I should be so lucky
Roger Watson
Introduction
What
follows is a series of records of my travels as an academic between 2012 and
2019. The travel takes places in Europe, America, Australia, the Far East, the
Middle East and South East Asia.
These
entries were made on behalf of Sigma and were edited and put online by Jim
Mattson of Sigma to whom I am most grateful.
The
entries were in the form of a blog between 2012 and 2017 which was called Hanging
Smart (up to page 138) and, thereafter, as part of the Reflections on
Nursing Leadership site and called Connecting Continents (starting
on page 141). The formatting changes between 2017 t0 2019 and all the
hyperlinks have been maintained. However, many links will be broken as
individuals have changed positions and some blogs have been discontinued and
webpages have migrated. Sigma discontinued the blog in 2020 but it was my
privilege and pleasure to share my travels and experience with a wide audience.
It is of
interest to note that the final entry was made in December 2019 from Wuhan,
China. The Covid pandemic was already underway there, but most of the world was
unaware. I returned home to news of a novel virus emanating from Wuhan which
eventually transpired to be SARS-Cov-2. Thereafter, the world changed forever.
Published (2022) by Yould
Publications Ltd, Hull
© Sigma
14 September 2012
UNIVERSITY
OF HULL, UK—“I’ve had so much contact with nursing over the past few years I
could almost be a nurse.” This statement, or a slight variant thereof, has been
uttered in my presence in each of the four universities where I have worked and
in others where I have undertaken quality assurance or other external work. The
protagonist is, invariably, male; a member of a university senior management
team; and coincidentally, I presume, an engineer. Perhaps engineers are more
adept than most at “engineering” their way into the higher echelons of
university management, but I’ll have to consider that possibility another day.
Before
entering nursing, I studied biochemistry at the bachelor and doctoral levels.
However, I long ago gave up all pretensions about being a biochemist, not due
to modesty, but lest I get “caught out” by a hard question. In the same vein, I
have never heard fellow nurses, even though many have been in senior university
positions and with significant exposure to other disciplines, claim that the
exposure led them to consider themselves “almost a physicist,” “almost a
philosopher” or “almost a mathematician.” So, what is it about nursing that
leads people to say these things, and what should our response be?
My
guess about why people in these positions say these things is that it is due to
a subconscious—I am being generous—attitude of superiority about their chosen
discipline whereby what they do is considered difficult, and nursing is
considered easy. I can only guess further that their image of nurses is
immobilised in stereotypes: feminine; middle class; not highly educated; and
“caring.”
I
would not wish to dress nursing up to be something it is not. Nursing is a
practice-based discipline that lies at the crossroads of several disciplines
that include life sciences, social sciences and medicine. Nursing, as a
subject, may not grapple with the origins of the universe, solving the world
economic crisis or designing iconic buildings. Nevertheless, we do deal with
the origins of someone’s distress, finding a solution to that stress and helping
rebuild people who may become iconic in their own right. And we don’t just do
this once, but many times a day and hundreds of times a year.
We
don’t do it alone; we work in partnership with many professions and have to
know more about them than they ever seem to know about us. It may look easy
but, reflecting on my own clinical practice many years ago and the kinds of
problems I currently address in my research, it certainly doesn’t feel easy.
My
response to statements such as the one at the top of this post used to be a
polite laugh; followed by a stony face and then a grimace, with an inwardly
expressed gratitude that the person found their métier elsewhere. I have, more
recently, decided to return to smiling and inwardly expressing gratitude that,
however easy it seems and however hard it actually is, I found my own métier.
8
October 2012
'You have to have an assessment!'
HONG
KONG—I am easily irritated by what I take to be stupid comments or questions,
especially ones that convey a bureaucracy with which I don’t agree.
“You have to have an assessment” was the response in Hong Kong when I tried to
use an indoor climbing wall.
“But
I’ve been climbing for nearly 30 years,” I replied.
“You
have to have an assessment!” was the firm response with that
“the-issue-is-now-closed” look that the charming but invariably inflexible
person behind a desk in Hong Kong conveys so well.
“Can I
have an assessment?” I asked, conceding that safety is an important issue and
that they had no proof I could climb safely.
“You
have to make an appointment” was the reply, at which point I turned and walked
out, deciding that my training regime would have to be suspended during this
trip to the Far East.
The
incident reminded me of a friend who graduated as a nurse in the United Kingdom
and, after moving to Hong Kong, was required to pass a local exam prior to
practicing. As she had graduated from my own alma mater (Edinburgh) and from
the school where I first taught, this offended me ... until!
We do
exactly the same in the United Kingdom to all incoming nurses; we even ask native
English-speaking nurses (North Americans and Australians) to take an English
language test (IELTS or TOEFL) to
quite a high standard before they can register. They also have to have a period
of induction prior to practice. The Australians have reciprocated by insisting
that incoming nurses also take an English test, including native UK nurses.
I have
mixed feelings about the need for all this assessment and for the resulting
assessment industry that has grown up around it (a view I won’t be expounding
on too much at the reception I’ve been invited to attend by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign
Nursing Schools during the upcoming meeting and annual
conference of the American Academy of Nursing in Washington,
D.C.). I can see that safety is paramount, and guaranteeing the competence and
educational level of everyone arriving from a foreign country with a nursing
registration is crucial and, probably, impossible without a formal approach.
However, when I arrive in Washington, DC, as I could do here in Hong Kong, I
can produce my driving licence and hire a car with the likelihood of killing a
great many more people than if I turned up to work as nurse. This is only
an analogy. Nursing is infinitely more complex than driving, but the principle
applies, and I see no efforts in any country to streamline and accelerate the
processes.
I have
no solution to the problems encountered by nurses who wish to migrate or just
gain experience outside their own country. In fact, I can acknowledge that
there is a need for some “barriers” to free movement of registered nurses. I
know very well how a rash of scandals involving non-native nurses in the United
Kingdom leads to calls for tighter regulations. In addition to protecting
patients, these regulations protect the nurses from beyond our borders who are
practicing safely and making a major contribution to our National Health
Service. All this is notwithstanding the fact that registered nurses from
anywhere within the European Community can work in the United Kingdom without
let or hindrance, including an English language test.
So, I
did not manage to do any climbing in Hong Kong. But if you have read this entry
to my blog, I hope you will think I have made reasonably good use of the time
that was freed up.
1
November 2012
UNIVERSITY
OF HULL, UK—The impact factor, a proxy measure of journal quality using citations, is often maligned and rarely praised. Nevertheless, it is
studied avidly and regularly. And when there is evidence of journal editors
blatantly trying to manipulate it by artificially increasing the number of
citations to their own journals in their own journals, it creates controversy.
However, all editors of journals cited in the impact factor league tables keep
a close eye on impact factor and make—legitimate—efforts to ensure that they
maximise their opportunities to maintain and improve their positions. It is
well known, for example, that review papers, methodological papers and
controversial papers (even ones that are wrong) are rapidly and highly cited
and make a significant contribution to impact factor.
What
is the impact factor?
The
impact factor is a measure of citations (A) in a given year (e.g., 2011) to
particular papers (B) published in the previous two years (e.g., 2009 and
2010). The impact factor is A divided by B. Excluded are contributions such as
correspondence and editorials. However, it is worth noting that citations in
these entities do contribute to A.
It is
also worth noting that papers cited in a particular year from that year—2011
papers cited in 2011, for example—do not contribute to the impact factor. In
fact, papers cited within their calendar year of publication have no effect on
the impact factor. Therefore, if editors want to play the impact-factor
game—legitimately—it is obvious that they must: 1) publish as many highly
citeable papers as possible; 2) increase citation of them by generating comment
in letters and editorials (within reason) and 3) time the publication of citing
entities properly. For example, an editorial that cites a paper published in
2011 is better published in January 2012 than December 2011. It must be noted
that Thompson Reuters, who “owns” the impact factor, does police the process
and look for anomalous patterns of citation.
Can
editors influence impact factor?
The
answer is, clearly, yes. However, how long does it take an editor—say, one
appointed in January 2011—to influence the impact factor of a journal, and is
this a legitimate measure of editor performance? In the year of appointment, an
editor has no influence on impact factor because the metrics, which are based
on the previous year, are already fixed.
In the
second year of appointment, the editor has minimal influence, because only one
year’s worth of material published under his or her tenure may be considered
for citation, and a high proportion of this is likely to have been accepted by
the predecessor. However, measures taken in the second year to increase
citations to the journal’s content can have an influence, but only to the
extent that they reference the one year’s worth of content controlled by the
new editor.
In the
third year of appointment, all material published in the previous two years and
some of the year preceding is the responsibility of the editor, and any
measures taken to increase citations in that year are restricted to those two
years.
Only
in the fourth year of appointment can the editor take full responsibility for
citing content and content being cited in the journal. Therefore, following
appointment, it takes four years (until the end of 2015, using the present
example) for an editor to significantly affect the impact factor.
If
measures taken are successful, the editor is lauded and is safe in the job. If
measures taken are not successful, the publisher has a dilemma: sack the editor
in the knowledge that his or her successor will take four years, fully, to
influence the impact factor, or continue with the same editor in the hope of
improved performance.
Things
usually continue with little change for a year after an editor’s contract
expires and a new editor is hired. Therefore, my conclusion about impact factor
is that, while it is a controversial measure of journal quality, it is a
useless measure of editor performance.
26
November 2012
Meet Professor Sally Wai-Chi Chan!
SINGAPORE—I
am spending a month in Singapore, the “melting pot” of Southeast Asia. Singapore is
a melting pot for two reasons. First, the heat and humidity are excruciating.
Even the mildest exercise outdoors induces profuse perspiration and laboured
breathing. The only respite this time of year is the daily monsoon downpour, but even that is lukewarm.
Singapore
is also a melting pot in another sense; it is one of the most multicultural
places in the world. And it is entirely peaceful. Draconian sentencing and
harsh punishments by the local judiciary tend to enforce good manners and
tolerance. Nevertheless, appreciation of other cultures seems genuine. The
place is fabulously rich with 17 percent of the population being millionaires (Singapore dollars).
This
visit—my third to Singapore—is to the National University of Singapore, currently ranked No.
25 in the world in QS World University Rankings (No. 2 in Asia). Specifically, I am at the Alice
Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, located in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, recently ranked the
top medical school in Asia by QS. Founded in 2006, the centre is led by
Professor Sally Chan.
Sally Wai-Chi Chan
I have
known Sally for more than 20 years, ever since we both arrived in Edinburgh. I
was a new lecturer and Sally, along with her husband Bing-Shu Cheng, was a new
MSc in nursing student. A decade later, we met again when Sally was working in
the Nethersole School of Nursing at Chinese
University of Hong Kong, where I had been appointed external examiner for their
master’s in nursing programme. Thus began my frequent travels to the Far East
and Southeast Asia and a rekindled professional relationship with Sally.
Sally
is energetic, ambitious and productive. She has always been visible and vocal,
both as a student and as an academic. Her leadership in mental health nursing
research and the mark she made on delivery of services in Hong Kong is
remarkable, and her output of publications is impressive. Sally was clearly
destined for leadership, and she is now in a key position to lead the
development of this relatively new centre and to contribute to academic nursing
in Singapore.
I am
lucky to benefit from being one of a succession of international visiting
scholars and professors to the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies. Sally has
made it her trademark to work with the best and learn from the best. In turn,
those of us lucky enough to come here frequently learn a great deal from the
diligence, dedication and sheer hard work of the local academic and nursing
population. Working days are long here, but the rewards are concomitant.
Sally
is an outward-looking, horizon-scanning person, and this was recently
exemplified by her visit to my own University of Hull. At present, Singapore
does not allow nurse prescribing, but an ageing demography, together with
nursing and medical-personnel shortages, will necessitate some new approaches
to delivery of care and some shifting of professional boundaries. Sally wants
to be at the forefront of this change, and the purpose of her visit to the
United Kingdom was to learn about nurse prescribing programmes—Hull was a
pioneer in this respect—and to see what links could be formed to help prepare
her for advancing this initiative in Singapore.
Leadership
Leadership
is hard to define but obvious when you see it. It is demonstrated in many ways
and under different circumstances. The circumstances in Singapore could not be
more ready for leadership such as that displayed by Sally Chan and, as a result
of her far-sighted thinking in pursuing an academic career in Australia and the
United Kingdom, (largely outside her native Hong Kong), she could not have been
more ready for her current leadership role.
I
often ponder my own leadership skills and wonder if the opportunity awaits me
to demonstrate them; it has eluded me to date! Next week finds me in Bangkok
and then Hong Kong before I head home to the UK for Christmas. In the meantime,
at leisure, I think about the vagaries of professional and academic life, and
where better to do so than the world-famous Long Bar of Raffles
Hotel in Singapore.
"Barman!"
10
January 2013
UNIVERSITY
OF HULL, UK—As the festive season approached, I looked forward to a fortnight
away from work when I could safely read the U.K. newspapers without finding
cause for alarm. The end of the year is usually reserved for funny stories,
advertisements by charities and reflections on the past year. However, I was
wrong.
On 27
December 2012, The Daily Telegraph featured a piece titled “Become a lawyer with no degree, pupils told,” and
I realised I was not going to make it to the end of the year without
controversy. I made an entry on my Twitter feed
the next day: “UK government wants lawyers trained by apprenticeships not
degrees – parallels with nursing? where will this go?” which elicited some
responses from nursing colleagues and a lawyer I know well.
I was
surprised that the nurses seemed less bothered about this thinly veiled
criticism of university education than the lawyer! While I trained as a nurse
under the apprenticeship model and enjoyed and appreciated every day of it, I
have long defended the value and necessity of nurses having degrees and the fact that
there is no evidence that having a university education reduces their ability
to care. There is room for both aspects of preparation in the nursing
curriculum.
I was
actually more interested in what the response of the legal profession would be
and, specifically, if nurses with degrees would feature in it. And guess what?
There were several letters in reply and extensive entries in the letters page
weblog under the banner “Qualifying for a profession without taking a degree – or running up
debts” and, of course, both sides of the argument were
represented.
There
were two references to nursing, as follows: 1) “The Government may mean well by
its plan for an apprenticeship route for traditional professions, but it is
ill-founded. Unless other industries, such as hospitality and nursing, abandon
the requirement for a degree, a peculiar imbalance will be introduced into the
higher education system.” 2) “SIR – And while we are at it, can we also please return
to apprenticeships for nurses?” I find it strange and infuriating that nursing
is juxtaposed with the hospitality industry and is used as an exemplar of where
university degrees are inappropriate. For my non-United Kingdom readers, I must
say that this is a uniquely U.K. phenomenon; the value of degrees for nurses
has never been questioned—in my experience—in the United States, Australia, the
Far East or Southeast Asia.
It did
not end there. The year was nearly over when The Sunday Times,
never a great supporter of academic nursing, managed to include nursing in a
retrospective swipe by Minette Marrin—foremost amongst our critics—at
everything that had annoyed her over the year in a piece titled “Pesky clerics, Europhiles, nurses’ leaders – it’s all change for you” on
30 December 2012. Referring to the frequent reports of poor nursing care in the
U.K. media, Marrin questioned the purpose of nursing leaders in the United
Kingdom; easy and obvious targets, of course, but not the people directly
responsible for the delivery of poor care that appears to take part in isolated
pockets such as the Mid Staffordshire Foundation National Health Service Trust,
where a bullying culture has developed and there is a general cynicism about
continuing professional development—the very thing usually criticised by people
like Marrin.
Therefore,
2012 ended on a slightly negative note from my perspective, but a new year lies
ahead and, while reports of poor care and unwarranted criticism of academic
nursing in the United Kingdom will continue, I have a lot to look forward to
elsewhere in the world. In 2013, I will visit Italy, Finland, Canada, Bahrain,
Hong Kong, China, the United States and Australia. I look forward to blogging
from some of these places.
12
February 2013
UNIVERSITY
OF HULL, UK—In January, I referred to the Mid Staffordshire Foundation National Health Service Trust. On 6
February 2013, a final
report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
Public Inquiry included the following statement: “Between 2005 and 2008
conditions of appalling care were able to flourish in the main hospital serving
the people of Stafford and its surrounding area.”
If you
want to see just how badly wrong things can go in a nationalised system of
health—the so called “jewel in the crown” of U.K. public services—read this
report. Beware; it is 1,781 pages long, excluding the executive summary. Few
will need to read every word, and fewer still will do so. Nevertheless, for a
rapid assessment of the systemic, professional and personal failures that
conspired to create the biggest scandal in the history of the U.K. National
Health Service, the executive summary will suffice.
As a
U.K. citizen and nurse, I am well aware of the problems in Mid Staffordshire.
The U.K. media have had little difficulty in deciding what to headline in the
past week, and there have been the inevitable swipes at nurses with degrees,
another subject of past entries in this blog. While the public are provided
with further depths to the scandal and shock and informed that no ‘heads have
rolled’… yet (disciplinary proceedings may now begin), the professions are more
concerned about the recommendations made by Lord Francis QC, who chaired the
enquiry.
