Post-Submission Scholarship Scheme

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Following the submission of my PhD thesis in December 2019, I completed a three month post-submission scholarship scheme within Newcastle City Council’s Public Health Team. At the beginning of my placement, I completed inductions with each member of the team. This enabled me to gain a clearer idea and understanding of what exactly is involved with working in this field, and who was responsible for each public health area.

My main interest revolved around school food provision to children in Newcastle upon Tyne. This was related to one of the key outputs from my PhD research, which was the identification of a need for a communication platform for stakeholders who are involved in school food provision to children. The formation of such a group would allow protected time for members to discuss issues of importance to them with regards to school food, provide an opportunity for questions to be asked and answered,  ideas such as a ‘no dessert day’ to be critically evaluated and decisions on future policy or action to be jointly taken where appropriate. 

The key objective of my placement therefore was to develop such a group. This required me to write a paper for the Public Health Senior Management Team, seeking approval for the establishment of a Task and Finish ‘Food in Schools’ working group. I then presented this paper to the team for discussion. The proposals in the paper were agreed and I was then able to contact potential members of the group. These included individuals from Newcastle City Council’s Public Health team, the Communications team, Newcastle City Catering, school head teachers, school business managers and the Oral Health Promotion Lead in Newcastle. I also emailed two Newcastle City Council Councillors who I believed would be interested in participating in this group. Following the email, I attended a face-to-face meeting with the Councillors to explain in greater detail what this group aimed to achieve. In order to gain wider perspectives and include the ‘voice’ of children and young people, I also met with a council representative who regularly meets with the Youth Parliament in Newcastle, to assess if there would be scope to involve them as well.

This Task and Finish ‘Food in Schools’ working group was successfully formed. Ahead of the first meeting I produced an Agenda and a draft Terms of Reference and distributed these amongst the group. I chaired the first meeting, during which I co-ordinated a number of presentations from different members, including myself, to give an overview and context of why it was important that such a group should exist. The primary aim of this group is to take a strategic approach to improving the school meal offerings in Newcastle upon Tyne, through the joint planning and creation of an action plan and monitoring framework. This group is now set up and will continue to meet monthly even though I have completed my placement.  The Chair of these meetings going forward with be the Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods and Public Health. 

Other meetings I was involved in as part of my placement include those with the Food Newcastle partnership; the Wider Determinants team; the Diet and Ill Health Group; the Weight Off Your Mind group; the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) steering group; the Children, Young People and Obesity group; the Change4Life East End and West End groups; the North East Obesity Forum; the Healthy Schools Forum; and a meeting with the Economic Development team looking at the cost-benefit analysis of school meals. I also attended the City Futures Directorate Away Day at the Discovery Museum and the North East Public Health conference in Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. 

This post-submission scholarship scheme provided me with invaluable experience of what it is like to work on the front line in public health. There are many areas where Newcastle University and the Public Health team within the City Council could work productively together, and I have made some valuable connections with whom I would like to collaborate further with in the future.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to undertake this placement which was so relevant to my studies and highlighted the importance of ongoing work with regards to improving school food for children in Newcastle.

Written by Grace Gardner, former PhD Student in the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University.

Braving the stage: My experience of the INSIGHTS Doctoral Thesis Public Lecture Award

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Here is where I admit in a previous life I was an actress, obviously not an amazing one as I still don’t have my Oscar but luckily I have just got something that feels pretty close to one!

When you tell people you used to be an actress people often assume that you are a confident public speaker, however there is a big difference between acting and presenting your research. Acting is more about presenting someone else’s work and you can hide behind a character whereas presenting your own research feels a lot more personal. You are sharing something you have spent a huge amount of time and effort thinking about, planning and conducting and that can feel scary. It is, however, an important aspect of being a researcher. Conducting research and publishing in journals isn’t enough anymore, you need to be able to engage with other people, whether that is the patients who may be affected by your research, the participants who took part or the general public. Talking about your research to many different audiences is a vital skill required to survive academia. 

A few months ago my supervisor nominated me for the INSIGHTS Doctoral Thesis Public Lecture competition, this first part of the process was based on the research abstract and supervisors application, six people were selected to go on to have training to put together a presentation…. Well I didn’t get through this stage.

A couple of weeks before the semi-finals I got an email to say that someone had unfortunately had to drop out and I was the first runner up, would I be interested in taking part? I decided that I probably wouldn’t get very far but it would be a good experience and free training. So I agreed.

