On 2nd September 2019 we attended the symposium “Partnerships in clinical research across Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health” at UCLan in Preston (see details below). We are Regina, Kjara, Jenny and Rebecca from Germany (pictured left to right, with Hazel in the centre). The four of us have a BSc in SLT and currently are studying Evidence-based Health Care (MSc) at the Hochschule fuer Gesundheit (HSG) in Bochum. Two of us are working as clinicians and two of us are research assistants.
UCLan’s Faculty of Health and Wellbeing and the HSG Bochum have a partnership since 2016. Therefore, the event chairs were Dr. Hazel Roddam (UCLan) and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Bilda (HSG) who unfortunately couldn’t attend the symposium. On her behalf Prof. Dr. Nicola Bauer from HSG joined Hazel Roddam to open the symposium. The programme consisted of three key speakers and several postgraduate research students from both universities who presented their projects.
The key note speakers were Prof. Dr. Nicola Bauer who spoke about projects in midwifery and the importance of involving the patients into the process and design of research, Dr. Philippa Olive who talked about ways to get funded and scholarships and Dr. Paula Leslie with a speech about the road to an academic degree and the importance of support through supervisors or peers and family. The audience consisted of approximately 100 clinicians, researchers, partners, students and staff members from both universities.
We visited the symposium for several reasons, such as a common interest in international partnerships and international research and to gain a new perspective. Also, we were looking to find some inspiration and advice for our own projects and master theses and to learn about how to integrate research into practice.
In conclusion our main impressions after this symposium are:
- “In the UK there are a lot of efforts to build networks, to connect and to get the best outcome for health care”. – Rebecca
- “It is important to integrate patients into the planning of research projects and to be in contact with them during the whole process”. – Kjara
- “Research results should be translated and communicated in a way which is accessible and understandable for everyone who might need them”. – Jenny
- “It is also important to ask clinicians what kind of research is actually needed so that we can profit likewise from sharing and exchanging information”. – Regina
What was astonishing for all of us is that social media, especially Twitter, is a great way to connect with peers and to share information and thoughts. It is a good platform for discussions. It is very common in the UK to use Twitter in this research context, which was very surprising for us because in Germany only a few people use Twitter yet.
All in all, this was a great experience for us and we got a new insight into the possibilities of research and networking for our future paths.
