SCHOOL OF HEALTHCARE SCIENCESSCHOOL OF HEALTHCARE SCIENCESSCHOOL OF HEALTHCARE SCIENCES

In This Issue

Letter from the Dean and Head of School

Cut-out-and-keep programme info sheet

BBC Wales covers Clinical Kinaesiology

Welsh Language Lecturers

Social Care Research Award

Acute Care Provision funding

Al-Amri Philadelphia Poster Prize

Aled Jones on ITV Wales News

Improving our Open Days for visitors

New Library Resource

Tech Talk

Out there in the Twittersphere

Advanced Practice Master’s Funding

New role for Dr Lesley Lowes

Celebrating Excellence Awards

iSolve—Virtual Knee Rehabilitation

And more…

Cardiff University School of Healthcare Sciences Newsletter Autumn 2013

School wins top spot in Times School wins top spot in Times

higher education rankingshigher education rankings

Cardiff University has been ranked first in the UK for physiotherapy by the

Times Good University Guide 2014. Students on the School of Healthcare

Sciences BSc Physiotherapy programme enjoy access to unrivalled clinical

facilities and a dedicated teaching staff made up of both academic and

clinically active lecturers.

Also ranked highly were the School’s programmes in Radiography (BSc),

which was ranked 3rd, and Nursing (BN), which was ranked 9th in the UK.

Professor Sheila Hunt, Dean and Head of School, said, "It’s great to see the

fantastic work of our staff being recognised on a national level. Our courses

offer students the very best in healthcare training and these rankings truly

reflect the quality of the programmes."

Although previously presented as two guides, The Times and Sunday Times

Guides have been combined this year. The analysis incorporates data from

120 higher education institutions across 64 subject fields, analysing ‘student

ratings for teaching, assessment and feedback as well as facilities and overall

satisfaction, allied with the most recent research assessments, graduate

prospects and course entry standards.’

Students develop their skills during clinical physiotherapy sessions

Welcome to our first newsletter for

the School of Healthcare Sciences.

The new School came into being on

1st September 2013 after a long and

often challenging gestation period. I

know this was a very difficult time

for some staff and the transition is

not complete for many and in

particular the admin and support

staff. The admin review is still on

going and as many of you heard at

our fantastic Away Day, we aim to

be close to completion by January

2014.

The Senior Team is taking shape

and most of the Line Managers’

Forum / Senior Team are now in

place. Gail Williams and Martin

West, the Associate Deans are

putting the final touches to the

Programme Manager roles and

finalising the cross school roles

which are so important for the next

year.

It strikes me that our tag line could

be: Integration, Collaboration and

Growth. As you read this new

newsletter you may now begin to

see more clearly the direction of

travel.

First it seems we need to integrate

the previous two Schools, and then

we need to integrate into the

College of Biological and Life

Sciences and then confirm our

place firmly in Cardiff University.

We will do this by building our

collaborative links, internally –

recognising, valuing and respecting

the different disciplines and

professions within the School;

finding new collaborations and

connections in engagement, in

learning and teaching and in

research.

As we perfect our internal

collaborations we can go boldly to

build our external collaborations

with the College, the University and

our many and varied collaborators

and stake holders.

Then we will grow – as a new

School, as well established,

respected professional disciplines

who are recognised as reputable

members of the College. We will

grow as valued members of the

University and become the School /

University of choice with our

external stake holders. It is

inevitable that this will lead to an

environment where high quality

innovative teaching and learning will

flourish; we will create an

environment where research will

grow in stature, quality and quantity

and where most importantly where

all our staff will have the opportunity

to grow as individuals.

We will do all of this in an

environment of mutual respect, of

courtesy and one which promotes

equality of opportunity and values

diversity.

Wow! Is this possible, of course it is.

Thank you all for your support and

thank you for your patience as we

walk this new path together.