A week later I had put together a vague outline of a presentation and turned up for a training session with Jackie Dack, a theatre director who specialises in helping people with presentations. It was one of the best training sessions I have ever had, and really made me think about every aspect of presenting. The words I used and whether they were easily understood, what was on my slides and how I physically moved and expressed myself during the presentation. She asked how brutal we wanted her to be…..I picked very! I don’t regret it, sometimes you really need brutal honesty to improve what you are doing.

The main point I learnt through this training and putting together my talk was the need to have a story, all research has a story but it can sometimes be tricky to find it. Humans love a good story, it is how we’ve always passed information on and catching people’s interest this way helps them engage with you and what you are doing. For some people the story comes from you the researcher, why you do what you do. For others the story comes from the process or your findings.

My research is on routes to diagnosis in head and neck cancer and how patients experience this route and their diagnosis of cancer. I picked to tell my research story through the patient’s words as not only were they impactful but I felt that this was a story which would resonate with most people. So that was my starting point tell the patients journey.

The next stage was the semi-finals; six of us presented our talk to four judges, one person was selected through online voting based on their topic and then two others were selected by the judges. This was a great opportunity to do the talk in a safe environment and get feedback. We luckily didn’t have to wait too long for the results and Richy let us know that Alex, Ramtin and I had won the competition and would be doing our public lecture in one week.

So a week later at 4.30pm I found myself stood in a glass box waiting to get into the Curtis Auditorium to see what it was like. I’d felt pretty calm up until that point but the nerves really kicked in when I saw the size of the room, and then when I saw the amount of people coming in. I’d invited my supervisor, family and friends as well as people from the local head and neck charity I had worked with. There was something even more terrifying about doing this lecture in front of these people than the people I didn’t know. These were the people who had supported me through my PhD and had invested a lot of time and effort in me so I felt it was important to show them what I had achieved during this time.

Waiting to go on was terrifying, I won’t deny it, but once I was up and talking about my research I loved it. It was fantastic to look around the audience and see people nod when they recognised something I was saying. The questions at the end gave me the opportunity to see what people felt about my research and what they wanted to know more about. There was definitely a need to understand how my research would impact the current service provided and what changes I thought could improve this. It was great to see that people understood the potential impact of this type of research and that they also felt it was important.

We get used to talking about our research at conferences, symposiums and with other students and academics in similar areas to us, and we get used to using academic language, so this opportunity gave me the chance to really get out of my “box” to think about how my research might be perceived and understood by people not in my research area. I had to change how I thought about my research what the important points were and how this could be expressed in a way that wasn’t only informative but also interesting to the audience, after all the majority of the audience were there for a fun and interesting night out.

Would I recommend this to anyone else? Yes, it was an amazing experience and I enjoyed the whole process, from writing the talk through to the semi-finals and the main event. It has changed how I think about my presentations and how I will approach them in the future. It was also an amazing adrenaline rush. We are incredibly lucky in this faculty to have many different opportunities to develop other skills so if you have the chance take it.

In true Oscar style I’d also like to say thank you to my supervisor Linda Sharp for nominating me, Joanne Patterson, Jackie Dack for the fantastic training session and the brutal feedback, Richy Hetherington for organising it all, the judges, John Kirby and the INSIGHTS team.

Written by Jennifer Dean, PhD Student in the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University.

From Clinical Practice to Research… keeping patients at the centre of my PhD

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In September 2018, after a career spanning over 7 years in Pharmacy, I took the plunge and began a PhD at Newcastle University. Changing career, especially after establishing myself in a specialist area, was particularly nerve-wracking. Not only was I pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I found myself refreshing on skills that I had not used since my undergraduate degree. Yet alongside this was the excitement and anticipation to try something new; I was eager and ready for a new challenge.

The idea of doing a PhD had intrigued me from my early university days, but it was not something I considered seriously until after I was exposed to research projects within my clinical pharmacist role. I was working across two health sectors within the North East of England, providing care to patients in an acute emergency care hospital and in a GP surgery. I could see the impact that research could have, not only to directly benefit patients but to drive quality improvement in healthcare settings. I began conducting small independent audits for the GP surgery, reflecting on prescribing practices in certain disease states. Over time I built up to a large qualitative project alongside a team of pharmacy students, pharmacists and researchers, where we evaluated the role of WhatsApp as a communication tool for an NHS Trust. It was then that I truly caught the ‘research-bug’ and I have not looked back since. I saw a PhD studentship position advertised in an area that I was passionate about so I applied and the rest, as they say, is history. My research centres on surgical improvement, investigating how digital technologies can be (better) implemented within surgical pathways to support patients in making health behaviour changes before and after their operations.

