We are excited to announce the launch of the 2021/22 Research Studentship Scheme, which is open to undergraduate students, scheduled to graduate this academic year, and postgraduate taught (MSc) students to undertake research activities in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. There are five studentship awards available, each providing a stipend of £200 per week for a six-week full time appointment. We will also consider part time appointments.

**Research Studentship Form 2021-22** - Download Here

A key area of the School’s SWAN Action plan is the promotion of an academic career to students.  To address this, we are pleased to announce the launch of the 2021/22 Research Studentship Scheme open to final year undergraduate and postgraduate taught (MSc) students to undertake research activities in the School of Nursing and Midwifery.  There are five studentship awards available for £1,200 each, providing a stipend of £200 per week for six weeks working on a full-time basis.

An outline of the projects aligned to each of the five studentships, including the title and description of the activity, as well as contact details of the lead academic supervisors are listed below.

STUDENTSHIP 1

TITLE: A qualitative evaluation of student nurse perceptions of a digital intervention to improve oral health for older people

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Patrick Stark (p.stark@qub.ac.uk)

SECOND SUPERVISOR: Dr Gary Mitchell

DESCRIPTION: The successful applicant will work on an ongoing project to co-design and pilot an educational tool to improve oral health care delivered by community nurses.  We will conduct a further pilot of the tool with student nurses, which is where the studentship will fit in.

Over the six-week period, the student will:

• Carry out (with PS) 4-6 focus-groups (approx. 30 minutes duration) with around 5-6 year one nursing students per interview. These focus-groups will be conducted remotely (via MS Teams) and recruitment/organisation of focus-groups will be organised in advance of the student commencing. The purpose of these focus-groups is to discuss how the digital intervention was perceived by student nurses, in terms of usefulness, acceptability and fitness for purpose.
• Work with the supervisory team to transcribe all data from focus-groups and work alongside us to learn about how thematic analysis is undertaken (using Braun and Clark’s framework).
• Work with the team to write-up findings of this qualitative evaluation for inclusion in a peer-reviewed healthcare education journal. The student intern will therefore be listed as a co-author of this project in recognition of their role in this studentship.
• Support in the dissemination of these findings through blog-writing and recording of an audio-podcast with support of supervisory team.

Overall, the successful applicant will gain experience in data collection, qualitative analysis, academic writing and the publication process.

STUDENTSHIP 2

TITLE: Exploring the place of spirituality in health and social care and its role in improving our teaching approach to equality, diversity and inclusion

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Barry Quinn (barry.quinn@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: Despite the ongoing focus on person-centred care, the role of spirituality continues to be missing from many health and social care assessments. Alongside this reality, as a university and a school we are committed to decolonising our curriculum, aiming to be more inclusive and engaging with the rich and wider global perspectives on nursing and midwifery learning.

This project aims to develop and pilot a diverse and more inclusive approach to aspects of education and training. Using and exploring the concept of spirituality (beliefs and values) as a doorway, students and staff will be encouraged to further explore and engage with diverse beliefs, in order to recognise and develop a more inclusive approach to nursing and midwifery training.

Students and staff will be invited to share their thoughts via an on-line survey on the presence or absence of spirituality in the school UG and PG curriculum, and in health and social care settings.

The findings from the survey along with existing literature will be used to develop and trial an approach aimed at increasing the presence of spirituality in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

(A follow up piece of work will be required to evaluate the changes implemented and the impact on a more diverse and inclusive approach to learning and professional development.)  

STUDENTSHIP 3

TITLE: A scoping review of the strengths and limitations of existing faculty development provided to academic and clinical assessors in student assessment

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Amy Wong (a.wong@qub.ac.uk)

SECOND SUPERVISOR: Prof Christine Brown Wilson

DESCRIPTION: The student will be part of a team collaborating with academics and students across health professions disciplines to undertake this scoping review, which is part of a larger research project to co-design and evaluate interdisciplinary assessment resources for health professions assessors using a Community of Practice. The student will review the strengths and limitations of existing assessor support and identify the factors that challenge the implementation of faculty development to support assessors. The scoping review will provide evidence-based information for codesigning fit-for-purpose interdisciplinary assessment resources for assessors.