The
recommendations are copious, and those related to nursing cover several pages.
The range of recommendations covers the “whole nine yards,” from sublime common
sense to the ridiculous type of ignorant knee-jerking that is so common when
non-nurses comment on nursing. At the ridiculous end is the recommendation that
the U.K. regulatory body for nursing, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC),
together with universities, should work over the course of several months to
produce a system for testing the aptitude of nursing candidates, paying special
attention to caring attitude and compassion. This ought to tie the NMC and
university schools of nursing up for months deciding what to measure and how to
measure it.
Surely,
the three-year programme of undergraduate nursing education is at least partly
supposed to weed out those unsuitable for nursing and also to mould those with
promise into good nurses. I can see where Lord Francis’s idea stems from: 1)
the ubiquitous driving force of the well-meaning public servant that “something
must be done (about it)” and 2) that “there is something that can be done
(about it).” There were manifest failures of medical and surgical care, yet
there is not a similar recommendation that aspiring doctors be pretested for
aptitude.
Giving
credit where it is due, Lord Francis did make two excellent recommendations
that would be easy to implement. The first of these, which seems
uncontroversial but has eluded nursing in the United Kingdom since the
mid-1980s, is a national standard for testing the competence of nurses to
practice. While not wishing to use the tragic circumstances surrounding Mid
Staffordshire to illuminate my own good sense and that of some close
colleagues, it is interesting to reflect on some recommendations made by a few
of us in 2002: “A clear finding (from this study) is that no single method is
appropriate for assessing clinical competence. A multimethod UK-wide strategy
for clinical competence assessment for nursing and midwifery is needed if we
are to be sure that assessment reveals whether or not students have achieved
the complex repertoire of knowledge, skills and attitudes required for
competent practice.” I doubt we can take the credit now, but at least
we can demonstrate that some nursing academics were making common-sense
recommendations over a decade before Lord Francis.
The
other excellent recommendation is that: “The Nursing and Midwifery Council and
other professional and academic bodies should work towards a common
qualification assessment/examination.” The United Kingdom long ago abandoned a
national state examination for nurses but, again, along with a colleague, I
have published the view that we should return to a national
curriculum and a state examination for nursing.
Surely, this is a recommendation worth pursuing.
This
entry has been very U.K.-, not to mention self-, centred. March finds me in
Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Canada, and also in front of my colleagues speaking
about international strategy. I will also be delivering a paper on nursing
leadership at a local event of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau
International. I expect that next time I post, Mid Staffordshire will no longer
be in the headlines and that I can report something that illuminates the best
in U.K. and international nursing. Meantime, I contemplate approximately 25,000
miles of flying, jetlag and hotel rooms; actually, not the worst prospect.
7
March 2013
The importance of chance encounters
UNIVERSITY
OF HULL, UK—As a young academic at the University of Edinburgh in the early
1990s, I attended the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom Research Society Conference in Birmingham, UK. An
argument with a taxi driver over the fare meant that I walked to my
accommodation under a very dark cloud.
Walking
in the opposite direction to me was a man, clearly of Chinese origin, who
looked as if he wanted to speak—the last thing I wanted to do. However, he
introduced himself as the PhD student of a colleague and good friend of mine in
Glasgow, which brightened my mood a little, and we spoke for a few minutes.
More
than 10 years later, I found myself sitting opposite him, unaware of who he
was, at lunch in Hong Kong, and he recalled that we had met. His name was
Thomas Wong. One of the most influential figures in nursing in Hong Kong, he
was professor and head of nursing at Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. He has, variously, chaired the Nursing
Council, been dean of his faculty of health care and a vice president of the
university. Currently, he is president of Tung Wah College in Hong Kong.
I have
just returned from one of many visits to Hong Kong, my previous visit being the
subject of an earlier blog. I was undertaking visiting-professor duties at
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where nursing is now led by another friend
and colleague, Professor Alex Molasiotis. Clearly of Greek
origin, Alex is a leading expert in cancer and palliative care nursing, with an
outstanding CV and previous working experience in Hong Kong and mainland China.
We met unexpectedly in Singapore and found a common interest in the Far East
and Southeast Asia, and also my hometown of Hull, UK, where Alex studied for
his master’s degree and still has family links.
Courtesy
of the Cathay Pacific long-haul flight to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong, I
was reflecting on the past decade, during which I have made more than 50 visits
to Hong Kong. I thought about the important place that this unique and
extraordinary Special Administrative Region of China (and former British
colony) has had on my personal and professional life.
Personally,
it is a place that is now familiar to my wife and several of my children; where
I feel almost as “at home” as I do at home. Professionally, the influence Hong
Kong has had on my career is obvious. It has been for me, literally, the
gateway to the Far East, Southeast Asia and Australasia since, at the
invitation of Professor David Thompson, then of The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, I found myself in Hong Kong for the first time.
Since
then, I have collaborated on research grant applications and publications with
colleagues across the Far East and Southeast Asia. I am now a part-time
professor in Australia and a visiting professor in Singapore. People like Thomas
Wong—who I very nearly ignored the first time I met him—and Alex Molasiotis,
together with countless others who took the time to get to know me—thankfully,
I reciprocated—have kept me constantly engaged in activities that are amongst
the most rewarding of my professional life.
If
this blog entry has a moral, it is this: Never underestimate the next person
you meet, never ignore people at conferences, and set no limits on where your
next conversation may lead you, professionally and geographically.
8 April 2013
Return to Riyadh
RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—Listening to “Brothers in Arms”—loud—on the Emirates Airline entertainment
system as the Boeing 777 descended into King Khalid International Airport
(KKIA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I brushed away several tears. During the First
Gulf War, I used to listen to this haunting and emotional song on headphones to
drown out the overhead roar of American B-52 bombers, accompanied by massive refuelling planes, as
they took off from the military airport in Riyadh to rain down fire and death
on forward lines of Iraqi troops.
The bombers were so laden with weaponry that
they took off underfuelled. After takeoff, and before proceeding to the Kuwaiti
border to lighten their loads, the bombers’ fuel tanks were topped off nearby,
in midair, enabling them to proceed to their target and create “fields of
destruction,” a phrase from Dire Straits’ song, “Brothers in Arms.” These takeoffs were
always followed by the release of a Scud missile
in our direction, to which we replied with a Patriot missile from the front gate of our compound. The
sickening shockwave, as it broke the sound barrier at ground level, used to make
my chest reverberate.
My first visit to Saudi Arabia was courtesy of
Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in which I played a small role as a nursing officer
in the Royal Army Medical Corps. This time, upon exiting the plane at the
airport terminal, I recognised the underground car park where, a couple decades
earlier, we had established a 1,000-bed military hospital and set up our
evacuation ward. And on my journey home, I walked through shops and lounges
where, more than 20 years before, we set up operating theatres and general
wards in what was then a newly built, but deserted, building.
This visit was entirely peaceful. I was in
Riyadh at the invitation of the General Directorate of Nursing Affairs at the
Saudi Ministry of Health to address the Saudi International Conference of Excellence in
Patient Care (SIEPC
2013) on the topic of writing for publication. The conference was attended by
“local” nurses from the Gulf states and Jordan, as well as Europeans,
Australians, and Americans. The theme of the conference, ostensibly, was about
hospitals in the region achieving Magnet status, but it was an opportunity to learn about
nursing and, especially, nursing education in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. If the
words “Europe” or “United Kingdom” had replaced “Saudi Arabia” or “Jordan” on
the program, the discussion would have been much the same.
We share many of the same problems, such as
shortages of nurses and nursing faculty, and the employment of immigrant
nurses, with the Philippines being a major provider. One difference in Jordan
from the rest of the world is the higher proportion of men in nursing, a remarkable
60 percent. It’s actually an issue they would like to address, as it is a
symptom of very high unemployment among Jordanian men. There is a deliberate
strategy in Saudi Arabia toward “Saudi-ization”—the education, training, and
employment of Saudi nationals in a range of professions—including nursing. The
initiative is still, however, in its early days.
Meantime,
many Saudi nurses visit the United Kingdom and North America to pursue master’s
degrees and doctoral education. I have personally benefitted from this. I was
met at the airport by Mansour Al-Yami, in full Arab dress, whose studies I
supervised at the University of Sheffield. Worth following on Twitter,
Al-Yami is involved in his role at the Ministry of Health in recruiting nurses
to Saudi’s workforce. Soon, he defends his doctoral thesis in Sheffield.
At the fabulous Four Seasons
Hotel, I had dinner with Professor James Ware, director, Medical Education and
Postgraduate Studies, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, along with
Wafaa Al-Johani, who works in nursing education in Jeddah. Al-Johani is one of
my former doctoral students, and she made the journey especially to see me.
My time in
Saudi has been informative, enjoyable and, as I alluded to above, moving. I
have three children and a future son-in-law in the military. One daughter returns from Afghanistan
soon; she was preceded by her fiancé. Her older sister, a nursing officer
in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing
Corps, leaves for Afghanistan next week. My daughters
complete four generations of Watsons who have gone to war.
I often end these entries on a light note,
related to my current location or next flight (Rome in May, as it happens), but
I must end this one with a rhetorical question: Will the madness of war ever
end?
9 May
2013
ROME—Frequent
visits to Italy make me appreciate my proximity to continental Europe. Running
along the banks of the Tiber at 6:30 a.m., with Rome waking up around me and
the sun already burning the top of my head—much less protected by hair than it
used to be—is one of the most memorable things I have done this year. Rome is
beautiful. It certainly represents no hardship to visit these visually
stunning and deeply historic places, so easily accessible from the United
Kingdom.
I am
here at the invitation of Gennaro Rocco, president of Ipasvi (Nursing
Board of Rome) to deliver a paper, “The ethics of publication,” at the
Ministero della Salute (Italian Ministry of Health). Rocco is the epitome of
Italian style, manners, and leadership. He has been elected to his presidency
for more than a decade, and his vision and drive have helped Ipasvi establish a
Centre of Excellence for Nursing Culture and Research.
My
role at the Centre of Excellence, along with other international advisers, has
been to provide advice on academic publishing with a view to helping Ipasvi
develop the first Italian academic nursing journal. Once again, I have been reflecting
on why I am here and why I should be so lucky to visit the capitals of the
world, to work with the cream of international nursing, and to do so at no
expense to me or my university. Another chance encounter, the subject of a
recent post, played a part.
In
2004, I co-organised a symposium on quantitative methods in nursing research at
the annual International Research Conference of the Royal College of Nursing of the
United Kingdom. The symposium was well attended and very well
evaluated. However, the most important outcome for me was my first meeting
with Alvisa Palese. Flamboyant, immaculate, and affectionate—in a
word, Italian—she enthused about the session, and I have been in contact with
her ever since. She is now my PhD student at Hull. This contact led to a
regular series of workshops delivered to Italian postgraduate nursing students
in Trieste and Genoa. These students are pioneers, especially the doctoral
students, as doctoral-level education for nurses is a fairly recent development
in Italy.
This
has been a very short visit, but one worth reporting on, as I think that the
Centre of Excellence for Nursing Culture and Research is going to become a
major force for nursing change in Italy. There is such a centre in Spain, which
is similar to, though slightly ahead of, Italy in development of nursing
education, but I know of no other centres like this anywhere in the world.
What
struck my U.K. colleagues and me most was the integration and common purpose amongst
nurses engaged in professional regulation, clinical practice and education. I
have also witnessed this in the United States and Australia. Sadly, in the
United Kingdom, there is a void between clinical practice and academia, and our
regulatory body is not especially proactive in developing the profession. We
were there to advise, based on our experience, but we would give a great deal
to have a Gennaro Rocco in our midst, and I envisage a day, not too far away,
when senior Italian nurses are advising us in the United Kingdom. Moreover, I
welcome that day.
17 May
2013
From the land of the midnight sun
TURKU,
Finland—The flight from Helsinki to Turku barely gets in the air before it
lands in Turku. This very short flight takes you from the capital of Finland to
the mouth of the river Aura on the nation’s southwest coast. Turku boasts a
fine university, the University of Turku, which houses the Department of Nursing
Science and an array of nursing scholars of truly stellar reputation in Europe
and beyond, including Helena Leino-Kilpi, PhD, RN, Sanna Salanterä, PhD, RN, and Riitta Suhonen, PhD, RN. It is remarkable to find such talent in
so small a department.
I,
together with Ian Norman, PhD, RN, FEANS, my rival in editing and friend in
research and scholarship, have been teaching writing-for-publication classes to
Finnish postgraduate students—not all from Turku and not all in nursing. Norman
is professor and associate dean of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing
and Midwifery at King’s College, London, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Nursing Studies. Over
the years, I have researched, written, and published with him and have learned
a great deal about acquiring research funding and managing research projects.
The classes were challenging. These are some of the best research students in
Scandinavia, and they questioned nearly every point we made. As usual, I came
away realising that my ideas and my PowerPoints need further revision.
Compared
with England and Ireland—I visited Ireland on the way here—the weather in Turku
is superb. The British Isles are mostly shrouded in mist and still experiencing
very cold weather despite the time of year, but Turku was 25 degrees Celsius
(77 degrees Fahrenheit) with bright sunshine that only receded for about three
hours after midnight. This is, almost, the “land of the midnight sun.” I
managed two runs along the Aura River, still navigable well into the town of
Turku, where some splendid tall ships and lots of boats moored along the banks
are used as bars and restaurants. Wednesday night in Turku is Harley-Davidson
night, and I think that nearly 1,000 of them were parked along the river last
night, with their riders—average age easily more than 60—admiring each other’s
bikes.
Work
continues wherever I am. When classes ended this morning, I spent the rest of
the day in my hotel room in close contact via Skype and email with Parveen Ali, PhD, PG Cert (HE) RN, RM, my good colleague at
Hull. She and I, together with our expert in orthopaedic nursing, Julie Santy-Tomlinson, MSc, RGN, RNT, were
awarded a small amount of money by the Royal College of Nursing (of the United
Kingdom) Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing to conduct a systematic
review of acute lower limb compartment syndrome (ALCS). The work will inform a
consensus conference of the society convened to produce nursing guidelines for
detection and management of ALCS. The report is due to be submitted by 5 p.m.
today. I think we made it.
The
rest of the year is shaping up. I will be in Bahrain before the end of the
month. Then, after a relatively quiet two months, August will find me in Taiwan
and Australia. In October, I head, in quick succession, to Hong Kong and
mainland China, returning to the United Kingdom between those trips to teach at
my university. The China visit leads directly—after the longest Cathay Pacific
flight of 18 hours—to Washington, D.C. for the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Nursing. Next month, we should hear who the new fellows are, and I
am hoping the list contains at least two international fellows who are well
known to me. You will be the first to know.
30 May
2013
Examining in the Kingdom of Bahrain
MANAMA,
Kingdom of Bahrain—The last time I visited Bahrain, I arrived on a Sunday night
and took a taxi to the nearest Catholic church to attend Mass. This proved to
be a mistake. The “five minutes” from the hotel, as estimated by the hotel
receptionist, turned into a considerable taxi ride, miles from the Diplomatic
Area (DA) where I was staying. The class of housing dropped and the width of
the streets steadily reduced and, eventually, I found myself downtown, where the
walls had slogans in English and Arabic. This was immediately following the
Arab Spring risings, which had reached the Kingdom and the television screens.
My hosts, my employers and my wife would have had a collective fainting fit if
they had seen me.
I attended
Mass, the only westerner, and then tried to hail a taxi. Plenty went past, but
none would stop. As a mild sense of anxiety set in about my predicament—lost,
dark, miles from my hotel, and in an area of obvious unrest—I was rescued by a
diminutive Indian gentleman, clearly amused at my attempts to hail a taxi in
that area. He promised, and duly fulfilled his promise, to lead me to safety.
My escape took me through a series of back alleys and past some dubious looking
local characters to an area where taxis were available. I hailed one, and my
saviour disappeared down one of the alleys from which we had emerged, hardly
stopping for thanks.
This
is my second visit to the Middle East this year (blog passim) and my second time here as an external examiner
at the Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI-MUB).
I have not ventured beyond the DA and, apart from a five-kilometre run that I
worked out for the early mornings (30 degrees Celsius; 86 degrees Fahrenheit)
before the temperature rises to a searing 40 degrees C (104 F), I have only
been to the college and restaurants. The RCSI-MUB was established in 2005 and
represents one aspect of the work of the RCSI in Dublin to expand and find
business in this region. As such, the RCSI is both innovative and
entrepreneurial and has established a very good name for itself in Bahrain and
Saudi Arabia.
The
RCSI-MUB runs a School of Nursing and Midwifery here that provides
undergraduate programmes, including a bridging programme for local
diploma-educated nurses and a master’s programme. I examine the bridging
programme and the master’s programme and, as my reports to the college have
indicated, have been impressed with the standard of work and, in particular, by
some of the master’s students, who have to present their work to members of the
school in my presence. I predict that the School of Nursing and Midwifery here
will become a powerhouse for academic and clinical nursing in the region.
