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.

Jam tomorrow

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Progress to date on sabbatical objectives...? hmmm

Spent morning reading and commenting on a draft PhD thesis chapter.  A fascinating area of research: the history and scope of animal based therapies. 

Spent afternoon drafting some continuing professional development programmes around health behaviour change, for health professionals.  Then in discussions about what professional bodies we should apply to for accreditation or endorsement of these.

May seem unrelated to my PCOS work, but coming up with externally funded courses like these, and marketing them successfully, is ultimately very important in creating time and funds for applied research activities. I am hoping that generating income towards our departmental targets will help me raise the funds I need personally to attend next year's Disaster Management conference. So I' hoping for jam tomorrow...

And I made a bid to supervise another PhD student this afternoon - hoping I am successful as the proposed project uses interpretative phenomenological analysis - one of my favourite research approaches.

I was also delighted to hear from someone running a specialist PCOS clinic, who'd attended my talk to the Endocrine Nurse Update last week. The very person I was hoping to catch up with over lunch but managed somehow to miss.  Am hopeful that this will lead to a fruitful and mutually beneficial collaboration.

Picture credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malnalekvar.jpg

Psychosocial support needs in polycystic ovary syndrome

Nice visit to Stratford upon Avon today to speak at the Endocrine Nurse Update about psychosocial support needs in polycystic ovary syndrome.

I also heard some presentations that got me thinking.  While much of the biochemistry and physiology went over my head, I was struck by case presentations focused on endocrine cancers.

I thought I'd have a look at what work has been done on the psychosocial impact of these conditions (for example, multiple endocrine neoplasias), and indeed on supportive interventions. Although there have been calls for more work in this area, not much seems to have been published yet.  Perhaps one for a student on our MSc Health Psychology to look at researching for a dissertation project...

Picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Stratford_Armouries_Elephant.jpg

"As a new user to the service..."Oh no I'm not!!!!!

You know how I'd almost finished my presentation for the Endocrine Nurse Update... 

Just needed to do the reference list.  About to do it this morning when disaster* struck. 

I've got in excess of 20,000 references in my RefWorks database - going back to student days in mid 1990's.  When I used EndNote, I always had a back up copy of the database, but now the University has ceased to support EndNote and switched to RefWorks, I don't have that facility.  On logging in this morning I was greeted as a new user (with no references) and invited to CREATE my database.  Horror...

I have been assured that RefWorks know about the problem, which appears to be affecting all Coventry University users.  I just hope they get it sorted out soon.

On a less frustrating note: did a telephone interview with a journalist today, about the work Glenn Furnell and I presented about the experience of Midlanders whose homes were flash flooded.  Have also seen three very interesting papers that have been published in the interim:

Carroll et al 2009 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18996730

Carroll et al 2010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20618385

Mason et al 2010 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a918846798~db=all~jumptype=rss


*I realise of course that the meaning of this word is somewhat context-specific ;-)

Almost but not quite...

Half of today spent reviewing an application for funding to the National Institute for Health Research "Research for Patient Benefit" scheme. Very time consuming, but a good refresher given that it's the same scheme I hope to be applying to myself at the end of my forthcoming research sabbatical.

Also ALMOST finished my presentation for the Endocrine Nurse Update later this month.

Back to more mundane things

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Here_comes_rain_again.jpg

Back from Eastern Europe to a very wet and miserable West Midlands.  Not the most exciting of days, but an interesting item in Nursing Times which has been drawn to my attention:

Motivational interviewing 2: how to apply this approach in general nursing practice

Must remember to cite this when talking to Endocrine Nurses later this month - and follow up on room bookings for our next Motivational Interviewing training day.