This project directly aligns with the School’s Education and Practice Research Theme to facilitate building assessors’ capacity and shape the guidance in faculty development focusing on assessors and patient safety. Assessment in health professions education plays a key role in ensuring patient safety by establishing students’ professional proficiency upon graduation (Haughey & O’Hare, 2018). Academic and clinical assessors are key stakeholders in health professions assessment in both the university setting and during student clinical placements. However, consistency of assessors’ judgements of student performance has been a concern in directly observed clinical assessments (Govaerts et al., 2013; Malau-Aduli et al., 2021; Yeates et al., 2013). To enhance the validity and reliability of assessors’ judgements, we need to find innovative way to engage assessors with faculty development. The initial step to achieve this is to undertake a scoping review which will support the identification of the existing evidence in assessor support and highlight any knowledge gaps (Munn et al., 2018, Peters et al., 2020).

STUDENTSHIP 4

TITLE: Equality, diversity and inclusion in bioscience education: how well aligned is the bioscience curriculum for today’s nursing students? 

**This studentship is sponsored through the School’s SWAN Self-Assessment Team**

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Katherine Rogers (k.rogers@qub.ac.uk)

SECOND SUPERVISOR: Mrs Maggie Bennett

DESCRIPTION: Educators on healthcare courses need to provide an educational experience that equips students with the knowledge and expertise to (verbally and non-verbally) interact with and care for patients while being mindful and respectful of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues.  Lots of studies discuss the integration of cultural awareness in nursing, and such advances in these programmes are widely recognised, yet most studies focus on the sociology-themes of EDI awareness for healthcare practice, but should responsibility also lie within bioscience components of the curriculum to encourage students to consider the links between cultural EDI issues and a patient’s physiological differences? 

Case based scenarios are an established method for teaching physiology. However, we ought to recognise the educational scenarios we provide may not represent the diversity of patients our students are likely to care for. In teaching biosciences for nursing, we need to proactively champion EDI by being reflective and aware of the unintentional bias that may occur when comparing patients to the archetypical physiological textbook person.

This pilot project will have three phases: the first phase will involve a brief literature review to identify key themes in this area; the second phase will explore these themes, through a short survey of students registered on the undergraduate nursing and midwifery programmes at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, to gain some understanding of their experience of EDI in the bioscience curriculum from the student perspective; the third phase will involve presentation of the study findings through a short report. 

STUDENTSHIP 5

TITLE: How is kidney disease and kidney transplantation portrayed on ‘prime-time’ television? A narrative review

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Clare McKeaveney (c.mckeaveney@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: To identify and collate representations of kidney disease and kidney transplantation within ‘prime-time’ television entertainment by completing an online literature search to understand the accuracy of the perspectives presented. Mediated experiences of illness have become very common across a wide range of media platforms, thus more individuals learn about disease and medical intervention from mediated sources than first hand patient experiences. Entertainment media platforms may be filling an unregulated “knowledge gap” (Freytag & Ramasubramanian 2018).  Such narratives can have a profound influence over individuals’ perceptions, beliefs and judgement (Sharf & Freimuth, 1993; Freytag & Ramasubramanian 2018). There is an increasing global prevalence of kidney disease and those waiting for a kidney transplant (Koye et al 2018; Koons et al. 2018).  However, it is unclear if knowledge and understanding about kidney disease and kidney transplantation are adequately translated within popular and highly influential entertainment media sources like television.  A growing body of research into the impact of kidney disease and kidney transplantation has also highlighted a wide range of psychosocial difficulties including depression, generalised social and health anxiety, cognitive disturbances, body image concerns, sleep disturbances and pain (Bamford & Wirz, 2016; Silva et al. 2019; Galvez-Sanchez et al. 2019; De Pasquale, 2020).  It is important to assess such health narratives of kidney disease and transplantation to ensure current health policies and public awareness are reflected accurately. The student will be required to familiarise themselves with the study proposal, topic area and begin background literature section (week 1); develop an appropriate methodology section e.g., identify search terms and appropriate sources of literature (week 2); complete the data search and collate draft results table (week 3); complete thematic/content analysis (week 4); develop draft paper for publication (week 5); disseminate draft for considerations with relevant members of wider research team (week 6).

Student Application Process

Interested students are asked to complete the student application form and submit alongside a short one-page CV and a copy of their current unofficial academic transcript for their degree programme.

Applications have now closed and the studentships have all been awarded.

If you have any queries about the application process or the studentships on offer, please contact Dr Fiona Lynn (f.lynn@qub.ac.uk).