In my
previous entry from Finland, I promised to let you know if any of my
colleagues have been invited to become fellows of the American Academy of
Nursing (FAAN). I am happy to report that Sally Chan, the subject of a previous post, has been
selected; also Mark Hayter, my Hull colleague and fellow editor of Journal
of Advanced Nursing. The contingent of FAAN international fellows is
growing, and I am very happy to be part of that group. I always look forward to
my visits to Washington, D.C., but I predict that this year is going to be more
fun than usual. If you see me there in October, please say hello.
21
June 2013
A week in the life of an editor-in-chief
HULL,
UK, Sunday, 16 June—I leave my family celebrating Father’s Day—my Father’s Day
(third Sunday in June)—at lunchtime to travel to Oxford for a few days. You may
have gathered I like to travel, but I don’t like travelling on a Sunday. In the
United Kingdom, Sunday means slow and indirect trains with several changes,
reduced service on the train (no free wine in first-class, for example), and
when you have left your family sitting outside in a sunny garden, it feels so
much worse.
The
purpose of my visit is the annual two-day management-team meeting for the Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN).
Therefore, my mood lifts as I reach Oxford—location of the Wiley-Blackwell
offices—and check in to my hotel. The most interesting and enjoyable part of my
work, amongst many interesting things I do, is my role as editor-in-chief
of JAN. I get the opportunity to work with some superb people at
Wiley-Blackwell. Some have been my colleagues here for years, and I have a top
team of editors to work with. A pint of Guinness with fish and chips at the
Head of the River pub on the Thames also helps lift my spirits.
Monday
The
first day of the meeting is concerned with reviewing the year: what has worked
and what needs to change. We consider the
journal impact factor (JIF). Despite its manifest imperfections,
and a
recent call for it to be ignored, many authors decide
where to send manuscripts by JIF, and we simply do not have the luxury of
ignoring it. Our consideration of the impact factor is given added poignancy by
the fact that announcement of the 2012 rankings is imminent. Let me introduce
the team:
The
publishers
At
Wiley-Blackwell, my immediate contact and journal manager is Rosie Hutchinson,
who has been with Wiley-Blackwell since 2009. My longest-standing contact and
contemporary is Associate Director Griselda Campbell, whom I have known for
more than 20 years, since she visited me as an early-career academic at the
University of Edinburgh, when she worked for another publishing company. Then,
there is what I refer to as the “engine house” of the Journal of
Advanced Nursing: Senior Editorial Assistant Gareth Watkins and Managing
Editor Di Sinclair. Nothing seems to be too much trouble for Gareth and Di, and
the extent of their knowledge of the online system we use to manage submissions
and reviewing is immense.
The
editors
I
don’t hesitate to say that I work with the best possible team of editors. They
are all experienced and capable, and a cursory glance at their profiles reveals
the calibre of person who edits JAN. New to the team, but joining us from
the Journal of Clinical Nursing (which I used to
edit) is Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FRSA. He was featured in my previous blog, due to his forthcoming induction as a fellow of
the American
Academy of Nursing. Jane Noyes, DPhil, MSc, RN, works in Wales. She, along
with Lin Perry, PhD, MSc, RN, and Brenda
Roe, PhD, RN, FRSH—another colleague of more than 20
years standing—preceded my appointment. They are an incredible repository of
knowledge about the Journal of Advanced Nursing and also bring
very specific expertise to their roles as editors. The newest member of the
team is Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN, who joins us from the United
States.
Dinner
is in Oxford at Malmaison; excellent food, wine, and good company. I learn
about the Travel John from Di, whose annual visit to the Glastonbury
Festival is imminent. The Rolling Stones are
headlining.
Tuesday
Sleepless
night—no JIF announcement yet! In a previous blog, I explained that my success as editor-in-chief is
partly judged on the basis of JIF.
Our
second day at the management-team meeting always focuses on planning, and this
is where the real discussion and debate take place. Many ideas—mostly mine—are
“shot down in flames,” and we often end up back where we started with some
change proposed to the way we do things. Our main concerns are maintaining a
reputation for quality, good service to authors, and good management of copy
flow. We realise that we often make adjustments to the systems at our peril and
need to be absolutely sure that what is decided is both necessary and likely to
work.
The
team disperses at the end of the day; back to their own countries, day jobs,
and professional duties. I remain in Oxford for a final night on my own, with
time to catch up on Skype calls, FaceTime, emails, and editing.
Wednesday
After
my third early-morning run of the week along the River Thames, I “hot-desk” at
the Wiley offices to catch up with work: write a European Community-funded
research proposal with a colleague from the United States; lunch with the
publishing team to discuss the use of Journal of Advanced Nursing Linkedin
pages, and prepare my first entry for our new blog.
I
travel from Oxford to the south coast of England to address the inaugural conference
of Phi Mu Chapter of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta
Tau International (STTI), launched in 2011 at the U.S. Embassy in London.
Dinner is with Dame Betty Kershaw, DBE, OStJ, FRCN, Elizabeth Rosser, DPhil, MN, DipRM, Dip NEd, RN, RM,
and Eileen Richardson, MA Ed, RGN, SCM, Cert Nursing Studies
(Education). Kershaw was the driving force behind establishing this all-England
chapter of STTI, which is hosted by Bournemouth University. Rosser has now
taken over as president, and Richardson has supported this work throughout. I
stay in Hotel Miramar, where a plaque on the wall indicates that J.R.R.
Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, was a frequent
visitor.
No announcement of JIF yet, but an SMS message from Ian Norman, PhD, RN, CQSW, editor-in-chief of International Journal of Nursing Studies,
informs me that we have both slipped down the rankings (unsmiley face).
Thursday
Excellent
news! The JIF of Journal of Advanced Nursing has improved,
despite slippage in rankings. Congratulations to Nursing
Outlook, in the top five; commiserations to Nursing Science Quarterly,
which, along with another 65 journals, has still not reappeared on the Thomson Reuters
list. My email to the team is more upbeat than the one I had been planning
overnight.
It is
a great honour to present the opening keynote at the Honour Society. My theme
is “Putting nursing back at the heart of people care,” and the session is
attended by the vice-chancellor (equivalent to president) of Bournemouth
University. Dinner is like a reunion of old friends and colleagues and is
attended by a trio of nursing dames: Dame Kershaw, referred to above; Dame June Clark, DBE, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, recently inducted
as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, an avid reader of this blog,
and the person responsible for bringing the Honour Society to the United
Kingdom for the first time in Wales; and Dame Yvonne Moores, DBE, FRSH, CIMgt, former chief nurse of
England, following her roles as chief nurse in Wales and Scotland. For an
explanation of the title “Dame,” you need to understand the U.K.
Honours system, and few of us actually do!
Friday
Six
hours and three trains later, I am back in Hull with my family. Tomorrow starts
with a 5-kilometre Park Run. On Sunday, I fly to Dublin for one night. No more
travelling until the end of July, and no more entries to the blog until then,
either.
31 July 2013
CORK,
Ireland—A short break from this blog has given me time to do the first full
entry on the brand-new Journal of Advanced Nursing blog, which has
had more than 400 views since June. I also publish our newsletter for
the Faculty
of Health and Social Care at Hull as a blog, and my own blogs
have been updated. I was pleased to see that my “Four
things about ... (a simple approach to anatomy and physiology)” has
had more than 84,000 views. Forgive the blatant plug!
Since
my last entry, I have been: 1) enjoying some extreme weather in the United
Kingdom (30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, is considered extreme in
the U.K.), 2) working hard on a research-grant proposal, 3) rock climbing, and
4) running—poorly—in a set of league races. My work as editor-in-chief
continues, and it has brought me to Cork, Ireland for the annual meeting of
the International Academy of Nursing Editors, a
group that suffers from the acronym INANE.
This
is my first time at INANE, and I was asked to chair an early morning “Town
Hall” meeting on hot topics in editing. We covered several topics, including
open-access publishing, succession planning for editorial positions, and the
training that those new to editing might require. INANE is a truly international
organisation, and this meeting, hosted by the Department
of Nursing and Midwifery at University College Cork, attracted
more than 100 people—mostly, but not exclusively, editors from 16 countries.
This
is the first of three weeks of travel. After returning to the U.K. from
Ireland, I will spend a week in Taiwan and the following week in Australia,
which is where my first contribution to Reflections
on Nursing Leadership magazine, the progenitor to my “Hanging
smart” blog, was written. Naturally, I intend to send my
reflections on these visits.
I
rarely visit Taiwan without some hilarious incident, usually at my expense. For
example, a few years ago I sent some clothes to the local laundry, which phoned
my Taiwanese colleague, whose cell phone is always on speaker, to enquire if I
wanted my underpants (“shorts” in the United States) pressed. The secretaries
in the open-plan office were unable, despite considerable effort, to suppress
their laughter. When the exchange was translated to me, I laughed,
too—eventually. I will be surprised if there is nothing to report next week.
10
August 2013
TAIPEI,
Taiwan—Wherever I go, weather records are broken. This week, the weather in
Taiwan has been the hottest on record for 100 years. Depending on what you read
or to whom you speak, the temperature in Taipei yesterday was either 37.5 or 39
C (99.5 or 102.2 F). Either way, the air temperature exceeds body temperature
and, according to this morning’s Taipei Times, the government is
considering calling public holidays if these temperatures return. There are
hotter places but, as one who visits here regularly, I’m finding the crushing
humidity exhausting. When there’s no precipitation which, when it comes, is in
the form of torrential rain, the relative humidity has varied between 70 and 90
percent.
A few
years ago, colleagues and I were caught in Typhoon Morakot, a low-grade typhoon against which it was
almost impossible to walk. (Our hotel shook.) I would not like to see a typhoon
that registers at the top end of the scale. Last year, at dinner in Chaiyi
City, the room suddenly moved a few inches in one direction and then, after a
few wobbles, settled back to its original position. Earthquakes, some literally
tearing large parts of Taiwan apart, are a regular feature here. I have been
here for a week, at Tzu Chi
Buddhist College of Technology (TCCN), which is
in Hualien, on the Pacific coast of Taiwan. (I’m hoping my university insurance
company agents are not reading this entry.)
With
me are my colleagues from the Wiley stable, Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FRSA, and Graeme Smith, PhD, RN, editors, respectively, of Journal of Advanced Nursing and Journal of Clinical Nursing. We have been providing
writing-for-publication seminars, workshops and consultancy sessions to
colleagues in the nursing school at TCCN. Our link with the college spans eight
years, over which time the school has significantly increased its publication
output, and not only in our journals. All three of us have also held research
grants with colleagues here and have co-authored articles with them.
|
At TCCN, Yours Truly seated at center, flanked on
my |
We prefer the long train journey between Taipei and
Hualien to the short plane journey. It is demonstrably safer (Google “Hualien
airport crash”) and takes in a large section of the
beautiful and lush Pacific coast. A free day on these journeys is rare, but
today is relatively free, and we will re-visit our “old friend” the 101,
previously the tallest building in the world. This Gothic-art deco tower never
ceases to inspire awe in terms of its symmetry and elegance. The view from the
top, accessible via an ear-popping elevator, the fastest in the world, is truly
leg wobbling, even for a rock climber.
From
Taiwan, I head to Hong Kong for one night before flying on to Sydney. In my
last entry, I stated that no visit to Taiwan is without incident and that I
would be surprised if none occurred on this trip. My problem? Which one to tell
you about.
We have
a favourite restaurant where we requested to eat. On the way from our hotel, we
screamed directions to our driver, who willfully ignored our instructions and
drove us to one of the best local hotels. It was a soulless place with a large
deserted dining room and mediocre food. Our host, completely aware of our
request to eat elsewhere, thought it better for us to eat here. The Taiwanese
are a polite, caring, and attentive people, but cultural differences run deep,
and what you receive is rarely what you ask for.
18
August 2013
SOMEWHERE
over Australia—Cathay Pacific Flight CX100 left Sydney, New South Wales (NSW),
Australia at 2 p.m. After dinner, a film, and a sleep, we are still over
Australia, nearly six hours later. This is a vast land with miles and miles of
nothing below us most of the time. I have a great fondness for most of the
countries I visit regularly. Australia, however, has a special place in my
heart.
My
family has been associated with this country for more 50 years following the
emigration of some of my family, including my grandmother, after the Second
World War. Three of my children have been here. It is hard not to like the
place. As the early morning flight to Sydney from Brisbane circled the lagoon,
clear blue water reflecting a perfect sky made me want to stay a while.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, I am on the way
to Hong Kong. After that, it’s on to the U.K. and home to family and work. I
have visited four countries in three weeks and have reported
on my visits to Ireland and Taiwan. My annual visits to Australia are due to my
part-time professorship at the University of Western Sydney, an eponymous
university that lies to the west of Sydney. It is spread over several campuses
—some of it is a long way from Sydney—and I feel lucky to be based on the
Campbelltown, NSW campus, which is relatively rural but within a short train
journey of the centre of Sydney.
June
to August is the winter season in Australia, and the early mornings were ideal
for running. There was frost on the ground and, as the sun rose revealing a
cloudless sky, I was able to explore some new parts of town. My academic
activities included teaching senior honours undergraduate students about
turning their assignments into published articles. I also presented to
colleagues on other campuses about increasing their online profile—this blog
was referred to—and about ethical issues in academic publishing.
I
especially enjoyed giving a lecture to clinical nurse consultants and other
clinical colleagues at the Nepean Hospital in Penrith, NSW, on presenting a
conference paper. Online lectures are used a lot here, on several campuses, to
teach nurses and midwives, and I make a contribution to this by providing links
to my online lectures at my own University of Hull. I used my nights alone in
the hotel to make one, especially for students here, on writing for
quantitative research. You can listen to it and hear what I sound like; don’t be too
harsh.
I
mentioned my family earlier. My final weekend in Australia was spent in
Brisbane, Queensland, where most of my cousins live. This is definitely the
best time of year to visit Brisbane, as it is only hot at the moment, as
opposed to unbearable. I paid a visit to a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)
base near Brisbane and had some fun in the cockpit of an RAAF Airbus refuelling
plane. It was still on the ground, I emphasise. I then watched the All Blacks
(New Zealand) destroy the Wallabies (Australia) at rugby union on television.
For North American readers, rugby is American football without the helmets.
Soon, I will be home to spend the rest
of October in the U.K. In September, I have several European trips planned.
Otherwise, if the weather holds, I will be climbing rocks.
13 September 2013
MUNICH,
Bavaria, Germany—“Don’t you have a gender problem?” I was asked as I sat down
to dinner in a Munich restaurant last night. I thanked the questioner—a
distinguished Austrian physician—for his concern, prodded myself in all the
appropriate places, and assured him that all was well in the gender department.
The Germans and Austrians do have a sense of humour!
What
my colleague was referring to was nursing. In German, there is no word to
denote a man in nursing. The German word for nurse—“krankenschwester”—
is a feminine noun. Spain and Italy simply had to change “enfermería”
and “infermiera,” respectively, to “-o” endings to indicate masculinity,
but this is not an option in German. Gendered nouns mostly fell into disuse in
English centuries ago so, while we tend to associate nursing with women, the
word itself is neutral.
I was in Munich to address the 47th Kongress
für Allgemeinmedizin (general practice) und
Familienmedizin (family medicine) this morning. The theme of the
conference was “Komplexität in der Allgemeinmedizin-Herausforderungen und
Chancen,” essentially “complexity in care.” I am here at the invitation
of Bernd Reuschenbach, a lecturer in psychology at Katholische
Stiftungsfachhochschule München (the Catholic
Foundation University of Munich) and Antonius Schneider, chair of general practice at Technische
Universität München. Reuschenbach is engaged here in nursing
education, and Schneider was one of the main conference organisers.
The title of my presentation was “Nurses and
doctors can and should work together.” Addressing the issues of
complexity and interprofessionalism, I tried to illustrate the advanced and
specialist roles that nurses play in some parts of Europe and the United
States. Such developments are only starting in Germany, and the
question-and-answer session was challenging, to say the least. I learned that I
should stop referring to “the UK and Europe.” as if the UK is not part of
Europe. I was asked, if nursing took over a range of advanced roles, what would
be left for doctors to do, and could nurses replace general practitioners
(family doctors).
“Of
course not,” I replied. In answer to what was left for doctors to do, I
answered, “Diagnosis, that’s what you’re trained for.”
I
thought I had gotten away with it, but someone approached me afterward to say
she was “astonished” (not in a good way) about the things happening around
interprofessional learning in the UK that I had seemingly ignored. It was maybe
a lesson to be more thorough in the future, but I also warned her that what
many people say they are doing is not, necessarily, what they are actually doing.
On a
lighter note, I was linked up to a mobile tie-clip microphone. When I visited
the washroom, the microphone was still turned on, and you can guess the rest.
Further demonstration that the Germans have a sense of humour.
23
September 2013
GENOA,
Italy—The vagaries of air travel mean I arrive here on Monday, 16 September, at
10 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. After an unexpected night in the Radisson at Manchester
Airport and an unplanned visit to Rome, I miss my first meeting. I meet my good
friend and translator, Guiseppe
Aleo, professor at the University of Genoa (Università
degli Studi di Genova), in the lobby of the hotel to catch up on what I
have missed and to plan the week ahead. I am an honorary docenti (teacher)
at the university.