With kind regards

Professor Sheila Hunt, Dean and Head of School

A New School for a A New School for a

Changing LandscapeChanging Landscape

Welsh Language Welsh Language

LecturersLecturers The School has recently

made a valuable investment

in two new Welsh language

lecturers. Gaynor Williams

has been appointed to

Nursing and Midwifery,

whilst Dr Zoe Morris-

Williams has been appointed

to Allied Health Professions.

It is very important that we

increase our Welsh

language provision and

these new roles support that

aim.

Gaynor Williams

williamsG59@cf.ac.uk

02920 687798

Zoe Morris-Williams

Morris-WilliamsZ3@cf.ac.uk

Marketing Email Marketing Email

and Calendarand Calendar

The marketing team at

Eastgate House have a new

email address. If you have

website or course finder

changes for nursing and

midwifery, enquiries about

events or any general

requests that can be dealt

with by either Hannah or

Angie, please send through to

this address. We have also

set up a marketing events

calendar, displaying the

events we plan to attend in

the coming months. If you

would like access to this

calendar, please send your

request to our new email

address (below).

HealthSciMarketing@cf.ac.uk

Poster Prize

Dr Mohammad Al-Amri won

the Best Post-Doctoral Fellow

Poster prize at the 10th

International Conference on

Virtual Rehabilitation (ICVR)

in August. Held in

Philadelphia, USA, the ICVR

Conference is sponsored by

the International Society for

Virtual Rehabilitation (ISVR).

The prize was awarded by

the National Science

Foundation (NSF); the

National Institute on

Deafness and Other

Communication Disorders

(NIDCD), and the ISVR.

Researchers from several

different countries presented

their work at the ICVR 2013

in the field of virtual reality

and augmented reality

applied to rehabilitation.

Mohammad’s paper, ‘Virtual

Reality based Double Leg

Squat Exercise: Preliminary

Study’, co-written with

research group leader Prof

Robert van Deursen, Dr

Paulien Roos and Dr Kate

Button, showed that virtual

reality based on kinetic

feedback enabled users to

squat using a

biomechanically constrained

strategy inaccessible to them

in conventional approaches.

Kinaesiology Lab on BBC WalesKinaesiology Lab on BBC Wales

BBC Wales has this month reported on the ground-breaking research

being undertaken in the School’s Research Centre for Clinical

Kinaesiology, located in the basement of Ty Dewi Sant.

The Centre is equipped to measure motion capture, muscle strength

and muscle activation. The news report and accompanying article

explain how these facilities have been used in research funded by

Arthritis UK to help tackle the widespread issue of arthritis.

To read the full article and watch the news report, follow this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-24467185

The news report shows Senior Lecturer Liz Evans using the lab’s high-tech facilities

Directory of ExpertiseDirectory of Expertise

The Directory of Expertise is a fantastic resource that allows the

media to contact experts from across the wide range of professional

expertise we have within Cardiff University. It houses details of

academic staff grouped by name, school and area of expertise.

The Directory is managed by the PR team, who state, ‘The Directory

provides the media with access to expert comment, informed opinion

and analysis on a range of research and topical issues. It aims to

support the media to connect with Cardiff experts for comment,

interviews, stories and panel participation.’

News coverage and contributions to news stories increase the

School’s profile and contribute to our public engagement. We

currently have very few staff in the Directory and the PR team has

requested we aim to increase our presence here.

If you would like to be more involved with public relations, you can

sign up for the Directory by contacting Lisa Birkbeck:

BirkbeckL@cardiff.ac.uk

Don’t forget to liaise with the Marketing Team if you are contacted to

contribute to news stories!

On 7th September 2013, Cardiff University held its

first Saturday Open Day. What’s more, the School

of Healthcare Sciences opened its doors to the

public for the first ever self-guided tour of the

clinical skills facilities at Ty Dewi Sant.

Prospective students began their day

at the Cathays Campus, attending

general talks and stands in the Main

Building. Targeted programme talks

were provided by our teaching staff

in the Sir Martin Evans Building,

where our School stand was also

located. Here, visitors were able to talk to

admissions tutors, recruiters and current students

before catching one of the coaches departing every

fifteen minutes for Talybont Halls of Residence and

the Heath Park Campus.