As a PhD student, maintaining my professional identity is extremely important to me and I am passionate about continuing a clinical role alongside my studies. I still regularly practice as a pharmacist, keeping in touch with ‘front-line’ services by working in hospital and community pharmacy. My previous experience offers me a unique approach and insight that I bring to my research. Whilst I am still very much at the start of my research career, I cannot wait to see where I end up following my PhD. Working with patients and supporting their care was one of the main reasons I became a pharmacist, and hopefully my PhD and future work will continue to contribute to this.

Every day was a learning day in clinical practice, and every day is a learning day in my research. A recent conversation with a supervisor of mine went along the lines of “this PhD is a journey: you learn skills to put into your tool box which will equip you for years to come as a researcher”. Slightly cheesy, but very true. One ‘tool’ that I hope to never lose is my patient-centred focus. No matter where my PhD research takes me, I am determined to always keep patients at the centre of my work, doing what I can in order to improve their care.

Anna Robinson is in receipt of the Dr WE Harker PhD Studentship in Surgical Sciences. 

My name is Anna Robinson and I am a second year PhD student. My qualitative research is focused around Surgical Improvement, specifically how we can (better) use digital technologies to support health behaviour changes in surgical patients, before and after their operations. Outside of my research, I work as a Specialist Clinical Pharmacist across Northumberland and I hold a position on the Health Education England North board for pharmacy student education. In my spare time I play table tennis and I compete in British Eventing (dressage, show jumping and cross country) on a horse called Roo. 

Twitter: @AnnaRobPharm

Volunteering for Pint of Science

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Pint of Science is a science festival which invites researchers to present their work to pubs or bars in various places around the world. The audience doesn’t need to have prior knowledge of the topic. The main purpose of this festival is to communicate science and inform the public on new research and how this can change / influence their lives.

Last year I decided to volunteer as a project manager for Pint of Science 2019. Around November, we had a general meeting at Town Wall in order to meet all volunteers and Newcastle co-ordinators and be informed about our roles and responsibilities. I enjoyed meeting new people, mainly Master and PhD students. After being introduced to each other, we had to decide which theme group we would like to part of (Our Body, Beautiful minds, Planet Earth, Tech me out, Our Society and Atoms to Galaxies). Once we formed the groups, it was up to us to find the venue for our event, decide on the theme of each night and look for and contact potential speakers. Once the venue and speakers were confirmed it was time to start planning for the actual event! For me this was the best part. I got to spend three nights in a pub, where I listened to very interesting research work and was part of an enthusiastic and engaging audience. And of course, I felt extremely proud for planning this event, together with my team.

This procedure can be stressful and there is a great need for team work but also it is a great opportunity for advancing your communication, organisational, and management skills. Allocating tasks to each member of the group was important as well as setting deadlines. I think that any student will find similarities between organising this event and their research project. But there’s something important to remember. All meetings were in a pub, holding a pint in our hands, discussing and having fun. The majority of the tasks will require you sending emails and visiting the venue of interest to check if it is appropriate for the talks. And of course, meeting with your team to talk about your progress and what to do next. It will just get busier during the 3 days of the event. Being a project manager didn’t impact negatively on my PhD/personal time; on the contrary it energised me in periods where I felt frustrated. If you like organising events or thinking of volunteering, I believe that becoming a project manager for Pint of Science Newcastle would be an amazing opportunity.

So, if you’re interested in becoming a volunteer you can apply through: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3oNoi5Jb_UDPVEsXO-6ZfTZT6s1bgydDreOmeTFxFL9j3oA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3xokDtCO1afpO4ZGY0MVAaFJ3wXIcca4JkN86NIr_JmdLRhB1safSJxhs

You can also check the website: https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/newcastle