Genova—for
some reason we call it Genoa—is on the Ligurian coast of Italy, where the food and wine are superb.
This was the home of Christopher Columbus—remind me again, what country did he
discover?— and Marco Polo. I have been coming here for several years to work
with colleagues in nursing at the university, in particular Loredana
Sasso and Annamaria
Bagnasco. I teach postgraduate nursing students and advise
colleagues on research and publishing in English-language academic nursing
journals.
Tuesday,
17 September
My
first full day here is spent with colleagues at the university, reviewing
several research projects underway. The range of what is being studied here is
impressive and clinically oriented. Academic nursing is relatively young in
Italy, but there are some active centres where research into nursing issues is
making great progress. Today’s meetings progress slowly, however, as I have to
work through my translator.
The
weather is superb. One of the main local news items is the righting of the
liner “Costa Concordia,” which sank nearby last year. Over
dinner, a colleague with vast knowledge of the safety systems on these ships
explains how difficult it is to sink one of these vessels.
Dinner
is in a formaggio (cheese) restaurant outside Genova. The
Ligurian coast has a backdrop of mountains, and most of the towns here seem, in
a clichéd but literal way, to “hang” off the mountains. Most remarkable is the
network of high bridges and tunnels that run parallel to the coast. Moving
along the coast, you either are looking down—vertiginously—from one of these
bridges on the regular series of roads with hairpin bends that run below to the
coastal towns, or up from those same roads. Italian driving means that the
transition between the bridges and the roads is seamless.
Wednesday,
18 September
I
spend the day with University of Genoa postgraduate research students. I meet
these students twice a year. In the past, they have listened to me lecture,
from morning until night, on a range of topics. Apart from the fact that I am
on the verge of repeating myself—some of these students have been in the group
since I started visiting here—I feel it is time to catch up with their
projects, to give me the opportunity to question them and for them to question
each other.
I work
without my translator, because the rules state that the projects are to be
presented in English. They all do very well, helping each other—and me—with the
language. The projects range from educational to clinical work. I have always
been impressed by the students’ ability to think clearly, apply best research
practice to their projects, and deal with hard questions. I am especially
heartened that they interrogate each other. Using this format, the students are
able to learn and understand what the others are doing. I would like to see
this approach adopted with my own research students and others at the
University of Hull. Several of the students are on Twitter. Gianluca
Catania and Milko
Zanini are two who are worth following.
At
dinner this evening, we discuss the Francis Report (blog passim), and it becomes evident that criticism of nursing
in the U.K. has a negative effect in countries such as Italy, where our system
of nursing education is held up as a good example of what can happen if you
educate nurses at university level. Politicians and policymakers in other
countries, opposed to raising educational standards in nursing, are quick to
cite problems in U.K. nursing.
This
evening, I am taken on an unexpected tour of the historical heart of Genoa.
Superlatives are hard to find, but this is one of the biggest surprises of my
life. Rows of palaces with relatively modest and mysterious exteriors hide
courtyards, architecture, and elaborately painted ceilings, glimpsed only
through doorways and gaps in curtains. All of these buildings are now
businesses, mainly banks. The tour ends in the historical port where the
galleon “Neptune” from Polanski’s 1986 film “Pirates” is
berthed. Many people do not recognise it and assume it to be an historical
ship, to the amusement of the Genoese.
|
The "Neptune," built to full scale for
filming of Roman Polanski's |
Thursday, 19 September
This
is my final morning with the research students, and I hear about two new
projects. The remainder of the day is spent looking at research projects with
colleagues and advising on the analysis. I am one of the few people who
regularly use Mokken scaling, a form of item response theory. Some of the
datasets being established here are suitable for analysis. I am especially
pleased that a large dataset of older people with dementia is being gathered,
including the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED) scale—translated
into Italian—which will soon be ready for analysis, at which point I will have
my first co-authored paper with Italian colleagues.
Friday,
20 September
My
final day is spent with colleagues, reviewing projects and planning potential
publications. Already, I have several short visits planned for next year, which
should give me a view of Genoa in all seasons. Combined with a planned visit to
Rome, I feel that Italy has become a firm fixture in my professional life.
I have
run here every day, building up from three to six miles over the course of
three evenings. The Corso Italiana, a tiled promenade approximately two miles
long, is ideal for this. There are many runners, walkers, and others taking
various forms of exercise, and the view of the Ligurian Sea, especially as the
sun goes down, is worth the effort. It is a great segue between the end of a
working day and the start of an excellent Italian dinner. According to my
Garmin webpage—where my runs are recorded from my GPS watch—I have burned 2,500
kilocalories in the past three days, a drop in the ocean compared to my calorie
intake over the same period.
Saturday,
21 September
On
this last morning, a last run, coffee by the coast, and a midmorning beer in
the sweltering heat before going to the airport. I reflect on the title of this
blog—a climbing term—and think how little outdoor climbing I have done this
year. Back home, the season is almost over, but I still enjoy indoor climbing
two or three times weekly with my children. As a form of exercise and mental
rest, it is unbeatable. I have a fairly busy week ahead at my own university,
then back to the airport on Saturday for a visit to Hong Kong.
A
significant piece of news is that The Lancet, one of the leading
medical journals in the world, has invited me to lead a commission into U.K.
nursing. I have accepted the invitation and am in the process of appointing
commissioners. Although the commission will focus on U.K. nursing, it will not
be completely composed of U.K. nurses. That’s all I can say for the moment, but
I will keep you up to date on progress over the next two years.
3
October 2013
Heat, humidity, and innovation
HONG
KONG—The ability of Hong Kong residents to fall asleep instantly on a train and
awaken at their station amazes me. This week, I am living in Sha Tin, in the
New Territories of Hong Kong, and commuting to Hung Hom to work at The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). The
20-minute train journey, which begins at Lo Wu, on the border with mainland
China, is packed in the mornings. Those who get a seat simply close their eyes
and sleep. Most of those standing stare at the screen of their mobile phone. I
simply cannot imagine the Far East and Southeast Asia before the mobile phone.
It is the same wherever I go in this part of the world. Whether in Japan,
Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan, the people’s dedication to mobile technology puts
even my own technology-addicted children to shame.
Hong
Kong Polytechnic University is a lively place. Recruitment days, graduations,
celebrations—there is always something happening in its concourses. In a decade
of visiting this campus, I cannot recall a time when there was not a new
building being erected. To the present, these have always been in neat red
brick. However, the most recent addition is Innovation Tower, which is drawing attention in the design
world.
Innovation
is a key word here, and it is also demonstrated in the exclusive Hotel
ICON, built by HKPU to train students of hotel management
in the environment of a five-star luxury hotel. The basement Asian buffet is
great for lunch and, over dinner, the views from the high-level Above & Beyond are fabulous. HKPU has recently entered
the Twittersphere and has been tweeting about our visit and our
seminars.
The
schedule at HKPU is heavy. I am here with my University of Hull colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, to teach in a preregistration master’s
nursing programme. But teaching here is not the same as back home. In the Far
East and Southeast Asia, it is rare for students to ask questions in class;
they would never dream of interrupting you. Instead, they queue up after the
lecture and ask questions, individually. Generating audience participation is
virtually impossible, and the most direct question is usually met with silence.
This difference in culture is one adjustment you have to make to your teaching
here; everything is very formal.
Students enrolled in the programme are all
graduates and employees of the prestigious Hong Kong Sanatorium &
Hospital. Luckily, the hospital has requested that some of
the teaching be provided by international scholars, so, for several years, we
have visited twice annually. The students are bright and challenging, with
varied academic backgrounds. They are a pleasure to teach and have no
difficulty asking questions, but always after the lecture. I was pleased to
hear from Alex Molasiotis, PhD, RN, head of the school of nursing,
that the contract has been renewed for a few years.
Mark
Hayter focuses on qualitative methods and I on quantitative methods. Therefore,
my sessions cover the concepts of measurement, study designs, and statistics. I
also give a presentation to new intakes of master’s and undergraduate students
on a systematic approach to studying anatomy and physiology. This is something
I want to work up into a more concise presentation and then publish something
to accompany it.
I have
published several books on anatomy and physiology, but I have a passion
to convey the logic of anatomy and the relationship between structure,
function, and control. As I write for my “Four
things about ...” blog, which is about a simple approach to anatomy
and physiology, I am encouraged by the number of hits (87,335). There was a
public holiday during our visit, and I used the time to revise one of my online
lectures on homeostasis, which is linked to the blog. We were both invited
to give seminars; Mark delivers one on sexual health, and mine is on activities of daily living.
The
weather is unusually warm for this time of year, and the humidity is high.
Local colleagues assure us that it is getting cooler, but running for several
miles means you end up drenched in sweat and severely dehydrated, with a core
temperature above the physiological norm. Even after a cold shower, it takes an
hour to cool down. If you arrive at a social event within that hour, you look
as if you have been swimming—fully clothed.
15
October 2013
JINAN
CITY, Shandong Province, China—If anything exemplifies the Chinese character,
it is their behaviour in elevators. Most Westerners walk to an elevator, select
a floor, and wait for things to happen. Not the Chinese. They run into
elevators, select their floor, and immediately press the “> <“ button to
close the door. Beware; in China, these buttons actually work! In the UK, they
are buttons with no obvious purpose; most of us suspect they are not connected.
So,
entering an elevator with a Chinese person in it requires rapid reactions and
split-second timing. If you are some distance from the elevator, do you run, or
do you wait? Getting that wrong could mean bruised elbows as the doors slam
shut (another feature of Chinese elevators) and little sympathy from the
occupant. If you get close to the elevator before the door slams shut, you may
have the opportunity to press the call button and retain the elevator,
incurring the wrath of the occupant or occupants.
The
Chinese seem very impatient in their daily lives; everything happens at
breakneck speed: driving, walking, speaking, eating, and thinking. To some
Westerners—this one included—it can be exhausting. Retiring to your hotel room
at night is like heaven.
But I
love the Chinese people. They fascinate and frustrate in equal measure,
something I discuss regularly with my Chinese colleagues. As the old cliché
puts it, China is a country of contradictions, and these contradictions are
everywhere.
On the
one hand, it’s a nonindividualist, collective culture where, on the other hand,
people drive with little regard for other road users. On the one hand, it’s a
health-obsessed culture where taking exercise is highly regarded and each food
is considered healthy for one spurious reason or another, this juxtaposed, on
the other hand, against astonishing levels of tobacco use and alcohol abuse
(amongst men). At a more prosaic level, Chinese adherence to modesty in dress
and sexual mores is puzzling. When using the washroom in the school, I stood at
a male urinal while the students I had been teaching (predominantly female)
stood next to me and washed their hands, as if a more-than-middle-aged gent did
not have enough problems.
Since
my last entry, I have been back to the United Kingdom to teach, supervise, and
hold meetings. I am ultimately heading for the annual meeting of the American
Academy of Nursing in Washington, D.C., but I took the opportunity to return to
the Far East to make one of many visits to Shandong University School of
Nursing. These visits are intended to promote the Journal of Advanced Nursing,
but I was asked to do some teaching and delivered a session on statistics to
Master of Nursing students.
I am always surprised to see the large bust of
Florence Nightingale in the foyer to the school; another contradiction. What
place this Western epitome of class, privilege, and Christian values has in atheist,
communist China is hard to fathom. And nobody here can explain. China remains a
communist country; students of all subjects at the university have to study
Marxism. Official dinners, such as my welcoming banquet, are attended by the
director of the School of Nursing, who is a Communist Party official. Every
school has one. On the other hand, China has a free-enterprise economy, one of
the strongest in the world, although its success is viewed here as an outcome
of communism. Outside my hotel, I saw an old man rummaging through a garbage
bin. Chinese communism/capitalism—whatever it’s called—has been successful, for
some people.
The
pollution here is very bad. Even my host admitted that Jinan is one of the most
polluted cities in China. I arrived on a warm day with the usual blue haze in
the sky. After a three-mile run near my hotel, the taste in my mouth was
terrible, my eyes were stinging, and my throat hurt. The following morning, the
rain came, and the clouds concentrated the pollution at a very low level. The
fumes literally choked me, and I got an idea of what some of the industrial
cities of England must have been like before the Clean Air Act. We have largely
lost our heavy industry, as European manufacturing has moved on a large scale
to China, the rest of the Far East, and Southeast Asia—and they are paying the
price. The rain did, however, clear the pollution for a day, and I faced a
beautiful clear morning on my third day. It felt like winter—perfect for
running—but the effect in my respiratory system was the same.
While working out a round running route through my
part of the city, I had the added pleasure of finding that, for motorcycle
users—going at, yes, breakneck speed—the distinction between the road and the
pavement intended for motorcycles is flexible. This uncertainty
was compounded by pavements suddenly giving way to unguarded storm drains and
then ending at busy junctions, with no obvious sign of a safe crossing. Next
time, I may eschew running altogether but, at least, I got mainland China on my
Garmin GPS webpage, and I intend to get the USA on the same page with runs in
Washington. D.C. and Boston over the weekend.
Great
news to end this entry! I just received an email from Rob Fast, the PA to my
good friend Dean Courtney Lyder of UCLA School of Nursing, inviting me to
dinner at 701 Pennsylvania Avenue on Friday night. Last year, this topped the
best restaurants Washington. I feel like an A-list celebrity.
28 October 2013
Looking back on the American
Academy
HULL,
United Kingdom—Ten days and 11 flights after leaving the U.K., I returned,
accompanied by a virus that floored me for four days. I hope I contracted it in
the United States and not China, where airport posters warn of the dangers of
some local strains of Avian flu.
The
first sign I was ill showed up in Boston; I nearly fainted during a five-mile
run along the Charles River. Previous runs in Washington, D.C., had gone well;
this was a struggle. But for a welcome lamppost, I would have hit the ground.
My flight home from Boston’s Logan Airport is a blur, and I hope that what I
attributed at the time to jet lag and exhaustion has not infected too many
other passengers. That was the low point of my recent round-the-world trip.
The
high point was attending the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of
Nursing and seeing colleagues being inducted into the academy. The following
pictures, all featuring Yours Truly, celebrate the event.
|
Joyce Pulcini, PhD, RN, FAAN, of
George Washington University (left) |
|
Chan (center) and Yours Truly (far right)
with Courtney Lyder, ND, FAAN, dean,
UCLA School of Nursing, Los Angeles (second from right); Rob
Fast, director of operations at UCLA School of Nursing and Lyder's
personal assistant (far left); and Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, also newly inducted
into the American Academy of Nursing. Hayter is a colleague of mine at
the University of Hull and one of the editor's of Journal of Advanced
Nursing |
|
|
|
Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, PNP-BC,
FAAN, also an editor of Journal of |
I always consider my fellowship in the American
Academy of Nursing as one my greatest honours. I was among the first
three non-U.S. citizens to be inducted in 2007, the first from the U.K. and
Europe. While international fellows have been unable—until now—to sponsor our
own fellows, I have been instrumental, most years, in successfully organising
sponsors for colleagues, including David Thompson of the Australian Catholic University
and Seamus Cowman of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Recently,
however, the academy has decided to make its growing band of international
fellows full members, charging us appropriately, but also affording us the
right to sponsor our own fellows. There was some resistance to our initial
entry, thus the two-tier membership for the past five years. Likewise, there
was some resistance to this latest move. While lamenting the full fee—I’m Scottish—I
publicly welcomed the move to full membership. I think it will increase the
number and importance of the academy’s non-U.S. fellows. My previous hope—and
efforts—to establish a forum for international fellows in the American Academy
of Nursing may now be realized.
I see
that dates for next year’s academy meeting clash with an invitation to
Australia I have already accepted. I love Washington, D.C., now the permanent
home of the academy’s annual meetings, and I will miss my 2014 visit. Anyone
who doubts what America has achieved since independence only need visit
Washington. The view of the capitol building from the National
Mall—and vice versa—is one of the most impressive in
the free world. I usually take in the White
House and nod to the occupants, walk round
the National World War II Memorial with gratitude for
our allegiance, hold back tears at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial, and “have a
dream” as I ascend the steps to the Lincoln
Memorial. I guess all this will still be there the year
after next.
18 November 2013
SINGAPORE—I
am not sure if anyone has ever died of jet lag, but if there is a theory
related to this, I am testing it to its limit. I have just made my third flight
between the U.K. and Hong Kong in a month, and, since the end of September, I
have made that journey four times with a round-the-world flight thrown in for
fun. I am back in Singapore, the source of another post exactly one year ago, where I will spend four
weeks teaching, consulting, and writing. The weather is doing its equatorial
best to wear me down, but spending most days in short trousers and
short-sleeved shirts is no hardship; I left the U.K. shivering autumnally and
preparing for winter.
