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 2020/21 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, or pro rata for a part time appointment.

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: Analysing Covid 19 information for its content and accessibility for people with a learning disability

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Kumar Cithambaram (k.cithambaram@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION:

Introduction: Provision of information that is accessible is essential to improve the health of people, and this information helps them to make an informed decision and choice about their health and social care needs. The recent Covid 19 pandemic proved that how information is crucial to create awareness among people, especially for the prevention of infection. During this current pandemic, the Department of Health and non-governmental organisations are developing and disseminating information for the last few months to the general public.  This is not only important for the general population but also people with learning disabilities. Therefore, it is important to look at the information provided are appropriate and accessible to people with learning disabilities, and which organisation developed more accessible information to them.

Aim: To analyse the current Covid 19 information for people with learning disabilities about their content and accessibility, and which organisations involved in producing them.

Method: The current Covid 19 information that is available for people with learning disabilities across the UK from various organisations will be collected and analysed by using content analysis method.

Conclusion: The findings from this study will help to identify the appropriateness and accessibility of Covid 19 contents and how different organisations are involved in developing information materials to people with learning disabilities. The findings from this study will help to create appropriate accessible information to people with learning disabilities in the future.

STUDENTSHIP 2 - AWARDED

TITLE: Pilot evaluation of an online educational resource for training nurses to care for critically ill patients during a pandemic

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Jennifer McGaughey (j.mcgaughey@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: The aim of this pilot project is to evaluate the reach and impact of online educational resources developed and implemented in one Trust in order to determine the training needs of nurses redeployed to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and High Dependency Unit (HDU).  A co-design approach using a Delphi technique has been utilised to plan the structure and content of the online educational resources. To evaluate the nurses' perceptions of the online educational resources a questionnaire was developed and distributed to all participants who engaged in training study days. The studentship will focus on analysing the survey data to determine the reach of the target population, efficacy of training (satisfaction), training needs analysis and qualitative feedback. The timetable for data analysis over the six-week period (below) includes familiarisation with use of survey and database software, framing and interpreting the results, collating and writing up findings and participation in working within a team. This project will provide an excellent opportunity for a student to develop research knowledge and skills and contribute to the evaluation of a nursing-led initiative.

STUDENTSHIP 3 - AWARDED

TITLE: A Qualitative Evaluation of a Year One Evidence-Based Nursing Module

**Due to this project’s timeframe, it would be suitable for a student able to start in January 2021**

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Gary Mitchell (gary.mitchell@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: The successful applicant will join a project seeking to carry out a mixed methods evaluation the new NFM1121: Evidence-Based Nursing 1 Module.  This project has already received ethical approval (MHLS 20_94: Mitchell, Kerr, Devlin, Wong, McKeaveney, Kent, Brown-Wilson & Reid).

As part of this project, we are inviting a research intern to work with us to support the qualitative element of our evaluation.  Over the course of the six-week internship the successful applicant will:

• Carry out (with a member of the research team) 4-6 focus-groups (approx. 30 minutes duration) with around 5-6 year one nursing students per interview in January 2021. These focus-groups may be conducted face-to-face or remotely (via MS Teams) depending on social distancing measures.  The purpose of these focus-groups is to discuss how this module helped inform student’s evidence-based nursing practice during student placements.  The project team will be responsible for recruitment of participants to these focus-groups.
• Work with the supervisory team to transcribe all data from focus-groups and carry-out thematic analysis (using Braun and Clark’s framework).
• Write-up findings of this qualitative evaluation for inclusion in a peer-reviewed healthcare education journal with input from supervisory team. The student intern will therefore be listed as a co-author of this project in recognition of their role in this internship.
• Support in the dissemination of these findings through blog-writing and recording of an audio-podcast with support of supervisory team.

In conclusion, the intern will have a key role in data-collection, data-analysis, writing-up the results and dissemination.

STUDENTSHIP 4

TITLE: Translating the theoretical components of the research process into practice

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

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Helen Kerr (h.kerr@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: School Research Ethical approval was secured in 2019 for a study entitled ‘Registered nurses’ perspectives of the impact of completing the Specialist Practice in Oncology qualification, on patient care and clinical practice: a qualitative study.’  Helen Kerr is the lead investigator on this study with Oonagh McSorley and Monica Donovan and two clinical partners as co-investigators.  Research governance approval at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust was secured in March 2020, however, data collection did not commence as planned in April 2020 due to the global COVID19 pandemic.  Amendments were approved at the Faculty Research Ethics Committee and research governance to extend the timeline and commence data collection in the Autumn 2020.  The study involves interviewing registered nurses who have completed the Specialist Practice in Oncology programme. 

The plan would be to engage the research studentship an integral part of the research team with their involvement in data analysis and dissemination.  Insights into the practicalities and challenges of the research process will be gained from engagement in this research.

Data collection will be undertaken by Helen Kerr in alignment with ethical and research governance approvals.  The student will be involved in data analysis once the data is transcribed and sanitised.  Engaging with the data to identify themes will be completed independently by members of the research team including the research studentship, followed by a meeting to reach a consensus of the emergent themes.  This is a crucial component in enhancing rigor in qualitative research and will provide valuable learning for the student.  A paper will then be developed to report on the findings of this research and the research studentship will be a contributing author, providing an opportunity for the student to develop their ability to write for publication.  An abstract will also be developed by the research team, which includes the research studentship, to submit to the United Kingdom Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) conference in 2021. 

These activities will contribute to translating the theoretical components of the research process to practice for the student.

STUDENTSHIP 5

TITLE: Determining rates of concussion among children and young people within the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust (BHSCT)

**Due to this project’s timeframe, it would be suitable for a student able to start in October 2020**

LEAD SUPERVISOR: Dr Mark Linden (m.linden@qub.ac.uk)

DESCRIPTION: It is estimated that each year 57 million people suffer from a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often referred to as a concussion (Langlois, Rutland-Brown & Wald 2006). We do not know the current rates of concussion among children and young people (0-18 years) in Northern Ireland. While the vast majority of children will experience no long-lasting symptoms approximately 10% of children will have significant and ongoing problems.

Dr Linden will obtain audit data from the BHSCT with the assistance of Dr Richard Bunn, consultant forensic psychiatrist, who has agreed to act as gatekeeper. The successful student will then assist Dr Linden to clean and interrogate the dataset. Dr Linden will instruct the student on the use of SPSS enabling them to gain new skills. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be employed to look for patterns in relation to variables such as gender, age, aetiology of the injury and socioeconomic status. Dr Linden will assist the student to prepare a presentation of project findings for dissemination at a local conference. If possible, the student will also feed into the development of a publication to be submitted to the highly respected journal Brain Injury.

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 unofficial academic transcript for their current degree programme.

There is no deadline for applications. Applications will be assessed and awarded as they are submitted.

Applications must be submitted via email to Dr Fiona Lynn (f.lynn@qub.ac.uk)

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