Once at the Heath Park Campus, visitors were

welcomed by staff and escorted to the basement

entrance to Ty Dewi Sant, where the tour began.

Visitors were given trifold tour guide leaflets and

bottled water, then sent to seek their fortunes. The

first stop was the Research Centre for Clinical

Kinaesiology, which features a state

of the art virtual reality system – see

story on the facing page . A large,

curved screen creates a virtual

environment, while a floor-mounted

treadmill allows users to travel

through the virtual space.

On the ground floor, visitors passed

the School Information Desk enroute to the

Radiography Imaging Suite. The Suite is used to

teach Diagnostic Radiography and Imaging

students the practical skills they will need to

practise in a clinical role. They then visited the

Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Suite on the first

floor, which includes a children’s clinic with

specialist equipment for assessment and

intervention plus a bathroom and bedroom area

with aids to assist patients in a ‘home’ environment.

Next door to the ADL Suite is the Operating

Theatre Clinical Suite, which looks and behaves

very much like a real operating theatre, but for the

addition of a SIM Man – a mannequin whose vital

signs can be controlled remotely to facilitate

realistic learning in clinical scenarios. Last

on the first floor was the Mould Room,

where students learn the fundamental

principles associated with immobilisation,

beam directional shell preparation and

radiotherapy localisation.

On the second floor, visitors watched a

‘home movie’ featuring Nursing and Midwifery

lecturers, who explained how each of the bays in

the Caerleon Clinical Skills Suite, our mock hospital

ward, is used in teaching. They then entered the

Suite to talk to teaching staff and current students

about the various mannequins and scenarios used

on each of the four undergraduate nursing and

midwifery programmes.

On the fourth floor, visitors stopped at the Cardiff

University Radiography Virtual Environment Suite

(CURVES), comprising our Virtual Environment

Radiotherapy software package and

Oncentra Master Plan – a radiotherapy

treatment planning system. The suite is

laid out like a cinema and visitors donned

3D glasses to try out the software!

We had 445 visitors through the door on

the day of the event and feedback so far

has been excellent from staff and visitors

alike! One staff member said, “I have worked in this

building for years and I never realised the facilities

we had available!”

We did it all again on 25th October and had an

incredible 674 people take the tour. By ensuring the

School has a solid presence on Open Days, we will

increase quality applications to our programmes

and raise our profile within the University and

further afield. Many thanks again to all who help to

make these days a success.

Hannah Nicole Simpson, Marketing and Student Recruitment Manager

Open Day Open Day -- a whole new approach a whole new approach to toursto tours

Tech talk Tech talk

Bex Ferriday, Learning Technologist

Augmented Reality (AR)

We’re using Augmented Reality in a few of our posters and some

advertising materials– look out for them dotted around EGH and TDS.

But what exactly is AR?

The term is to be taken quite literally – reality (for example, a typical and

run of the mill poster) is augmented by the inclusion of video, audio or

internet-based content. By simply installing an app from iTunes or

Google Play to your smart phone or tablet (we’re using Layar, but other

brands are available), and then scanning any document with embedded

AR with your device, the poster will come alive on-screen and show you

any embedded, digital content that it contains. Why not download the

Layar app to your mobile device and have a look at this poster?

Academic Essentials

With different members of staff giving conflicting advice about font style,

line spacing, the use of bullet points in academic writing and how to use

referencing systems, a team of School lecturers formed a working party

to look at setting out a default set of academic rules for all staff and

students to work to. Suggestions as to what these guidelines should

include were offered by all of the teaching team, and these were

eventually grouped together to form a definitive guide. Furthermore, this

information was also developed into an online, interactive presentation

and activity called Academic Essentials. This digital content has been

added to a portlet that all School staff and students will find on their

home page in Learning Central. Here’s another link to it.