Bangkok
weekend
My
first week is over. I’m pleased that my wife has joined me for most of the
first two weeks. We both have many friends in the region and none more so
than Sally Wai-Chi Chan, PhD, MSc, BSc, RTN, RMN, FAAN, outgoing
head of the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at the National
University of Singapore, and her husband, Bing Shu Cheng, who has been working
here in the Ministry of Health. We also have friends in Bangkok, and our first
weekend was spent there with Alex Aziz and his family.
Alex was one of my former students but not of
nursing. I used to be a university warden at The University of Edinburgh. The
system of wardens is one whereby academic and other staff live with their
families in university premises alongside the students. Our role is mainly
pastoral, and we are allocated one block or house of several hundred students.
Alex, who lived and worked in our residence at Edinburgh in the early 1990s,
works with the International
Labour Organisation in Bangkok, an agency of the United Nations
dedicated to improving the lives of workers across the globe. Alex actually featured
in our faculty blog when he met out mutual colleague, Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, on a visit to Bangkok.
Distinguished
editors
In
addition to me, there are two other distinguished editors on campus, and I went
to hear them speak about global health at a lunchtime seminar today. They are
Richard Horton, BSc, MB, FRCP, FMedSci, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, and
Howard Bauchner, M.D., editor-in-chief of JAMA.
These were interesting and inspiring talks; neither of these editors of two of
the world’s leading medical journals displayed any kind of medical hegemony or
superiority regarding their eminent journals.
I was interested to hear Bauchner say that JAMA received
more than 5,000 submissions annually and publishes only 5 percent of them. He
told us how his own interest in global health developed and also discussed
difficulties in defining global health. Both editors reflected on the growing
importance of noncommunicable diseases and the ethical aspects of global
health.
Horton explained his vision of global health and
how evidence for successful health initiatives could be presented to world
leaders. I was especially struck by his vision for The Lancet—that
it should be “more than a journal” and how, under some circumstances, The
Lancet has acted like an NGO (nongovernmental organisation) in trying to
influence the global health agenda and related decision-makers.
In my
next post, I’ll be reporting again from Singapore, on the forthcoming 2nd NUS-NUH International Nursing Conference,
which runs parallel with the 18th Malaysia-Singapore Nursing Conference. I am
giving a paper on research into feeding difficulty in dementia. My wife returns
to the U.K. at the end of this week after celebrating my birthday. I’ve chosen
the iconic IndoChine restaurant in Gardens
by the Bay. As I say, no hardship!
28 November 2013
SINGAPORE—I’m
still here. At this stage of any long visit, I realise that an enjoyable and
productive time will end soon, but I also want to get back home and back to my
desk at the University of Hull. Travel is always accompanied by mixed emotions.
The 2nd NUS-NUH International Nursing Conference,
which ran parallel to the 18th Malaysia-Singapore Nursing Conference, was a
great success. There were 300 delegates from 21 countries, including the United
States. I gave my short paper on feeding difficulty in dementia. There is
presently no cure for dementia, and, given the familial predisposition to the
condition and that it is definitely associated with ageing, I told the audience
that the only “cure” was to choose your parents wisely and die young. This very
morbid piece of humour always raises a laugh. I was especially pleased to
meet Theofanis (Theo) Fotis, PhD, RN, another Greek
who works at Brighton University and co-edits the British Journal of Anaesthetic and Recovery Nursing. (It
was here in Singapore that I met Alex Molasiotis, PhD, RN, for the first time.)
My
birthday night was a great success, and the Indochine restaurant in Gardens
by the Bay did not disappoint. The restaurant is
themed Indochinese, the definition of which I just learned, and the
rooftop bar has a stunning view of the gardens, the bay, and the elegant Marina
Bay Sands Hotel. On the hotel’s three curved towers stands a huge
overhanging boat-shaped platform, more than 50 storeys high. My wife let them
know it was my birthday, and a “cake” duly arrived. Made of Thai crème brûlée
with ice cream, with Happy Birthday written in chocolate sauce, it looked and
tasted superb.
In addition to the conference presentation I gave
on this trip, I have delivered seminars on writing for publication to research
students and on good practice in thesis supervision and marking
to colleagues. I also delivered the “Trends in Research and Education of
Nursing Development in Singapore” (TRENDS) seminar titled “From getting
published to getting cited.” In doing so, I discussed the use of the World Wide
Web and various kinds of online social media to increase circulation,
readership, and citation of published work. A blatant self-publicist, I gave
examples from my own use of social media, such as my
Twitter page, our faculty
Twitter page, the Journal
of Advanced Nursing Twitter page, and
several sites for tracking publications and citations, including Google 7Scholar, publicationslist.org, ResearcherID, and
ORCID. (Did I leave any out?) I also showed a YouTube video from the
excellent Social Media Revolution series on socialnomics,
written by Erik Qualman.
Next
week, I conclude my seminars with an update on Mokken scaling and some recent developments in this field.
While here, I have written and submitted a manuscript with David Thompson, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine at Australian Catholic University in
Melboure, Australia and Wenru Wang, PhD, RN, of the Alice
Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at the National University of Singapore. The
paper is about the phenomenon of Invariant Item Ordering in Mokken Scales, and
we have submitted it to PAID (Personality and Individual Differences). The
details of the study will be soporific to most readers of this blog, but I hope
it excites the editors and reviewers of PAID. I also wrote the
first draft of an article on quantitative research methods for Nursing
Standard, to be included in a special feature edited by
my fellow tweeter and good friend Leslie Gelling, PhD, RN, of Anglia
Ruskin University (Cambridge), United Kingdom.
Running continues, with difficulty. The National University of Singapore has excellent
sports facilities on campus, including a full-size running track. This is well
used by young students but not by many 58-year olds. I am sure that many of the
students are surprised I can still walk. Given that it has been 86 degrees
Fahrenheit and 91 percent humidity, I am also surprised. The effort is
tremendous, even on the flat, and it’s almost impossible to compensate for the
dehydration and salt loss. I convince myself that this is doing me some good,
and I have managed to increase my distance to six miles by incorporating a run
round the campus, nine laps of the track, and then the local park—all recorded
for posterity on my Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS watch (other brands are
available).
22 December 2013
UNITED
KINGDOM—I love Christmas, and I’m not afraid to admit it. There is the
underlying Christian message, which, along with a dwindling minority in the
U.K., I actually believe. I also like the more Victorian aspects of Christmas:
Christmas trees, Christmas cards (if my wife writes them), and Christmas Day.
Aware that many spend Christmas alone and face hardship here and across the
world, I am grateful that my family gathers together. At some point in the
holiday season, all of our eight children and five grandchildren will visit,
plus husbands, partners, friends, and a dog. I won’t answer email for a
fortnight. Initially, I suffer withdrawal symptoms and then settle down, to
emerge at the other end ready to face the next year. And next year is going to
be one of my busiest.
Looking
back on 2013
This
year has been busy, too, but not exceptional. I have been lucky to visit 13
countries outside the U.K., and past blogs recount my visits to Hong Kong, Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Australia, the United States, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. With the exception of Thailand, I have run in
each of these places, which was one of my unstated goals for the year. My
running miles on the ground this year amount to 700; my miles in the air
150,000. I am, I realise, very lucky to have the funding and freedom to do
this.
Looking
forward to 2014
A
large part of my work next year will be taken up with the United Kingdom Research Excellence
Framework (REF). A periodic exercise—recent ones, then
called Research Assessment Exercises, took place in 2001 and 2008—it is the
mechanism whereby the British government allocates core-research funding to
British universities. I serve on the subpanel for dentistry, allied health professions,
nursing, and pharmacy (subpanel 3 of main panel A), led by Hugh McKenna, CBE, FRCN, FAAN, pro-vice chancellor, research
and innovation (equivalent to a university vice president) at the University of Ulster.
McKenna
a mental-health nurse, is one of the leading U.K. academic nurses. The REF is
multifaceted, assessing research outputs (publications and patents),
environment, and impact. However, at the heart of the exercise lies peer
review, and the majority of the work is reading and rating publications for
their international excellence. This will occupy almost all my waking hours
between January and October 2014—in my office, on trains, and on planes.
I
mentioned in a previous blog that I have been asked to lead a Lancet commission
on U.K. nursing. This will take place over approximately the next two years,
and I am in the process of assembling the commissioners this week. Once they
are in place, the work of the commission can begin, and I will let you know who
my colleagues are and keep you informed of progress. Each of the people I have
contacted has received a statement from me, which is my assessment of the
situation in the United Kingdom at present, and I have made this available on my own blog.
Comments on this are welcome, as they will inform the commission.
Everyone’s
an expert
Like last year, I thought I would make it to the end of the year
without some public figure making an adverse pronouncement about nursing
education, but I was wrong. This time it was Vince Cable, MP (member of Parliament), secretary of state for business, innovation,
and skills in the British government. Cable claimed that degrees are superfluous to many jobs and, of course, he
had to include nursing. I spotted this while I was in Singapore and, just as my
blood pressure was rising, I saw that Ieuan Ellis, professor at Leeds Metropolitan University, had
responded in the pages of THE (Times
Higher Education).
I was
especially gratified at his response, titled “Sterile debate,” because Ellis speaks with authority. He is chair
of the U.K.’s Council of Deans of Health. Moreover, he is not a
nurse; he is a physiotherapist and a pro-vice chancellor at Leeds Metropolitan
University. In his response, Ellis said of Cable, “It is
unfortunate that he is seemingly unaware of the benefits to patients of nurses
being educated to degree level.” He cited a large body of work as follows: “The
international RN4CAST study of nurses in more than 10 European
countries (including England) shows that mortality is approximately 7 percent
lower for every 10 percent increase in the proportion of nurses with degrees.
This backs up work in the [United States] by University of Pennsylvania
scholar Linda Aiken, who found that a 10 percent increase in the
number of nurses with a bachelor’s degree was associated with a 5 percent
reduction in the likelihood of patients dying within 30 days of admission.”
Season's
greetings
I
would like to thank the many people who have visited this blog; I hope that
most of those who have read it will return in 2014. This is me, signing off for
2013 and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
21 January 2014
HULL, United
Kingdom—I find January a strange time of year. The previous year ends in a
frenzy of finishing things off, yet the New Year starts with just as much work
to do as ever—and with the added stress that you’re now behind by at least two
weeks.
My
editor-in-chief inbox at the Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) was full of new manuscripts to review. Clearly,
the editors had been making the most of the break and processing their
allocation of manuscripts, so my “outbox”—the one that fills up with
manuscripts ready for editing and production—is still not empty. I’m not
complaining. If there were no manuscripts, there would be no JAN.
Incidentally, if you want to know more about the editorial team of JAN,
visit our blog and scroll down to the series of pieces
called “Ten things about,” and you’ll find out about us there.
The
Lancet Commission
The
Lancet Commission is taking shape. The commissioners are appointed, and the
press has picked up the story—must have been something to do with my
well-crafted press release. I’ve been in the local newspaper, on local radio,
and in Nursing Standard. I understand the need to get information
out to the press, but I get irritated speaking to journalists. Is it just me,
or do they not understand the purpose of a press release? I feel like saying
“That’s the story; you’ve got it,”' but they insist on probing, and they always
make me feel I’m trying to hide something. I’m not afraid to say, “I don’t
know,” to a journalist, but I hate the subsequent efforts to help me find an
answer. It must be a technique they learn in journalism school. I have put up a
list of the commissioners on my new “Lancet Commission on UK Nursing” blog.
Feeding
difficulty in dementia
The
other major distraction from doing what I want—making travel arrangements and
running statistical analyses on large datasets—has been revising a grant
application to the Alzheimer's Society. The application is for a three-year PhD
studentship, and the proposed project is to take forward a line of work on
interventions for feeding difficulty in older people with dementia. This is my
second application, the first having been rejected.
Feeding
difficulty in older people with dementia has been a major interest since my
days in clinical practice. My development of the Edinburgh Feeding Difficulty in Dementia (EdFED)
scale, along with Ian Deary, PhD, FBA, at The University of Edinburgh,
opened many doors for me, none more important than that of Li-Chan Lin, PhD, of National
Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. I had the privilege of hosting
Professor Lin as a Leverhulme
Visiting Professor while I was at The University of Sheffield. She
gave an excellent lecture that was chaired by Vice-Chancellor Sir
Keith Burnett, CBE, FRS, and reported in Research Endeavours And Dissemination (READ), the nursing research bulletin. Lin and I
translated the instrument into Chinese, and it has been used as an outcome measure in her
seminal work on interventions to help older people with dementia who have
feeding difficulty.
The
interventions are based on Montessori methods and spaced retrieval, and
all evidence to date suggests that they work. My intention is to transfer the
work to the UK and develop a brief intervention. We have proof of concept, but
the intervention is time-consuming and labour-intensive. If I have attended to
the revisions to the satisfaction of the Alzheimer’s Society, I may be awarded
the grant, and you will be among the first to know.
Nursing
Open
Finally,
as if I did not have enough to do, I have agreed to be the founding editor for
a new Wiley journal called Nursing Open. The journal will be
online, open access, and pay to publish, a very different venture from JAN.
The website should be populated before my next entry, so I hope you will look
forward to learning more about Nursing Open and its team of
associate editors.
6
February 2014
All publicity is just publicity
HULL,
United Kingdom—The Lancet Commission on UK Nursing is going well, if you
consider all publicity to be good publicity. Without meaning to ignore the many
congratulations I have had on being asked to lead this and the offers of help,
it is human nature that the stream of derision on Twitter and two letters
in Nursing Standard verging on the abusive should have the
greater impact.
So,
what has upset people so much? Where do I start?
Why
another commission on nursing? Why is a “medical” journal investigating
nursing? The terms of reference are not yet published. Why is there no patient
representation? Why all academics? Why no student voice? Why so many people
from Hull? Why so few women? How have the commissioners been selected? (The
undemocratic approach has been likened to South Africa before the yoke of
apartheid was thrown off!) I think that is all, and I have no intention of
retorting—as well I am able—as these detractors know I cannot.
Moving
on. Since the initial announcement, we have added more commissioners, and we are working on the terms of reference,
which will be agreed upon soon and duly published. Without attempting to answer
my critics, I am honoured personally to have been asked by The Lancet to lead
the commission and, given that reports from The Lancet are referred to almost
daily on BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) Radio, the journal’s reach and
influence is indisputable. The organization has a well-oiled publicity machine,
and their podcasts are well worth listening to. If you have an
iPad (access via other tablets is also available), you can subscribe (free) and
download them automatically.
Nursing
Open
The
first teleconference of Nursing Open’s editorial team took place
this week. We have four associate editors, based in Australia (Allison Williams, PhD, MN), Bahrain (Seamus Cowman, PhD, FAAN, FFNMRCSI), Canada (Alex Clark, PhD, RN), and Finland (Riitta Suhonen, PhD, RN). With such an international team, these
teleconferences have to take place at a time antisocial for someone—usually me.
I have another teleconference this evening with the equally geographically
disparate team of Journal of Advanced Nursing editors.
Life is sometimes stressful and inconvenient, but never dull.
My
children have great difficulty explaining to their friends what I do, and most
attempts end with a question to me: “Dad, what exactly is it that you do?” For
the second time in this entry, where do I start?
22 February 2014
Hong
Kong SAR, China—My first 2014 visit to Hong Kong was busy, mainly because so
many other UK nursing academics were here. The list included: Hugh McKenna, CBE, PhD, FRCN, FAAN, pro-vice-chancellor
(research and innovation), University of Ulster, UK; Dame Jill Macleod Clark, DBE, PhD, FRCN, professor of nursing,
University of Southampton, UK; and Dawn Freshwater, PhD, RN, pro-vice-chancellor, University of
Leeds, UK (soon to become deputy vice-chancellor, University of Western Australia).
McKenna chairs the Research Excellence Framework’s subpanel for dentistry,
allied health professions, nursing, and pharmacy, on which Macleod Clark,
Freshwater, and I sit, and McKenna and Macleod Clark will serve on The Lancet
Commission on UK Nursing, which I will chair. It’s a very small world.
Of course, we had to have dinner, and we were
joined at Felix, one of Hong Kong’s most exclusive “high-level”
restaurants (located at the tower atop world-famous Peninsula Hotel), by Kay
Jones, MBA, chief operating officer, School of Health Sciences, City University
London, UK, and Philip Esterhuizen, PhD, RN, lecturer in adult nursing,
University of Leeds. The view over the harbour to Hong Kong island is
eye-watering, the food to die for (I don’t think I have ever used that
expression before), and the service unobtrusive and immaculate. The washrooms
are a triumph, with surprises for both genders (best Googled rather than
explained).
Amidst
all this luxury dining and fun, this impromptu type of meeting, which involves
colleagues who are as busy or more busy than me, is crucial. We have to take
these opportunities, as nobody else provides them. Held without agenda, aims,
or objectives, they are the most productive. Untrammelled by organisational
issues, hierarchy, or the need to list tangible, bean-counting outcomes, such
as how does this benefit my university, these gatherings are the time to
discuss the state of nursing, the future of nursing, and who we need to
cultivate. Of course, the Chatham House Rule applies, and what is said by whom at
these tables stays at these tables.
