Feedback on student presentations

Pleasant session today with third year students on the Health & Lifestyle Management degree - giving feedback on a practice presentation.

We ask our students to prepare a presentation as if for a job interview. Today's was for a post working as a healthy lifestyle support worker in a forensic mental health unit. A particular focus was on the ethical dilemmas that one might face in working in this setting.

We give students video recordings of their presentations so they can view and critique their own performance.

Also advertised another voluntary research internship: focusing on assistance dogs placed with families where a child has a developmental disability.

Tick tick tick

Have just finished some marking on the Health & Lifestyle Management course - to meet our new super-fast feedback turnaround time - and it's the end of the working week already.  Students have said some nice things about their experience of the Health Behaviour Change module we offer, which includes the following: 

Motivational interviewing knowledge and skills refresher

MI with sent clients, with groups, in rehab settings.

CBT refresher

Lay-led and peer-led health behaviour change interventions

Classifying health behavioural change interventions

Publicly funded health behaviour change programmes in the UK and beyond

Intervention mapping : health behaviour change programmes in the UK and beyond

Key ethical issues in research on health and lifestyle management

Key ethical issues in practice in health and lifestyle management

The different roles played by professionals working in health and lifestyle management

Diversity awareness issues working in health and lifestyle management

Meanwhile - I have a new(to me via ebay) shed AND it's potato day at Ryton Organic Gardens tomorrow - my joy is complete...

Since Monday

Since Monday have forgotten to post.  Monday night was teaching until 8.30 pm for part-time students, so got thrown slightly off kilter in my posting habits.

Tuesday teaching social psychology, with a focus on personal construct psychology:

Doster, J. A., Mielke, R. K., Riley, C. A., Toledo, J. R., Goven, A. J., & Moorefield, R. (2006). Play and health among a group of adult business executives. Social Behavior and Personality, 34(9), 1071-1080.

Weiss, P. A., Watson, N., & McGuire, H. (2003). Smoking and self-concept in young adults: An idiographic method of measurement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16(4), 323-334.

Wednesday meeting with student representatives as part of the student forum.  As final year tutor for psychology I was especially keen to find out what we can do to help our soon-to-be-graduates with their employment prospects.  Given that it's just been announced that graduate unemployment is at 20% they will need all the help we can give them.

Bumpass Hell

Ok so the bubble has been burst.

I opened the editor's decision email referred to in yesterday's post. It was a rejection...

Editor's comment:

Thank you for allowing us to consider this work for (name of journal). At this point your paper has been reviewed by one expert reviewer only, who has presented us with a quite brief review. In order to avoid a delay I decided not to invite more reviewers. However, we have subjected your paper to a thorough editorial evaluation.

Reviewer #1: I enjoyed reading the paper which makes a worthy contribution to an under-researched area. Although the paper is well-structured, I have a number of minor suggestions to improve it...

Editor's comment:
Because of an increase in submissions, we can only publish a minority of the manuscripts we receive. Space constraints dictate that that to an increasing extent we may publish only those manuscripts providing significantly novel insights or new perspectives.

Sadly, this means that we are unable to publish many manuscripts of significant quality. I must regretfully inform you that based on the review and our editorial evaluation your paper did not reach a high enough priority to be further considered for publication.

Sob

Preparing for clinical - and is my bubble about to burst?

Teaching students on MSc Health Psychology today - looking specifically at pain management programmes and the guidelines offered by the British Pain Society and the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Also preparing some teaching materials for tomorrow morning's session teaching narrative analysis to year two clinical psychology trainees.

Meanwhile, an email has arrived with an editorial decision from a journal we submitted to in the autumn.  Am postponing looking at it in case it's bad news. If I look tomorrow and it turns out to be bad news at least I will have the weekend to lick my wounds...

Happy day - but mysterious

Great meeting today with colleagues to discuss some research collaboration.  Decided on the scope and shape of a future project - which must remain a mystery until we have secured some funding...

Some snowdrops have appeared in the garden as well.