Inter Professional Education online

Community

As part of an Inter Professional Collaboration (IPE) project and

partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University, an online community

has been set up for any healthcare professional wanting to share skills

and knowledge with others. The community is currently hosted using

Moodle, and contains a repository for shared documentation, online

fora, and a live chat room. It is hoped that users will shape the growth

and development of the community, and so far almost 300 potential

users have been identified, attended a briefing at the University to look

at IPE and the online community, and to ask them what they would like

to see added to the space and how they would like to use it. Though

still very much in the early stages of development, the community hub

can be found here.

Significant sum for Significant sum for

Advanced Practice Advanced Practice

Masters Masters

ProgrammesProgrammes

Great news! In case you haven’t

heard, the School has received

a significant sum for the

provision of Master’s level

Advanced Practice education

programmes for 2013/2014 for

both Nursing/Midwifery and AHP

programmes.

This funding will secure a total of

94 training places across a

number of modules.

These numbers are reflective of

the local service needs for NHS

Wales, and further details can

be obtained by contacting Dr

Shaaron Pratt and Judith

Carrier.

Call for Research Call for Research

PostersPosters

Our new walls are looking a bit

bare... What better way to add a

bit of zest and pizzazz to the

corridors than showcasing some

of the brilliant research that’s

currently going on in the School?

Or what about posters

showcasing some of the

innovative teaching, CPD, away

day successes and so forth we

can boast? If you’ve got

anything to showcase please get

in touch via email:

HealthSciMarketing@cf.ac.uk

Senior Senior Lecturer Lecturer awarded awarded £170,000 £170,000 for for Social Social

Care ResearchCare Research

Gail Boniface, Senior

Lecturer and Accelerated

Route Coordinator for

Occupational Therapy, has

received £176,300 from the

National Institute of Social

Care and Health Research

(NISCHR) to further her

research into social care.

Gail is investigating the

perceptions of families either

undergoing or attempting to

undergo the housing

adaptations process within

Wales, as well as the views

social services (mostly

Occupational Therapists) and

housing staff.

The research involves the

charities SHELTER and

Contact a Family and will

have a steering group of

other charities along with the

College of Occupational

Therapists' Policy Officer.

The research will employ

mixed methods, including a

staff questionnaire and

interviews with families in

purposively selected Welsh

local authority areas

depending on housing tenure,

length of time taken to

complete adaptations and

Welsh index of Multiple

Deprivation.

Celebrating Excellence Celebrating Excellence

Awards 2013Awards 2013

Congratulations to a number of staff within the School of Healthcare

Sciences who have been shortlisted as nominees for the

Celebrating Excellence Awards 2013.

The Celebrating Excellence Awards represent the University's

appreciation of staff who have demonstrated an outstanding

commitment and contribution - those who have been recognised by

their colleagues for going over and above the call of duty.

This year’s shortlisted nominees from Healthcare Sciences include:

Matthew Williamson - School Manager of Healthcare

Sciences, nominated for Sustained Excellence. This award

recognises the performance of an individual member or

group over a number of years that has led to a sustained

contribution that has been of significant

benefit to the University.

Dr Sally Anstey and Richard Day, as part of the

Cardiff Futures ‘Healthy Places Healthy People’

project group, nominated for Outstanding

Contribution to Innovation and Engagement. This

award recognises outstanding contributions by

individuals or groups in any area of activity covered by the

University's Innovation and Engagement Strategy.

Denise Russell, Holly Vizard and Jo

Burnett of the School’s Undergraduate

Admissions Team are nominated for

the Outstanding Support to the

University award, for their impressive

work developing a paperless admissions system. This award

recognises an individual or team that has 'gone the extra mile' in

delivering excellent support services.

Dr Gemma Whatling - School of Engineering/School of

Healthcare Sciences has been nominated in the Rising

Star category, which recognises an individual member of

staff who has substantially grown in their role within a

relatively short period of time, having initiated, coordinated

and/or accomplished complex activity within or on behalf of the

University.

A well deserved ‘Congratulations’ to all those who have been

nominated, and to our short-listed candidates above. Best of luck!