Once
again, I was in Hong Kong with Mark Hayter, PhD, FRSA, FAAN, my colleague from Hull and
fellow editor of Journal of Advanced Nursing. Although we were
teaching and consulting at Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, our time here allows us to set up lunches
and dinners with key people in the SAR (Special Administrative Region) and to
extend the influence of our own work with the Journal of Advanced
Nursing and the University of Hull. We also took time while in Hong
Kong to meet Linda Sim, manager of the Marco Polo Club, the frequent-flyer
privileges club associated with Cathay Pacific Airways. We dined at Hutong,
another high level Chinese restaurant overlooking Hong Kong harbour, and were
joined by Graeme Smith, PhD, RN, professor of nursing at Edinburgh Napier
University, UK, and editor of Journal of Clinical Nursing, based in Hong Kong.
Recognition
at last
This
month, Alzheimer’s
Disease International published a report, Nutrition and Dementia, in which my work on
the development of the Edinburgh
Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED) scale is
cited. I was very pleased to see this, as it may increase the use of the EdFED
and stimulate further research. It also reminded me how grateful I am for
long-standing collaborations in the development and application of the EdFED,
especially with Ian Deary, PhD, FRSE, FBA, professor, The University of
Edinburgh, UK, and Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, professor, National Yang-Ming
University, Taipei, Taiwan.
While
in Hong Kong, I resided out in the New Territories, to the North of Hong Kong,
where I found a running route along the reservoir in Sha Tin. It was cold this
time of year and humid—not ideal for running, but still a great way to start
the day and to register another 20 miles over five days in my wife-imposed
half-marathon training program me.
1
March 2014
HULL,
United Kingdom—I have just returned from a week in Genoa (Genova to the locals)
in the Ligurian region of Italy, on the country’s northwest coast. Once again,
I taught research students at the University of Genova and liaised with collaborators about
various research and writing projects. My colleagues there have translated
the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia scale
into Italian, and I was helping them test its psychometric properties. This
provides me with another database on which to run my own beloved method
of Mokken scaling. The sample size is small, but the results are
promising and point, as does most psychometric work, to the need for a larger
sample. We should get a preliminary publication out of this work.
The
most important nursing paper in Europe
I said it was a good week for nursing, and I was
referring to the publication last week of a paper by Aiken et al. titled “Nurse staffing and education and hospital mortality in nine European
countries: a retrospective observational study.” (Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, Claire M. Fagin Leadership
Professor in Nursing, professor of sociology, and director of the Center for
Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania, USA, is on the
Lancet Commission on UK Nursing, which I will chair, as is another co-author of
the paper, Anne Marie Rafferty, PhD, CBE, PhD, FRCN, chair of nursing
policy, King’s College London, UK.) The paper, published in The Lancet,
is one outcome of the RN4CAST study and, in addition to showing the effect
of inadequate staffing levels on failure to rescue patients, shows—clearly—the
benefit of degree-level education for nurses.
Alvisa Palese, MNS, BMS, RN, associate professor, Udine
University, Italy, and I were among referees of the Aiken et al. paper, and we
published a comment in The Lancet alongside it.
I am pleased to have played a small part in such a seminal paper, a document
many of us hope will have a profound influence on European nursing education
and practice. Watch for further correspondence in the pages of The
Lancet. My Italian colleagues have already submitted a letter and some
“heavyweights” in Canadian, U.K., and Australian nursing are “limbering up.”
(They emailed me the morning before I left Genoa.)
It has
also been a good week for nursing in Italy. I’m a bit late with this news, but
the first six nursing academics have just been given licences for employment as
full professors. (I was able to confirm the numbers just this week.) Until now,
nursing academics have been promoted only to the level of associate professor.
It especially pleases me that Alvisa Palese, my good friend, colleague,
and—ironically—research student, is one of the six.
The
Italian process for appointing senior academics is national and very rigorous.
A committee—the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN)—makes annual
judgments on the basis of individual applications. Although I am one of an
international panel of assessors for the ASN, I was not involved in this last
round. The primary “unit of currency” for promotion is publications, and these
must be in refereed journals with an international reputation. Those with
impact factors are at the top of the hierarchy.
There
is worrying news that the ASN is going to make future recommendations on the
basis of an individual’s h-index, and there is a rumour that an h-index of 23
will be the requirement. I have been consulted by Italian nursing academics and
organisations about this, because the h-index is something about which I have written. My view on the use of h-indices per se is that
caution should be exercised. Moreover, I think an h-index requirement of 23 is
ludicrous. Few academics attain that level, and it is especially the case that
few nurses have attained it, or will. I’m glad to say I have, but
only after a 16-year professorial career.
Next
ports of call
Next
week, I will be in Belfast to sit on the validation panel of a nursing
programme at the University of Ulster, and I have dinner booked with Hugh McKenna, CBE, PhD, FRCN, FAAN, pro vice-chancellor,
University of Ulster, UK. Later this month, I go to Basel for a long weekend to
discuss issues that face nursing globally with Hester Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, RM, FANSA, president of the Honor
Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, and a select group of
colleagues. We’ll be meeting under the umbrella of GAPFON (Global Advisory Panel on the Future of
Nursing).
I put
more than 20 Genovese miles on my Garmin GPS watch, and I plan to add Northern
Ireland and Switzerland for the first time this year. My 19-year-old son just
broke 20 minutes for the first time in our local 5-kilometre parkrun race.
Pressure to perform in my family is terrific, but what I like most is that none
of my children—most of whom are runners and climbers—expect me to do any worse
than they do. For your information, my fastest 5 kilometres is 21 minutes 38
seconds, and that was last year when I was a young man of 57. I am now 58 and
have not broken 22 minutes this year, but I’m working on it.
10 March 2014
HULL,
United Kingdom—Wherever I go, cabbies (a UK expression for taxi or cab drivers)
are never backwards at coming forwards with their views, whether in London,
Dublin, Washington, D.C., or my hometown of Hull. Race, religion, or
politics—no subject is off the agenda, and they tend not to care what your
views are; only giving you theirs. I have twice had vociferous views on nursing
expressed to me, always with frank disgust at the thought of nurses going to
university.
Many
years ago—1999 to be precise—I was the first professor of nursing in Ireland
and part of a government committee charged with the task of establishing
nursing degrees in that country. While en route from the Dublin airport to my
apartment, the taxi driver asked what I did. I told him, and he “let fly” with
a stream of invective about the move of Irish nursing education into
universities. I thanked him for his views and took a mental note never again to
tell a taxi driver what I did, exactly.
However,
this week, on my way home from the railway station, lulled by a false sense of
security, I told a taxi driver my occupation—and promptly regretted it. He had,
at one time, worked as a nursing auxiliary, and his view was that everything
nursing stood for had been lost with the move of “nurse training” into
universities. My mind drifted to gratitude for that “loss.” I,
too, used to be a nursing auxiliary, and I recall patients tied to chairs; tea,
sugar, and milk being served in the same pot; medicines being forced on
patients; and stealing from clinical areas on an industrial scale. But I kept
quiet; I just wanted to get home to bed.
I have
decided to inaugurate a new test—the “cabbie test.” Cabbies seem to be a
barometer for the extremes of public opinion, and the opinion expressed by my
drivers is not uncommon amongst the UK public. I rarely meet anyone who is glad
about nurses being educated in universities, and I reckon that, even if public
opinion were changed, we could not be sure it was permanent until a taxi driver
asked what I did and then expressed support for university-educated nurses.
When that day comes, if ever, I’ll know that a major milestone for the image of
nursing has been achieved.
Running and climbing
I
mentioned in my last entry that, for months, I had not broken 22 minutes in the
local Saturday-morning 5 kilometre race. Well, last weekend I achieved a time
of 21 minutes and 2 seconds, beating my daughter, who is an army physical-training
instructor. Competitive or what! I now have 21 minutes in my sights, and, since
Christmas 2013, have put the first 1,000 miles on my GPS watch.
My
oldest daughter is a rock climber, and she borrowed some equipment from me this
weekend to do some real climbing. During these cold, wet months, we mainly
climb indoors, but my daughter—a cardiothoracic intensive-care nurse—is clearly
getting outdoors. I’m keen to follow. A day on the rocks, with its unique
combination of pain and terror, is one of the best forms of meditation
available. It will take my mind off cabbies.
19 March 2014
HULL,
United Kingdom—My next entry was to be from Basel—a report on fresh Swiss
mountain air and a Who’s Who? of global nursing personalities. And then
something annoyed me.
My
wife got to the Sunday Telegraph (14 March 2014) the weekend
before I did, taking great interest in an interview with Angela
Rippon. Rippon is one of our national treasures: the
first female newsreader on U.K. television and a former dancer who took the
nation by surprise with a famous routine in a 1976 Christmas comedy special of
the duo Morecambe and Wise. Now she fronts the occasional television
special and co-chairs the dementia friendly communities champion group,
something she became interested in after her mother died with dementia.
Although my wife gave me some snippets from the interview, she failed—on the
basis that she did not want Sunday spoiled—to read out the following quote
(page 23): “Nurses themselves say that everything changed when nurses were
learning in a university lecture hall, and not in the ward with hands-on
practice. Because they trained on wards, they had contact with patients all the
time.”
I had
to take some time to catch my breath after typing the above; I nearly stopped
breathing on Sunday. I am astonished by how ignorant some people are about
nursing education and how ready they are to blame the ills on university
education. Everything is not perfect; in fact, much is wrong. But pointing the
finger at something that took place at a time when things, allegedly, got worse
is simply irresponsible.
Since
the halcyon days of nursing care by good-hearted angels of mercy called to the
profession by God, or because they were not clever enough for medical school,
so many things have changed—in the U.K. National Health Service, in the profile
of patients in hospital and at home, and in our society. Of course, public
figures often live in an evidence-free zone where they use their opinions to
first convince themselves and, then, by taking every opportunity to air those
opinions, to convince others, with each utterance making them more sure they
are correct.
Linda Aiken et al.’s recent Lancet paper demonstrates
the worth of graduate education for nurses. I doubt that Angela Rippon has read
it, would read it, or would change her mind if she did read it. However, the
most obvious error in the argument against university-educated nurses is that
they do all their learning in a lecture hall. Note how “lecture hall”—as
opposed to “classroom”—is often used pejoratively in these arguments, as
lecture halls represent the epitome of a university education. The argument is
wrong, because nursing students have always, demonstrably, spent 50 percent of
their time in clinical practice. This was emphasised recently by the U.K.
Nursing and Midwifery Council in response to the Francis Report on appalling
standards of care in one U.K. National Health Service Trust.
OK,
relax!
Good
things continue to happen. Despite my present workload, my first loves—data
analysis and writing—have not been neglected.
I,
together with my good colleagues, David R. Thompson, PhD, FRCN, FAAN, of Australian Catholic
University in Melbourne, and Wenru Wang, PhD, RN, of National University of Singapore,
submitted a manuscript to Personality and Individual Differences (PAID) on the scale properties of the Mental Health Inventory. It contained a warning
about the phenomenon of invariant item ordering, a desirable property
of scales whereby the way in which the scale orders people is the same as the
order in which they respond to the questions. Still with me?
The
initial response from reviewers was longer than the submitted manuscript.
However, we received some expert help on person-item
fit statistics from Rob R.
Meijer, PhD, professor of psychometric and statistical
techniques at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and it has just
been accepted for publication. The next paper, using the quality-of-life SF-36 scale will
address some problems associated with local stochastic independence of items in
questionnaires. It’s all fascinating stuff about which I love to talk, but I
wonder why people avoid me in the coffee room?
30
March 2014
HULL,
United Kingdom—I have just returned from Switzerland, from the inaugural
meeting of GAPFON (Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing). It was a
privilege to be there. Established by Hester Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, FANSA, president of the Honor
Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), GAPFON is
chaired by Martha Hill, PhD, RN, FAAN, immediate past dean and professor,
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (USA). The meeting was attended
by Patricia ‘Pat’ Thompson, EdD, RN, FAAN, chief
executive officer of STTI, a glittering host of global nursing stars … and me!
The full list of participants is available in this news article in Reflections on Nursing Leadership,
and the work of the panel will become public through various events across the
world over the next two years. I intend that the Lancet
Commission on UK Nursing will work very closely with GAPFON.
GAPFON
was held near Basel in the idyllic town of Mariastein, a
Catholic Marian grotto owned and run by the Benedictine brothers and Franciscan
sisters. Mariastein means “Maria in the stone,” in honour of reported miracles in which
the Virgin Mary was said to have protected children who fell down a cliff and
escaped injury. In observance of those events, a statue of the Virgin was
placed in a nearby grotto.
We
were accommodated in the Hotel Kurhaus Kreuz, and it was the ideal venue for a few days
of peace with time to think and begin planning for the future of nursing
globally. We were in the mountains, the sun shone every day, and the scenery
was beautiful. Apart from the slightly thin air—my excuse for a pounding heart
and heaving chest—and the frequent hills in the road, this was an ideal running
spot. There was hardly any traffic on the roads, and, on my second run, I left
Switzerland and ran into France for around 10 miles. It was the first time I
registered two countries on my Garmin webpage on the same day.
Next week I will be in London for the Research Excellence Framework subpanel
meeting, and the rest of the week I will be in Glasgow at the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom International Nursing
Research Conference. I look forward to hearing about the latest
nursing research, meeting old friends, co-presenting on the use of social media
in nursing, and launching Nursing Open.
7
April 2014
HULL,
United Kingdom—Last week I was in London at a Research Excellence Framework subpanel
meeting and then in Glasgow at the 2014 Annual International Nursing Research Congress,
sponsored by the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom. In Glasgow, I
launched, together with Wiley colleagues, Nursing Open with a huge cake bearing a facsimile of
the journal’s cover. I have not had my name on a cake since my childhood birthdays.
The
conference was very good. I spent the first day in the registration and
exhibition hall, where I was able to do some very valuable networking, catch up
with old friends and colleagues, and answer questions about Nursing
Open and Journal of Advanced Nursing. At the end of the day,
I co-presented a workshop on the use of social networking in nursing. Led by my
good friend Alison Twycross, PhD, RN, head of Department for Children’s
Nursing, London South Bank University, and my new friend, Calvin Moorley, PhD, RN, senior lecturer, London South Bank
University (we had only previously met on Twitter), the workshop was well
attended and generated a good discussion.
The
evening began with a reception at the magnificent Glasgow City Chambers, followed by dinner
with Wiley colleagues at Glasgow’s excellent Urban
Bar and Brasserie. I had black pudding starter and haggis sausages,
and you probably don’t want to know what either of these Scottish delicacies
contain.
On my
second day, I lined up some research sessions to attend, and I was not
disappointed. I gravitate towards sessions on quantitative research, and there
were some excellent methodological sessions on Rasch
analysis, questionnaire development, and stress and burnout
in nursing. In particular, I enjoyed meeting Nina Geuens, PhD student, Karel de Grote-Hogeschool,
Belgium, and her supervisor, Erick
Franck, professor in applied psychology in health care,
Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. My long journey home by train was filled with
thoughts of the Sheffield half marathon I was due to run on Sunday, 6 April,
which brings me to Part 2 of this entry.
Rebel runners
My
early mornings in London and Glasgow were taken up with final preparatory runs.
I followed a very strict half-marathon training programme by Hal Higdon. As
my children would say, I was “up for it.” If you Google “Sheffield half
marathon” or, on Twitter, go to “#sheffieldhalfmarathon” or “#rebelrunners,”
you will immediately see what an interesting day this turned out to be.
My
wife and I arrived at the starting line, along with more than 5,000 others, at
the appointed time and were then held there for 50 minutes without explanation.
Rumours abounded but, as it turned out, insufficient water had been supplied
for the number of runners involved and, at 9:50 a.m., the run was cancelled.
What followed will go down in running history. A predominantly middle-class,
law-abiding crowd of runners expressed its disgust the only way we could: We
started running, and the police were unable to stop us. I don’t advocate civil
or any other kind of disobedience, but this was one of the most moving events
of my life. I think Mahatma Ghandi would have been very proud of us.
The
general public of Sheffield, which had waited for more than an hour to watch us
run, went into their houses, food shops, and coffee bars and emptied fridges
and cupboards of all the bottles of water they could find. There were bottles
of water on the top of parked cars and runners—normally a selfish and
competitive bunch—were handing half-finished bottles to other runners. Where
the official water stands were closed by race officials, people stood nearby
handing out bottles and paper cups, along with the runners’ best friend: Jelly
Babies. These incredible, high calorie-sweets are made in
Sheffield, and they are exactly what you need halfway round a long route. If
you eat them when you are not taking exercise, the sugar high that results is
unique.
Did I hear you ask how we fared in the race? Well,
my wife dropped out, as she has to save herself for official
races and has another one coming up soon. When I realised that the police had
backed down and saw that the crowd of runners was beginning to snake its way
through the town, I decided to complete the course, which was my first
half-marathon. I enjoyed the first 10 miles but realised, at that point, that
my plan for a fast final three miles was not going to happen. By 11 miles, I
was considering ending it all by jumping into the oncoming traffic and, at 12
miles, had it not been for my wife and sister-in-law shouting my name, I might
have knelt down and cried. But I carried on to the finish line and was glad to
see that the organisers had decided to stay and hand out running vests, water,
and medals.