More teaching

Met with my head of department today to talk about taking on some extra bits and pieces of cover within the health psychology team.  There have been a few moves (departures, other people's sabbaticals, planned absences, etc.) so duties have to be swapped around a little.

I also broke the news about the Florida conference, and my HoD was positive about supporting me to attend - reasonable costs permitting.

Teaching this afternoon on Advanced Social Psychology.  Allocated students a couple of papers to read on the use of personal construct approaches in social psychology:

Doster, J. A., Mielke, R. K., Riley, C. A., Toledo, J. R., Goven, A. J., & Moorefield, R. (2006). Play and health among a group of adult business executives. Social Behavior and Personality, 34(9), 1071-1080.

Weiss, P. A., Watson, N., & McGuire, H. (2003). Smoking and self-concept in young adults: An idiographic method of measurement. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16(4), 323-334.

Looking forward to hearing what they make of them when we meet again next week...

Health and lifestyle management

Teaching again today on 305HLM Health behaviour change, on the BSc Hons Health & Lifestyle Management Programme.

We were discussing employment opportunities and what our graduates could contribute to multidisciplinary teams in various settings.

Examples of interesting jobs we discussed included:

PhD studentships, e.g. http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ABZ072/fully-funded-environmental-sciences-phd-studentship/

Rehab support workers, e.g. http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=912602438

Low Intensity Worker (IAPT), e.g. http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=912601336

Smoking cessation advisor, e.g. http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/cgi-bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=912597565

Some disappointment was expressed at the starting salaries...

Unrelatedly - I bought a second hand strimmer on ebay to start clearing the allotment with.

Setting the bar

Had a meeting today with a senior colleague to set my 'performance objectives' (urgh) for the coming year. As the achievement (or otherwise) of these now has an impact on whether we get our annual salary increments the process has become even more anxiety-provoking than ever...

Had a nice first lecture today with students on the masters in health psychology. We were focusing on theory and terminology related to disability, impairment and chronic illness.  After I highlighted the specific conditions we will be studying in more detail over the coming weeks (see yesterday) one student asked for more info on dementia.  This used to be a specific lecture which we covered in depth, but due to time restrictions we had to remove it in favour of diabetes (tough choice - kind of wish there was more time).  So here is the reading I recommended to him:

Banerjee, S., Samsi, K., Petrie, C. D., Alvir, J., Treglia, M., Schwam, E. M., & de Valle, M. (2009). What do we know about quality of life in dementia? A review of the emerging evidence on the predictive and explanatory value of disease specific measures of health related quality of life in people with dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(1), 15-24. doi:10.1002/gps.2090

Caddell, L. S., & Clare, L. (2010). The impact of dementia on self and identity: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(1), 113-126. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.10.003

De Boer, M. E., Hertogh, C. M. P. M., Dröes, R. -., Riphagen, I. I., Jonker, C., & Eefsting, J. A. (2007). Suffering from dementia - the patient's perspective: A review of the literature. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(6), 1021-1039. doi:10.1017/S1041610207005765

Deep, K. S., Hunter, A., Murphy, K., & Volandes, A. (2010). "It helps me see with my heart": How video informs patients' rationale for decisions about future care in advanced dementia. Patient Education and Counseling, 81(2), 229-234. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2010.02.004

Hamilton-West, K. E., Milne, A. J., Chenery, A., & Tilbrook, C. (2010). Help-seeking in relation to signs of dementia: A pilot study to evaluate the utility of the common-sense model of illness representations. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 15(5), 540-549. doi:10.1080/13548506.2010.487109

O'Connor, D. W., Ames, D., Gardner, B., & King, M. (2009). Psychosocial treatments of behavior symptoms in dementia: A systematic review of reports meeting quality standards. International Psychogeriatrics, 21(2), 225-240. doi:10.1017/S1041610208007588

O'Connor, D. W., Ames, D., Gardner, B., & King, M. (2009). Psychosocial treatments of psychological symptoms in dementia: A systematic review of reports meeting quality standards. International Psychogeriatrics, 21(2), 241-251. doi:10.1017/S1041610208008223

