Monthly Archives: October 2019

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!