My
ambition was twofold: to remain standing at the end and to complete the run
within two hours. My time: 1 hour, 47 minutes and 28 seconds and, with wobbly
legs and bleeding nipples (exceedingly painful), I was still standing. Some
might consider my inability to speak for a considerable length of time another
positive result.
2 May
2014
I was
in Rome again this week to attend a conference. I missed by one day the 4
million visitors who were here for the double papal canonisation (Pope John
XXIII and Pope John Paul II) on 23 April in St. Peter's Square. To
non-Catholics, these events are unfathomable, and the ordinary “Catholic in the
street” would have difficulty explaining the criteria, the significance, and
the effect, if any, on their lives. As one of them, I won’t try to enlighten
you.
The
weather in Rome was a pleasant change from the U.K., where we are still having
subzero Centigrade nights and the garden (the “yard”) is still a place to be
endured rather than enjoyed. The conference, held in the Italian Ministero
della Saluta (Ministry of Health), was run under the auspices of IPASVI (Nursing
Board of Rome) and showcased the work of the Centre of Excellence for the
Development of Nursing Research.
The
research theme focused on the importance of nurses in feeding patients and
contributing to health, and Gennaro
Rocco, president of IPASVI, outlined the work of the
centre. Since 2010, they have produced an impressive 82 publications from 48
funded projects, a great many in top journals and most in collaboration with
other disciplines. Italian colleagues bemoan the poor state of academic nursing
in Italy. I know everything is not perfect, but something seems to be working,
and this is largely due to President Rocco.
The
location of my accommodation was not ideal for running, but I managed to piece
together two 3-mile runs early in the morning. Following my first half-marathon
(see previous entry), I realised I was not as fit as I thought I
was. So, I’ve been studying Run Fast: How to Beat Your Best Time—Every Time, by
Hal Higden, and learning the difference between repeats and intervals—not the
same thing—and what “fartlek” training is. If you sniggered at fartlek, go to
the back of the class. It’s a real word; Google it.
Another
review of UK nursing
I
tried, without success, to take some days off at Easter, but, at least, I was
mainly able to work at home. Once again, just when I thought it safe to read
the newspapers without risk of stroke or heart attack, I see another review of nursing education has been commissioned by
the U.K. government. The review will be led by Lord Willis, who led a commission on behalf of the Royal
College of Nursing a few years ago. That commission looked at preregistration
nursing education and came to the conclusion that there is no evidence that
being an educated nurse means you are an uncaring nurse. It seems that this new
commission will review all aspects of nursing education with a view to
recruiting into nursing older candidates with the “right attitude.”
This
strays into the territory of the Lancet Commission I will be leading, which I do not mind,
but this newly commissioned review begins with the premise that there is a
problem—that nurses are not caring enough and that they have little regard for patient
dignity. These things may be true, but I am determined that the Lancet
Commission is distinguished by the fact that it is not out to solve problems.
It does not start from the premise that there is a problem—we
don't deny there may be one. Instead, we want to see—whatever
the current state of nursing—how best we can prepare nurses from registration
throughout their careers to meet the challenges of the next 20 to 30 years.
Bad
news
I
mentioned in a previous entry that I was revising a research grant application
for the Alzheimer’s Society. The proposal was duly revised, resubmitted,
and rejected. I have never expressed irritation to a grant-awarding body in the
past, but I did this time on the basis that I considered they had wasted my
time. Everyone feels angry and let down when a research proposal representing
months of works and investment of time and hope is rejected, but the task I was
given was huge and the space in which it could be accomplished a challenge, and
I failed—apparently. Back to the proverbial drawing board.
On the
bright side, I have had several papers published, the most recent being one
where, along with my co-authors David R Thompson, PhD, FAAN, Wenru Wang, PhD, RN, and Rob R.
Meijer, PhD, we looked at issues affecting measurement of
a property called invariant item ordering in the Mental Health Inventory. It
was published in Personality and Individual Differences. Reviewer comments were
extensive and very helpful, and, in the process of revision, we were asked to
consider something that was new to me—person-item
fit (PIF).
I
contacted my Mokken scaling colleague Rob Meijer in the Netherlands, who has
written about this. It just happened that he was developing software to analyse
the kind of data I was looking at. In fact, he ran it for me and joined in
authorship of the paper. Since then, his colleague Jorge
Tendeiro, PhD, provided me with a link to the software and
the syntax to run it.
They
also provided me with a draft article (“Practical Guide to Check the
Consistency of Item Response Patterns in Clinical Research through Person-Fit
Statistics: Examples and a Computer Program”) they wrote for people like me who
may not, unlike them, have the programming and statistical knowledge to do
these things without a lot of help. In fact, the paper quoted what I said to
Meijer when I read one of his papers on PIF: “I have read the 2001 paper;
frankly, most of this is beyond me and Google is not much help.” My ignorance
has spurred a paper, and I was glad to be of service.
27 May
2014
Finland to United Kingdom to Bahrain
MANAMA,
Bahrain—There could be no greater contrast than between the lush greenness and
clean air of Finland and the scorched, dehydrated, and dusty landscape of
Bahrain. That contrast is even more striking when you have only 24 hours
between the two places with a very short visit home. The visit home was even
shorter than planned, due to being stranded in Helsinki by one airline, having
to transfer to another airline and another city in the UK, and finding my way
home after public transport was closed. Such are the joys of international
travelling, which some look upon in envy. As ever, I thoroughly enjoy what I do
around the world, but the process of getting there can be tedious.
Finland
I was
in Turku, as I was last year at this time, to give sessions on
writing for publication to postgraduate research students at the University
of Turku. This time, it was a Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) show,
as I was with fellow editor and Hull colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, FAAN, professor of sexual and reproductive
health at the University of Hull. The sessions were enjoyable, and the students
interacted well.
The
weather was fantastic, the food excellent, and it is always good to catch up
with international colleagues. If there is a link between Turku and Bahrain, it
is the open-access journal I edit, Nursing Open. One of the editors, Riitta Suhonen, PhD, RN, works in Turku, and, here in Bahrain, I
am with Seamus Cowman, PhD, FAAN, who is now head of nursing at RCSI Bahrain,
affiliated with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Cowman is
another editor of Nursing Open and, incidentally, the first Irish nurse to be
elected a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Bahrain
Bahrain
continues to develop since my previous visit and, despite the desiccated landscape and
dusty Middle Eastern backdrop, it has paradisiacal elements as land is
reclaimed along the coast and small, exclusive communities emerge. I should be
used to living in hotels—not all of which are five-star, believe me—but the
luxury of the Gulf Hotel, Bahrain, and the tranquility and service of its
Platinum Club provide an insight into a lifestyle that, but for generous hosts,
I will never be able to afford. The dilemma is: Do you eschew it for fear of
getting used to it and missing it; or do you indulge, knowing it will rarely be
on offer again? As I stare out over the night lights of Bahrain from the top
floor of the hotel and the waitress pours me another (free) drink, I think you
see how I solved the dilemma. I’m going to miss this one day!
The
purpose of my visit to Bahrain is to work as an external examiner on the
master’s in nursing programme at the RCSI. I examine the same programme in
Dublin, and part of the job is to ensure that the same standards are applied in
both locations, on behalf of the RCSI and on behalf of the National University
of Ireland, which is the degree-awarding body.
The Nursing
Open theme continues, as one of the editorial board members, Catherine McCabe, PhD,
RN, assistant professor, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, arrives today in her
capacity as external examiner for the undergraduate nursing programme. I am
very pleased that my contract has been extended for another year and that I
will also be starting as an examiner next month at Sultan Qaboos University,
Oman. By sheer coincidence, my fellow examiner is none other than Cowman from
RCSI. The Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), is
represented here by the relatively newly formed Rufaida
Honor Nursing Society, which is seeking to become a full chapter of
STTI. Catherine O'Neill, senior lecturer, RCSI Bahrain, played a major role in
establishing it, along with local colleagues.
Running,
climbing, and football
My
efforts to get out on the rocks are being thwarted by an inordinate amount of
travel, both in and out of the United Kingdom. This is probably the busiest
year of my life. However, I continue to train indoors, and combine rock
climbing with running. Finland was a joy to run in, but my 0530 run today in 30
degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) to avoid the sun, had me almost at my
physiological limits. I don’t understand why this should make your legs feel as
if they had lead weights attached. In addition, the expatriate workers waiting
for their transport to work shared incredulous looks as I panted past. To make
a living, they are forced to work in this heat. I could be in bed in an
air-conditioned room.
Finally,
the UK football (soccer) season has ended, and the highlight of the English
season, the Football Association (FA) Cup included, for the
first time in the club’s 110-year history “The Tigers,” my
local Hull City team. The match was played at Wembley, the
90,000-seat national football stadium in North London. The opposition was the
mighty Arsenal, a North London club, and 25,000 of us made the journey
south to watch the game, including the three Watsons pictured.
We
lost, but only after taking a 2-0 lead and taking them into a period of extra
time. Nobody expected that, and I think we were happier than the Arsenal fans.
We stayed to see Prince William award the FA Cup runners-up medals and
departed, elated. My voice took a week to recover, and I look back on what was,
surely, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
16 June 2014
HONG
KONG, SAR, China—I am always happy to visit a new country, and, last week, I
was in Oman for the first time. I was examining at the College of Nursing at Sultan Qaboos University in
Muscat. Muscat, located on the northeast coast of Oman, faces the Gulf of
Oman, which separates the Persian Gulf to the north from the Arabian Sea to the
south.
I have
to stoop to superlatives to describe the weather. The temperature was over 50
degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), with humidity that exceeded anything I have
experienced in the Far East and Southeast Asia. Leaving any air-conditioned building
was like being hit in the face with a wet, warm sponge. One evening, at an
outdoor cocktail party, I decided to check my phone for messages, and the
phone, which had been in my air-conditioned room for hours, simply started
dripping with water. I survived and even managed to run, at 0530, but my GPS
watch was a victim of the humidity and stopped working—permanently.
Sultan Qaboos
Sultan
Qaboos University is enormous and located on the same campus as Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH). Together,
they serve as a major centre of medical and nursing education for the
region. My own University of Hull has a long-standing relationship with
both the College of Nursing and the hospital. One of my colleagues at Hull was
a recent examiner at SQUH; colleagues from SQUH visit Hull and our local
hospitals—my daughter has looked after them on the local cardiothoracic
intensive care unit; and, over the next few years, we plan to take several
cohorts of staff members into our post-registration, undergraduate degree
program me.
In
Oman, I met members of a recent delegation to Hull, who enthused about the
personal and detailed care they received while at Hull. Although they visited
many centres in the UK, they chose us because of our hospitality—crucial in
Arab culture—and we have my colleague, Jeremy Jolley, PhD, RN, international coordinator, to thank for
this. Jeremy preceded me as examiner at the Sultan Qaboos University College of
Nursing, and his legendary sense of humour and easy way with international
colleagues meant I had a lot to live up to. I don’t yet know if I passed the
test, but will conclude I did if I am invited back.
New
friends
I was
not examining alone; I was reunited with my colleague from Bahrain, Seamus Cowman, PhD, RN, FAAN, head of nursing at the Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland–Medical University of Bahrain. Also, I was
delighted to meet, for the first time, Marilyn
Lotas, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor, Frances Payne
Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio,
USA, and Shadia Yousuf, PhD, RN, assistant professor, King Abdulaziz
University Faculty of Nursing, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who gave me news about two
of my previous PhD students, now working in Jeddah.
We
examined the students in the clinical areas, presenting patient cases and
interacting with patients, and following up with a series of very demanding
oral examinations. We do nothing like this in the United Kingdom and, while I
questioned the value and sustainability of some of the examination procedures
(suitable for small numbers but probably unworkable for large numbers), I also
wondered if we were not a bit “soft” on our own students.
Hong Kong … again
I
returned to the UK for a day to remind my wife and family what I look like and
then left for Hong Kong. This week, I am working for the University
Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region (SAR). Specifically, I am serving on the humanities and social sciences
committee, reviewing research grant proposals related to health.
I know Hong Kong well and have many friends and
colleagues to see. Last night, I went to one of the best places here to get a
haircut, the YMCA Salisbury Hotel. If your image of the YMCA
is one of old sports halls with table tennis, pool, and a song by Village
People, think again. The YMCA has two very good hotels
here, and I often use them. In a few weeks, on the way back from Australia, I
will be staying at one of them with my 15-year-old daughter.
The
haircut at the YMCA reminds me of one of my funniest moments in Hong Kong. The
first time I decided to have my hair cut there, I went in and an older Hong
Kong lady was sweeping the hair from the floor. Nobody else was there. I asked
about a haircut and, with no English, she pointed to me to sit down and
proceeded to cut my hair—very well. I asked about the cost, and she said “one
hundred dolla’,” meaning HK$100, which I gave her. She put the note in her
pocket, and I thought no more about it until my next visit a few weeks later.
The lady was still sweeping the floor, but there was also a young man there,
who proceeded to cut my hair. At the end, I took out a HK$100 note and handed
it to him. “No,” he said. ‘You must pay at the shop,” and handed me a bill for
HK$110. I stole a glance at the hair-sweeping lady on the way out. I think I
saw her smiling!
8 July 2014
Working on the Italian Riviera
HULL,
United Kingdom—Last week, I made my third visit to Italy and my second to
Genova this year. It is a pleasure to visit that historic and beautifully
situated city. The weather was superb and, despite a classic running injury—plantar fasciitis—I managed two 10K runs along the two-mile
esplanade called the Corso Italia. I had to make several loops but, because the sea
was clear and blue and the sun was shining, this was no hardship.
You do
not have to go far to experience a different culture, and this became evident
in three incidents in which I was a customer—in two restaurants and a shop.
In the
first incident, I took a table, asked the waiter for a beer, and, just as I
began to say, “and could I see the menu?” was berated for my ignorance. This
was not a bar, he informed me, but a restaurant. If I wanted a beer, I should
go next door to the bar. I stood up, shrugged my shoulders, and walked out.
I then
tried to buy some gelato and liked the look of the yogurt-flavoured variety. My
idea of the perfect ice cream is one with no “bits” in it, or any other kind of
adulteration. The vendor—who sensed I was not local—simply looked at me and
told the person next to me in the queue that I ought to be trying something more
typical of Italy or Sicily, from where he originated. So I pointed to some
brightly coloured bitty concoction at the back of the display, which he seemed
happy to serve me. I left muttering loudly, “So why do you have the
yogurt-flavoured gelato?” And the one I bought was truly terrible. I made a
mental note that, within a short time of my arrival, at least one restaurant
and one shop were out of bounds in the future.
The
final incident involved me buying coffee—which I did not want—after dinner,
albeit I was able to have decaf. The coffee was “special,” explained the
proprietor. It was made with limoncello, a highly alcoholic lemon
drink. The coffee was terrible, too! But the restaurant was very good and an
interesting place—a former, and I emphasise “former,” house of ill repute. (I
can see the tweet now: Travelling professor visits a brothel.) I’ll say no more
than that because, although the establishment’s mission had drifted, the decor
remained what I imagine—I emphasise imagine—what one of those
places may have looked like.
The
University of Genova
I was
not in Genova to report on local hostelries but to work for a few days at the
University of Genova. I met PhD students to teach and discuss various aspects
of research, including writing for publication. This time, I gave three
sessions—open access publishing, impact factor, and the process of proceeding
from data to published paper. While there, I also spent time with colleagues,
advising on their research and publication strategies and looking for areas of
common interest with our research at Hull.
One
specific area of interest in health promotion is related to avoidance of
melanoma, and the vast layers of seminaked bodies on the beaches of Genova
suggest they may have a significant melanoma problem in Italy. In Australia, to
cite one example, sunbathing, though not eliminated, has become almost a thing
of the past. People there are very “sun-safe,” using clothing and protective
creams to good effect. Italians have not yet gotten the message. Why we have such
an interest in melanoma at Hull, where the sun rarely shines, is a mystery. But
we do, and I hope my colleagues can begin to visit Genova and establish some
collaboration.
There
is one final incident to report, and that was running into a street demonstration
while en route from Genova to the airport. The protestors—trade unionists—were
blocking the road, and we had to stop. They had also blocked side roads leading
to the main road. My anxiety level rose slightly, but we took an impromptu tour
of the back streets of Genova, which was fascinating, and we arrived at the
airport via a route I had never taken and from a direction I considered
impossible. I have no complaints about Genovese taxi drivers, possibly the
fastest and most intrepid in the world.
In
case anyone wonders if I actually ever work at Hull, I was here the week before
I went to Italy, and I am here this week. I am in the process of preparing a
new online module in quantitative research methods for our Master’s of Research
(MRes) students. MRes is something possibly unique to the UK. It is a genuine
master’s degree, which can be taken as an exit point or, after graduation, for
the first year of a PhD. Other master’s degrees, if the student graduates,
oblige the student to start in the first year of a PhD. This module will be
entirely online and asynchronous, a model that works very well, I think, for
master’s students.