Details of the Celebrating Excellence Awards can be found on the

University’s website here: www.cardiff.ac.uk/humrs/pwe/

celebratingexcellenceawards/index.html

Trevor Baker, Operations Manager

Out there in the Out there in the

TwittersphereTwittersphere

Despite what may be written in some parts of the

mainstream media, if used sensibly, Twitter can be a

very powerful way of disseminating and

gathering information in an extremely timely

way.

It also allows you to follow the movers and

shakers in your areas of interest and learn what they

have to share first hand.

The School of Healthcare Sciences has launched a

new combined Twitter account consolidating the

former Schools’ of Nursing & Midwifery and

Healthcare Studies and is actively migrating our old

accounts’ followers.

Our new Twitter account is @CUHealthSci

The figures to date:

- We have ‘tweeted’ (sent public messages) over

1200 times

- We are ‘following’ (keeping track of news from) 269

people/organisations

- We have 500 ‘followers’ (people who are reading

our messages) with more and more following every

day

Although we only have 500 followers (which is pretty

great but Lady Gaga has 36,540,172), if one of those

followers retweets (RT) one of our messages, it will

go to all of their followers and so on. This is how a

single tweet can easily go ‘viral’.

When used properly it’s a fantastic communications

tool. Have you received a grant recently? Are you

involved in some interesting research? Are you

promoting an event? Or doing some innovative

teaching? If so, drop Matt Townsend an email

(Townsend@cardiff.ac.uk) so we can tell the world

how great we are!!!

New library resource: New library resource:

UpToDateUpToDate

The University Library Service has subscribed to this

new resource for a trial period of one year from August

2013 to July 2014.

UpToDate provides full text information on over

‘10,000 clinical topics in 21 specialities to help find

clinical answers quickly and easily to make the right

point of care decisions.’ Features include graphics and

videos which can also be used in teaching; links from

references to CU full text e-journals; nearly 1,500

patient information topics; a what’s new section and

much more. Drug information is also available in

UpToDate but is designed for use in the USA.

It is accessible via the Cardiff University portal: http://

portal.cf.ac.uk where it will be found under the library

tab and the A-Z list of databases.

When accessing UpToDate through a mobile device,

UpToDate will automatically redirect you to the

UpToDate mobile website.

Although simple to use, as part of our subscription,

UpToDate is providing us with a trainer to run a short

training session showing how to make the most of the

resource for clinical and educational purposes. Once

arranged the date will be advertised for all interested

staff to attend.

Meg Gorman, Nursing and Healthcare Studies Librarian

Our Twitter feed shows our stories and news we feel is relevant

Matt Townsend, Lecturer and Tweeter

Meg Gorman, Nursing and Healthcare Studies Librarian

2013/2014 iSolve Project2013/2014 iSolve Project——Virtual Knee Virtual Knee

Rehabilitation (KneeReVirt)Rehabilitation (KneeReVirt)

Based on a programme developed first at MIT in

Boston and then extended to Cambridge University,

the exciting iSolve concept has now been

successfully developed at Cardiff University.

iSolve allows entrepreneurial postgraduates and

researchers to work with real inventions in order to

determine the best route for their commercialisation.

Findings from these teams are then presented to a

panel of judges alongside a report.

At the School of Healthcare Sciences, a new GRAIL

system (Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab)

has been installed which provides for advanced

movement analysis which can be used as a basis

for real-time feedback to patients with movement

disorders. The system includes an instrumented

treadmill, motion cameras, and projection onto a

180 degrees screen to create an immersive

environment. The D-Flow software provides

flexibility to develop a virtual rehabilitation

environment of our own design.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers guided by

Professor Robert van Deursen is working on the

development of assessment and treatment for

patients with knee conditions in this virtual

environment. This is done in collaboration with the

R&D department of Motek Medical, the company

that installed the system.

The objective is to make use of this novel

technology and integrate clinical knowledge to

create a set of appropriate exercises to help

patients recover better. Knowledge obtained will be

used to translate into simple solutions that can be

used for exercise at home.

