship to a pleasantly substantial group of students (and one graduate) who had expressed an interest. Despite the fact that we have no money to offer, it was gratifying to find that several people remained committed to taking the posts up, even after seeing my PowerPoint presentation.

After that it was back to the conference, where it seems that I missed some controversy and impassioned debate. Replace FGM, the associated project, aims to address problems associated with female genital mutilation, on health and human rights grounds. But the term ‘mutilation’ when applied in this context is problematic for some. Essentially the same surgical procedure requested by a white western woman might be deemed acceptable on the basis that it enhances her self-esteem or sexual confidence, yet condemned as abusive and oppressive in a black African woman. Huge issues here as regards how ‘we’ define ‘health’ and individual autonomy.

Meanwhile it all got a bit nasty at the student fees protests in London.  I know some of our students travelled to the event.  Just hope that none were involved, either as perpetrators of the violence, or innocent onlookers.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Double booked, but in a good cause



Good meeting today with Felicity, the PhD student I co-supervise with colleagues Gill Ward and Sandy Herron-Marx.  We agreed on work to be completed before the annual progress review meeting in early January.  And Felicity is almost ready to go live with her first set of data collection.  Link will appear on her blog soon.

Have also had to book a room for tomorrow to speak to all the prospective interns who've responded to my offer of research assistant experience. Am surprised and delighted that there's been such an enthusiastic response.  I am attending a conference organised by colleagues tomorrow but will have to fore go the afternoon session to talk to the candidates. The topic is one that I think deserves much more attention than it's had to date: recognising, preventing and addressing the problems associated with female genital mutilation.

Monday 8 November 2010

Somewhat discouraged



Didn't post last Friday due to being (as we would put it in my native dialect) utterly fashed and teetotally scunnered.

Received an email in the afternoon that the research grant application Fang and I submitted earlier this year has been rejected (or more correctly not wanted for further development).

Hard not to take it personally given the work that went into it, but just have to find another way to get the work done.  Here's what the prospective funder said:
I write concerning your recent application to ..x.. This has been given careful consideration but I regret to inform you that, under the pressure of the competition for awards, your application has been seen as unlikely to secure a grant. Under the circumstances, I am afraid that I cannot encourage you to take the trouble to prepare a detailed application.


I appreciate that this will come as a disappointment to you. I regret also that there is no simple way in which the grounds for the decision can be satisfactorily imparted. Your proposal was reviewed alongside the many other calls upon the support of ..x.. and it is in this context that the decision has been made; any explanation would therefore require reference to the full array of proposals under consideration.


May I accordingly ask you to accept this response as an indicator of the many demands made upon ..x.. and as no reflection upon your courtesy in putting forward the bid.


Yours sincerely,Y

Spent weekend doing self-administered horticultural therapy - felt a bit sorry for a poor toad who I disturbed when cutting back the geraniums...Pic isn't mine as he was having a bad hair day and hopped away.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Delegation...


hmmm... been spending longer than I planned literature reviewing for the Disaster Management paper.  So time for some delegation.  I've set the parameters and analytical framework  - just need someone conscientious to follow my instructions and put the hours in.

I've offered this as a voluntary internship for a student who wants to develop their research skills, with the possibility of joint authorship as a reward at the end.  Hope someone takes it up...

pis credit: nothing to do with post - I just liked the wiki commons picture of the day.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Literature Searching in Disaster Management



Most of today has been spent literature searching in preparation for a manuscript my colleague and I are writing.

Percy, C. & Chen, Y.F.
The potential contribution of human psychology to disaster management: advance preparedness, acute responses and longer term psychosocial effects.
Paper to be presented to the 2nd International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health: Reducing Risk, Improving Outcomes, 11 - 13 May 2011, Orlando, USA

Fortunately such searches no longer have to be done by hand or on foot, thanks to the university's excellent online library facilities.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Role play audio

Put some audio online today for a delegate from last week's motivational interviewing course.  We role played working with a number of different clients and recorded them to reflect on our practice.

Clients included:

Douglas’ - a man aged 25 years, who lives in a homeless persons shelter and is considering moving out. You meet Douglas while working as an occupational therapist in outreach. He really hates some aspects of living in the shelter, but is unsure if he’d be better off there or trying to find his own accommodation.

George’ - a man aged 65, who has had a lower limb amputation following complications of type 2 diabetes. George has been referred by domiciliary care as he has so far declined all offers of physical adaptations to his home.

 ‘Jane’ - a woman aged 45, who has been in the same job for 20 years and finds it unfulfilling. Jane heard about life coaching from a friend who found it useful and thought that you might help her decide whether she wants a change of career.

 ‘Mary’ - a woman aged 50 years, with a body mass index of 40.  Mary has been referred by her GP, as lifestyle advice has not resulted in the weight loss he has advised.

We focused on the four key areas of motivational interviewing:
  • Expressing empathy
  • Rolling with resistance
  • Developing discrepancy
  • Supporting self-efficacy
Our next course is on Wednesday 24th November 2010. For further details and to book your place online see the online store.





Monday 1 November 2010

Not NICE any more



Have had a bout of non-posting. I sometimes have a 'second wind' late evening and write something then, but from Weds to Friday last week I was finishing so late that I was too 'zausted to do so.

Wednesday - yet more data analysis; agreed to a PhD student from the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies joining my health psych masters module in the New Year.  She is researching links between military, traumatic injury and sport, so I will be very interested to meet her and find out more.

Thursday - a most stimulating and rewarding day running training in motivational interviewing at the Graduate Centre. Some good evaluation feedback from a delegate who is training in Occupational Therapy:
"Really interesting. Application to practice obvious."


Friday - back to project planning; and making some minor edits to the online submission of the research paper we submitted on Monday.  Hoping it will be sent out for review soon.

Today:
Met with another PhD student to review a draft of her survey on assistance dogs organisations.  Looking very positive.

Attended a progress review panel conducted by video conferencing with a PhD student based overseas. 

Meanwhile, a lot of health related stories in the news:

National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence will continue to advise the UK health service on effectiveness of medicines, but will no longer be able to approve/disapprove them being prescribed by clinicians.

A pilot in the Isle of Wight will offer girls from age 13 years up emergency contraception via community pharmacies.

A paper just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that military personnel serving in Iraq had lower rates of mental distress than people in other 'high stress' jobs, such as UK police.
Another paper in the same journal highlights the link between exercise at leisure, and reduced rates of depression. I failed to go for my usual walk today - oops.