Seignourel, P. J., Kunik, M. E., Snow, L., Wilson, N., & Stanley, M. (2008). Anxiety in dementia: A critical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 28(7), 1071-1082. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2008.02.008

Van Der Roest, H. G., Meiland, F. J. M., Maroccini, R., Comijs, H. C., Jonker, C., & Dröes, R. -. (2007). Subjective needs of people with dementia: A review of the literature. International Psychogeriatrics, 19(3), 559-592. doi:10.1017/S1041610206004716

Module starts again

Wrote a reference today for one of our graduates who is applying to do a masters in social work.  This is a highly relevant way to apply the knowledge and skills developed in a BSc Psychology degree. 
I've also been finalising the module guide and various teaching materials for my MSc health psychology module which starts tomorrow: M99PY Self management of chronic illness and disability.  Tomorrow's session is on theoretical models of disability.  I'll be telling students about the papers they will be asked to present on in the comming weeks, including:

Pain


Campbell, C., & Guy, A. (2007). 'Why can't they do anything for a simple back problem?' A qualitative examination of expectations for low back pain treatment and outcome. Journal of Health Psychology, 12(4), 641-652.

Fullen, B. M., Baxter, G. D., O'Donovan, B. G. G., Doody, C., Daly, L., & Hurley, D. A. (2008). Doctors' attitudes and beliefs regarding acute low back pain management: A systematic review. Pain, 136(3), 388-396.

Diabetes

Dantzer, C., Swendsen, J., Maurice-Tison, S., & Salamon, R. (2003). Anxiety and depression in juvenile diabetes: A critical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 23(6),787-800.
Grigsby, A. B., Anderson, R. J., Freedland, K. E., Clouse, R. E., & Lustman, P. J. (2002). Prevalence of anxiety in adults with diabetes a systematic review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53(6), 1053-1060.

Asthma

Milton, B., Whitehead, M., Holland, P., & Hamilton, V. (2004). The social and economic consequences of childhood asthma across the lifecourse: A systematic review. Child: Care, Health and Development, 30(6), 711-728.

Weiser, E. B. (2007). The prevalence of anxiety disorders among adults with asthma: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 14(4), 297-307.

Stroke

Donnellan, C., Hevey, D., Hickey, A., & O'Neill, D. (2006). Defining and quantifying coping strategies after stroke: A review. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 77(11), 1208-1218.

Gilworth, G., Phil, M., Cert, A., Sansam, K. A. J., & Kent, R. M. (2009). Personal experiences of returning to work following stroke: An exploratory study. Work, 34(1), 95-103.

Coronary heart disease

French, D. P., Cooper, A., & Weinman, J. (2006). Illness perceptions predict attendance at cardiac rehabilitation following acute myocardial infarction: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 61(6), 757-767.

Woodgate, J., & Brawley, L. R. (2008). Self-efficacy for exercise in cardiac rehabilitation: Review and recommendations. Journal of Health Psychology, 13(3), 366-387.

Cancer

Najjar, N., Davis, L. W., Beck-Coon, K., & Carney Doebbeling, C. (2009). Compassion fatigue: A review of the research to date and relevance to cancer-care providers. Journal of Health Psychology, 14(2), 267-277.

Ussher, J. M., Perz, J., Hawkins, Y., & Brack, M. (2009). Evaluating the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for informal carers of cancer patients: A systematic review of the research literature. Health Psychology Review, 3(1), 85-107.

Spring soon to be be springing

Term restarted yesterday, so seems a reasonable time to post again - plus the winter solstice has been and gone, so the days are getting longer...

Managed to send a paper off yesterday, which should be published in conference proceedings.  Now just need to arrange a US visa and flight, etc, so I can attend and present it.

Very pleased to say that PhD student Felicity had a successful Progress Review Panel at the end of her first year of research. Well done!

I also got my membership card for the allotment today, so much fantasising about digging, sowing, growing and eating...