Hello from your reps, this is what we’ve been up to…

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It’s been a busy year so far! Zoë Bell and myself (Arlind Reuter) took over as your IHS student representatives in January. Since then, we’ve been involved with a range of different activities across the institute and faculty. In this blogpost we want to give you a quick overview of what we are doing and remind you to come and speak to us if there is anything you need help with, changes you want to see in the institute or any other fun (or not so fun) stuff! 
Student Staff Committee
These are held twice a year (we’ve already had one) to provide an opportunity for students to raise concerns and get involved with the institute. We are happy that we are supported by a great team of reps. We have representatives for each year group (first, second and third year), international, European, full-time and part-time studies, as well as Elaine’s support as our PGR coordinator. Some things we discussed in our first meeting this year were internship opportunities for PhD students, peer mentoring in IHS and desk space in Baddiley Clark Building. 
Step Challenge
Thanks to Eftychia, we were inspired to organise a 4 week step challenge throughout May. Eight teams took part in the challenge and together we walked over 10.000.000 steps – WOW! Well done to everyone who took part and used this opportunity to get their step count up. The team winners donated money to the charity of their choice. 
Systematic Reviews
We continue to support you in searching for a second reviewer for your systematic review. Just e-mail us and we are happy to send out a message to see if anybody else needs a second reviewer too. It’s worth a shot. 
PGR Support Groups
As you might know, we organise regular PGR support groups with talks that cover topics such as “writing your thesis” or “preparing for your viva/APR”. These are useful two-hour sessions where you can ask questions and get support from the speaker. Let us know if there are things you want to suggest for those. Otherwise, we will have one more session – our christmas party! 
The postgraduate conference
With help from the best conference committee (you can see there’s lots of ways to get involved in our institute!), we organised the yearly IHS PGR conference. The theme was ‘building bridges’ and we aimed to strengthen our PGR community, by showcasing the great (interdisciplinary) work we as IHS PhD students do, but also learn from a PhD coach and try our networking skills at different interactive sessions. The annual cake competition was a hit once again too! 
Networking
We also worked alongside Paul, from the Business Boost, to have our very own networking session. Aimed specifically at PhD students from our institute we had a big turnout, with people from different charities, NGOs and industry. Over lunch, we spent a good two hours meeting new people and making new connections. 
Graduate School Committee
As you are aware, the Faculty is undergoing a restructuring. We have been sitting in with the graduate school committee to represent you and have your voice heard as part of the conversation. With the restructuring, the role of PGR reps will change slightly, but we made sure that adequate student representation will be in place. From October we will hopefully appoint two more reps alongside us until December, guaranteeing a smooth transition period. Please let us know if there is anything you want to know, or fancy taking up the role of PGR rep for next year. 
This is just a quick overview of thing that we have been involved with – of course there is a lot of stuff going on in the background, so if you want to know more, just grab Zoë and me for a chat or e-mail us (z.bell2@ncl.ac.uk & a.reuter2@ncl.ac.uk). We are always happy to hear your thoughts! 

Welcome to our Postgraduate Blog!

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In time for the new academic year, we bring to you our new blog! This blog is envisioned to be a resource for us as postgraduate students to share experiences, interact with each other and share knowledge about conferences or events. We want you to actively contribute to this, so please send us ideas, your research interests or any other topic that you would like to write about.
Frequently, we will also share advice and tips on the PhD process and how to make the PhD experience more enjoyable.  
If you’re interested in being a part of the blog team, please send an email to Elaine McColl (elaine.mccoll@newcastle.ac.uk).
We hope that this blog will become a valuable resource for our PhD community and a way to connect to each other. 

But first: Who are we? 

Eftychia Kotronia (e.kotronia2@ncl.ac.uk)
I’m from Greece, I’m a 2nd year PhD student and rep for 2nd year PhD students of IH&S. For my PhD project, I study the associations of poor oral health with age-related health outcomes (e.g. disability, inflammation, nutrition) in older people in the UK and USA. I’m part of the Public Health, and Ageing themes. I’m also a dietician and I have a Master’s degree on Epidemiology and Public Health from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. I’m interested in translating research for policy making. I like yoga and barre, and going on roadtrips! In the process of improving my twitting skills. Twitter: @ekotronia

Arlind Reuter (a.reuter2@ncl.ac.uk)
I’m from Berlin, Germany and I’m now coming to the end of my first year of the PhD. Throughout the year, I volunteered to be an IH&S Postgraduate Rep together with Zoë. Being such an active part of our PhD community brought a lot of great interactions and I feel very lucky to be involved. For my PhD, I am based cross-disciplinary in Open Lab, a Human-Computer-Interaction lab in the school of Computing. I look at digital and community media as a pathway to civic participation in later life, working with communities of older people who create a lot of interesting content. Before that, I did the M.Sc. in Clinical and Health Psychology at Newcastle and an M.Res in Digital Civics.
Twitter: @arreut

 

Nadege Sandrine Uwamohoro (N.S.Uwamahoro2@ncl.ac.uk)
I’m a native Rwandan and a Danish national who grew up in Zambia. I’m a 3rd year PhD student, 3rd year EDI rep, rep for international students and secretary of the Youth Stop AIDS student society which I founded in February 2019. The society won the best new society award at NUSU’s Cerebrating Success Awards under my presidency, which was exciting, especially because the society was only three months old.  My PhD is focused on exploring barriers and facilitators to health services access by young people living with and at risk of contracting HIV in Malawi’s Thyolo District. I have a master’s degree in Public Health from Aarhus University in Denmark. My main research interest is applied health systems research, particularly in sub-Saharan and related to HIV. If I am not working on the PhD, you’ll find me at dance lessons or attending/hosting dinners for my hygge club.
Twitter: @nadege_sandrine