This year, the iSolve team will be tasked to develop

a more elaborate plan which needs to consider the

best route to develop virtual rehabilitation and the

business model that would be the most appropriate.

Details of Cardiff University’s enterprise

programmes, including iSolve, can be found here:

http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/cuenterprise/

Trevor Baker, Operations Manager

In partnership with the Florence Nightingale Foundation, Cardiff School of Healthcare Sciences and

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have made a new Professorial appointment. Dr Lesley Lowes

(pictured), formerly a Reader in Paediatric Diabetes Nursing at the University,

has been appointed to the role Chair of Clinical Nursing Practice Research.

The role is the first Florence Nightingale Professor of Clinical Nursing Research

in Wales. It presents a unique opportunity to demonstrate academic leadership

in translating research directly into clinical care, supporting innovation and

enhancing the patient experience.

Dr Lowes has been with the School since 1999. She has always had a passion

for clinical practice, working in a dual research/clinical post from her

commencement at the School until this appointment in October 2013.

Exciting new post in collaboration with Exciting new post in collaboration with

Florence Nightingale and Cardiff & ValeFlorence Nightingale and Cardiff & Vale

Aled Jones explained the drawbacks of reports such as Ann Clwyd’s on ITV Wales News

Aled Jones on ITV Wales NewsAled Jones on ITV Wales News

On Monday, 28th October, Labour MP Ann Clwyd released a report

which made recommendations for change within the NHS. The

report, titled ’A review of the NHS hospitals complaints system:

putting patients back in the picture’ has been closely followed by the

media, being the latest in a series of papers making

recommendations for change in the wake of the Francis Report.

Aled Jones, Senior Lecturer in nursing at the School, appeared on

ITV Wales News to discuss what he felt were the drawbacks of such

reports. He explained, “The danger with reports such as Francis,

Berwick, Keogh, is that they tend to give you an insight into things

when they go really badly wrong… They tend to polarise things

around serious concerns in the NHS and it tends to stigmatise the

rest of the service as well.”

Watch the full report online here: http://www.itv.com/news/wales/

story/2013-10-28/nhs-complaint-report

Prof. Hunter and Dr Prof. Hunter and Dr

Warren publish Warren publish

Resilience ReportResilience Report

Two academics at the School of

Healthcare Sciences have

published a report following

research into the resilience of

midwives. The research, which sits

within the Maternal, Child and

Family Health and Wellbeing

research theme, was undertaken

by RCM professor of midwifery

Professor Billie Hunter and Dr

Lucie Warren, Research Associate.

The study explored clinical

midwives’ understanding and

experience of resilience, modelling

the concept in collaboration with a

panel of experts. The specific

objectives of the study were to

identify the factors considered to

contribute to or act as barriers to

resilience, and to explore how the

resilience of student and newly

qualified midwives might be

enhanced. By understanding more

about resilience, it may be possible

to better nurture novice midwives

and those experiencing workplace

stress. In other words, it may

provide new knowledge to enable

the profession to 'care for the

carers'. Resilience is not about

becoming tough or hardened,

rather it is characterised by

adaptability, self-knowledge and

emotional awareness. This study

indicates that resilience is a

complex phenomenon, which

warrants serious consideration

from clinical midwives, managers,

educators and researchers.

To download the report, please

click here.

The first School NewsletterThe first School Newsletter We hope you have found this first issue full of useful and

interesting stories. It is now over two months since we

became the School of Healthcare Sciences and we have had

a lot of news! It’s not always possible to include everything,

but we value your feedback on how we can make things

better, so tell us what you think.

The winter issue will be released in January 2014. If you

would like to suggest an article, please email us using the

address below.

Similarly, if you have news, forthcoming events or anything

else that we might not know about, do keep us up to date! We

want to raise the profile of the School as much as possible, so

do keep us in the loop...

HealthSciMarketing@cardiff.ac.uk.