The
rest of the month is taken up with a week in Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace
of William Shakespeare, at a Research Excellence Framework subpanel
meeting. Then I head to Hong Kong for the 25th
International Nursing Research Congress, sponsored by the Honor
Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Of course, you’ll be hearing
about my time there. Maybe you’ll even be in my next blog.
14 August 2014
My
daughter’s first words on stepping outside at the Sydney airport form the title
to this entry. It gets “cold” here, and there is even snow on the mountains,
but what the average Australian considers cold would be an above-average summer
day back home in the UK. I have lost count of my visits to Australia, but this
is the first time my wife has been here, and I love to see old places through
new eyes.
Two of
my sons and another of my daughters have already been here, so my wife decided
to see what all the fuss was about. In my view, part of the “fuss” is the
unique combination of early morning frost in the suburbs of Sydney against the
background of a deep blue sky that seems uniquely Australian. By midday, it’s
officially warm—by UK standards—yet the locals are in coats and scarves, and,
because I am mainly in shirtsleeves, I’m always being asked, “Aren’t you cold?”
University of Western Sydney
As
mentioned in previous entries from Australia, I’ve been based at the University of Western Sydney (UWS).
As the name suggests, the university serves the western side of Sydney but, in
fact, it is not really in Sydney at all. It has campuses in Campbelltown,
Paramatta and Hawkesbury, with an outpost in Liverpool, the Centre for Applied Nursing Research. During my recent two
weeks in Sydney, I visited all the campuses where nursing is provided.
These
visits often involve drives that would take you from one side of the UK to
another. As with my sense of what is hot and cold here in terms of weather, I
have to adjust my sense of distance in this vast country. I told someone I used
to drive 60 miles to work and back, trying to instil a sense of horror at this
daily feat. They looked at me with a “so what?” expression.
I was
really pleased recently to notice that UWS had made the Times Higher Education
list of the top 100 universities less than 50 years old (ranked
87th), alongside a very interesting list of younger universities across the
world. While here, I have held scholar-in-residence consultations, given two
seminars, and I had time to post online slide presentations about open access publishing and the uses and abuses of impact factor. This evening, in
the presence of Rhonda Griffiths, dean of nursing and midwifery at the University
of Western Sydney, and Scott Holmes, deputy vice chancellor for research and
development at the school, I address a function at the university for senior
people from local hospitals and health authorities. My topic is “The
Francis Report: You simply could not make it up.”
Australia
and onwards
This
is the first of two visits to Australia this year. In October, I return to
Canberra to speak at the 2014 Australian Capital Region Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference.
In addition to the professional aspects of my trips
here, the past few years of regular visits have enabled me to connect with my
extended family of cousins and one remaining aunt. I was especially pleased that
my wife and daughter (Rebecca) were able to meet my Aunt Jean, who turned 90 in
February.
Tomorrow,
we leave Australia for Hong Kong and, after two days, we return to the United
Kingdom. August is relatively quiet, but September and October will be intensive
with final scores and report writing for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework,
after which I must turn my attention to the slightly neglected Lancet Commission on UK Nursing.
23 September
2014
At 'Oxbridge' and other seats of learning
GENOA,
Italy—Despite the location of this entry, I have been mainly in the United
Kingdom since my last post, which was from Australia. I made one brief visit to
Dublin, Ireland, but otherwise have been in Cambridge and Oxford—two major
seats of learning known collectively as “Oxbridge”—and Birmingham, the UK’s
second-largest city and, arguably, also a major seat of learning. If you are
not familiar with the very British TV comedy “Blackadder,” this YouTube
clip will provide a sample and explain, at the
expense of my own University of Hull, where Oxbridge is positioned in the UK
educational hierarchy.
My
visit to Cambridge was to attend part of the NET2014 conference and to present
with Karen Holland, editor of Nurse Education in Practice,
a workshop on writing for publication. The NET conference, formerly named the
Nurse Education Tomorrow conference, evolved out of the journal Nurse
Education Today. The conference was the idea of Jean Walker, a
former colleague of mine from the University of Edinburgh, and one of its
earliest proponents was Elisabeth
‘Liz’ Clarke, PhD, formerly of the Royal College of Nursing of
the United Kingdom and now of the Open University. In her keynote address,
Clarke, who is not a nurse but a psychologist by background, reflected on the
conference’s 25 years and challenged nurse educationists with these questions:
·
What are the greatest achievements in health care
education of the past 25 years?
·
What are the big issues we must tackle?
·
What do we need to do to demonstrate our positive
contribution to health care services, higher education, and society as a whole?
·
What are the priorities for our future scholarship
agenda?
The
conference was held in Churchill College, named after our great Second World
War prime minister, whose papers are lodged there in a special archive. The
college is relatively modern, built in the 1960s, and accommodations seem to
have changed little since those days. I must be getting old and soft, but an
unsprung student bed with a thin mattress is not what I am used to.
The
purpose of my visit to Oxford was to meet with fellow Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN)
editors and the management team from Wiley headquarters. This time, I can
report excellent accommodation in a large hotel that incorporates a
former Knights Templar hospital. I
concluded these knights were not very tall, as I bumped my head several times
on massive ceiling beams upon entering—and usually when leaving—the bathroom.
The JAN management-team
meetings are one of the most enjoyable events of the year for me. Wiley looks
after us very well, and the JAN editors are the best team in
the world to work with. During two intensive days, every aspect of the journal
is analysed, and our performance in terms of impact factor, downloads, and
international outreach is scrutinised. Change always follows these meetings,
but this is always positive and agreed to by the whole team. Our vision for the
journal is ambitious, and we hope that this becomes obvious in the year ahead.
Amongst other things, we hope to increase traffic to our blog,
which has been renamed JAN interactive.
Birmingham
was the venue for the penultimate meeting of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF)
subpanel for dentistry, allied health professions, nursing, and pharmacy, to
which I have referred previously. I love working with this team, too, but I
don’t think many of us will miss these events, as membership on these panels
involves very hard work. The eyes of the UK academic community are on the REF
panels and subpanels with the outcome—scores awarded to UK universities for
excellence in research—eagerly awaited. The world is also watching and waiting,
because this exercise was the first to include research impact. There will be
international scrutiny to see how we did it and what we found, and it is my
expectation that research impact will form part of research assessment in
several of the countries I visit regularly.
I’m
in Genoa—also known as Genova—for the usual reasons (blog passim): to meet research
students at the University of Genoa and to collaborate with colleagues here. In
the middle of the week, my dean, Steven Ersser, PhD, RN, makes a visit. I had
better be on my best behavior.
3 October 2014
Still in the UK
I
returned to the United Kingdom from Italy, via London, on Friday, 26 September,
and spent one night in the Waldorf Hilton in central London, courtesy of the
Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau. On Saturday morning, the 27th, I gave a talk to
several hundred Saudi Arabian students about challenges faced in building a
research career and being an editor. This was the inaugural conference of the
Scientific Society for Saudi Students in the UK—the
next one will convene at the end of January—and the
conference was addressed by Saudi Cultural Attaché Faisal Abalkhail. Later, I
was interviewed for a film clip that will be used in future publicity.
It
was interesting to share with the students that I had visited Saudi Arabia
before, during the First Gulf War as a member of the British Forces Middle
East, and that I had visited their country since and was planning to again
visit in April 2015. Two days later, I was back in London for a meeting of the Lancet Commission on UK Nursing,
and two days after that I was back for my first meeting of the Army Nursing Research Professoriate.
The Lancet Commission is taking shape. We
hope to have a substantial amount of writing done by the end of the year
and to spend 2015 finalising our report and filling in any gaps in our
background information. The proceedings will remain confidential until we
publish the report. Once the Research Excellence Framework meetings
are finished—and I will be in London next week for the final one—the Lancet
Commission moves to the top of my agenda.
|
Members of the Army Nursing Research
Professoriate, notably: Col. Alan Finnegan, front left; Hugh McKenna, chair,
2014 Research Excellence Framework, second row, right; and Col.
Breckenridge-Sproat, front, second right. |
The Army Nursing Research Professoriate
exists to bring together military and civilian people who have
an interest in military nursing research. The group was initiated and is led by
Col. Alan Finnegan, PhD, QARANC, who is also an honorary professor at the
University of Chester in the UK and a member of the Lancet Commission. We were
very lucky to have a member of U.S. military personnel present, Col. Sara
Breckenridge-Sproat, PhD, RN, regional nurse executive, Europe Regional Medical
Command, the Army Surgeon General’s consultant for nursing research.
In
the evening, we were invited to the annual cocktail party of Queen Alexandra’s
Royal Army Nursing Corps (the QAs), which was held at the Royal Hospital
Chelsea, home of the famous Chelsea
pensioners. Col. Finnegan had the pleasure of meeting my daughter
Lucy, an officer in the QAs, at the hospital in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan,
while on a visit there during her tour of duty. The professoriate has ambitious
plans for research and publication, and, already, there are several very
interesting projects underway with publications beginning to appear.
One
more week in the United Kingdom, and my travels start again with a short visit
to Canberra, Australia, from where I will post my next entry.
17 October 2014
Australian Capital Territory: Like DC, only different
CANBERRA,
Australia—Canberra, Australia’s capital city, divides opinion; there are those
who love it and those who hate it. This is a planned city, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an American, and the
similarities to America’s capital city are striking.
Canberra,
Australian Capital Territory (ACT), is more modern than Washington, District of
Columbia (DC), and has some splendid art deco buildings—my favourite
architecture. It also has more post-art deco structures, some of which,
frankly, look like they came from the notebook of Albert
Speer. Wide boulevards and the fact that the site of the
Australian Parliament is called Capital Hill complete the
effect. (In Washington, it’s spelled Capitol Hill.)
Walter
Burley Griffin is again very much in the public eye here. Fifty years have passed
since they named a nearby body of water Lake Burley Griffin. But Burley was
Griffin’s middle name, not part of a double-barrelled surname, thus the
campaign to rename Lake Burley Griffin simply Lake Griffin.
I
get the impression that not much happens here in Canberra. All the political
action on Capital Hill is reported in the national press, and The
Canberra Times conveys a picture of rural idyllic living. That said,
I’m putting my cards on the table and stating that—from my very limited
experience of the place—I like Canberra. Being accommodated by ACT Health in
the five-star luxury of Hyatt Hotel Canberra helps. Steeped in
history, this hotel has been, for decades, the haunt of Australian politicians,
many who resided here.
With its large, comfortable rooms, the
hotel is a triumph of art deco style. My bathroom has French windows and is
larger than many hotel rooms I have stayed in. The weather
has been uncommonly cold—wet on my arrival—so I open the windows only to place
my training shoes outside after returning from a run and to retrieve them
before my next run, thus preventing the “what’s that smell?” smell my hotel rooms
often get after a week or so. Running here is superb, and a loop, approximately
four miles in length, goes from my hotel over two bridges that stand at either
end of a section of the aforementioned Lake Burley Griffin. I was out at 6 a.m.
this morning, and, along the south side of the lake, fitness classes were well
underway with group and personal trainers.
ACT
Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre Conference
I
am here at the generous invitation of Australian Capital Region Health to give
a keynote at the 3rd Biennial ACT Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre
Conference. I gave that keynote yesterday and titled it “The path to
publication.” On the previous day, I presented two workshops on social
networking, including blogging, at the University of Canberra and Canberra
Hospital.
This
morning’s keynote address was presented by Christine Duffield, PhD, RN, who has
an excellent track record in conducting nursing workforce research. Today’s address,
probably the most authoritative lecture I have heard on the subject, ranged
from the place of “assistants in nursing” (Duffield’s generic term for the
unqualified, unlicensed “nursing” workforce) to advanced nurse practitioners.
She provided a thorough look at nurse-patient ratios in Australia, the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
At
dinner last night, we were entertained by speaker Matina Jewell.
This outstandingly intelligent and articulate lady has an incredible story
about her time in Lebanon as an unarmed United Nations treaty monitor, the
horrific injuries she received in a military vehicle, and the death of all her
comrades. Although she tells the story most nights, she is still moved to tears
in retelling it. Her message is about recovering from hitting rock bottom with
depression over the loss of her military career and survivor guilt over the
loss of comrades she had been leading. She is on Twitter @matinajewell—as I
write, I see she has just tweeted me a message—and she deserves more followers
than she has.
Hanging
smart
I
have done little climbing this year and, for the first year since a horrific
accident that took place eight years ago, none outdoors. But my genes have been
climbing. My oldest daughter, Hannah, recently spent a week in the Pre-Pyrenees
in Spain, and her sister Emily has just returned from the Bavarian Alps. I seem
to find little time to climb these days, and two trips each to Hong Kong and
China, together with trips to Puerto Rico, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia before the
first quarter of 2015, will probably further limit climbing. However, the
spirit is willing even if the flesh is usually in an airport.
The
extent to which my family travels is now becoming a standing joke. At dinner
last weekend, my oldest daughter asked where I was flying to this week, and I
responded “Dubai,” which was my first stop on the way to Australia. I asked her
the same and she said, “Dubai!” We were in Dubai airport within 12 hours of each
other.
31 October 2014
Tense days in Hong Kong
HONG
KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT—It cannot have escaped any reader’s notice that Hong
Kong has been volatile lately. My introduction to the “Umbrella Movement” was
pictures of tear gas and riot police on BBC news reports. I instantly
recognised Hong Kong’s administrative district, known as Central, thus the
#OccupyCentral hashtag on Twitter.
Having
been in Hong Kong for a week, I made sure I visited the site of the protesters,
now relocated slightly to the district of Admiralty. It was a moving occasion.
I was moved because I was here with my wife in 2003 when protesters first took
to the streets—peacefully—and a million people marched through Admiralty and
Central. I was impressed by the fact that the protesters made room for the bus
we were on. We were traveling in the opposite direction, and they simply parted
and let us through.
This time round, things have been brought
to a standstill. Pictures that accompany this entry show some of the scenes I
photographed. My government has been quiet about all this, except to express
that Mainland China—to whom sovereignty was transferred in 1997—is
showing restraint. Ironically, citizens of Hong Kong now have more
democracy—albeit limited—then under British colonial rule. We did not allow
them to vote at all.
Why
we are here
As
usual for this time of year, I have been teaching, together with Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my
University of Hull colleague, at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). It
was a delight to be accompanied by Theofanis Fotis, PhD, senior lecturer,
School of Health Sciences, from the University of Brighton. I first met Theo in
Singapore (blog passim), and it was good fun to show him our version of Hong
Kong.
Mark
and I taught first-year students in HKPU’s Master of Nursing programme,
dividing qualitative methods (Mark) and quantitative methods (me) between us.
We also consulted with second-year students about their research projects.
I
made a point of asking each group about the Umbrella Movement, and the
reactions and responses were interesting. In typical Hong Kong fashion—modest,
quiet, and unobtrusive, especially with “seniors”—they were reluctant to talk,
but when I said I had visited the protesters, they opened up. Most had joined
in at some point. Uncertain about the future, they were hopeful that nothing
violent would take place. It is not my “fight,” but I am not hopeful. I cannot
envisage China bending at all, and I worry, if it continues, how it will end.
Frequent
flyers
Mark
and I entertained Linda Sim, the head of Cathay Pacific’s frequent flyer Marco Polo Club—to dinner. We make
this a regular feature of our visits to Hong Kong, to thank her and her team
for excellent individualised service and to raise any concerns and questions we
have. Frequent flying is serious business. We went to another of Hong Kong’s
high-rise restaurants, Wooloomooloo Prime in Tsim Tsa Tsui.
The view was stunning.
Buildings
in Hong Kong are, for the most part, confusing to navigate—even after many
years. Mark and I both had the experience of leaving our offices to attend a
meeting, with a destination office number written on a slip of paper, only to
realise after wandering about for a while that the meetings were being held in
our own offices. If I told you Mark knocked on his own door, you would not
believe me, but he did.
21 November
2014
China in November
JINAN,
Shandong Province, China—It is Sunday, 16 November. The Beijing airport
terminal is so vast that, with the haze of pollution trapped inside the
building, it is hard to see from one end to the other. I have barely landed and
the pollution is already stinging my eyes and coating my lips with a familiar
and unpleasant metallic taste. I was led to believe that Beijing air had been
cleaned up for the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit
meeting attended by world leaders, including President Obama. Perhaps it had.
The
taxi journey to Beijing station is gripping, and the lack of functioning rear
seat belts adds to the excitement. I keep my eyes on the road ahead, as if I
were driving, hoping to see hazards before the driver does and to brace myself
accordingly. My blood pressure rises as the driver takes calls on her mobile
phone while weaving in and out of the traffic. My student helper, Fancy, seems
oblivious to this near-death experience and casually attends to text messages
on her iPhone, never lifting her head to savour the excitement. I’m back in
China!
This
purpose of this visit is to spend a few days in Jinan at Shandong University School of Nursing,
from which I reported late last year. As I write this paragraph, I am now in
the vast Beijing station. Fancy has disappeared, along with my passport, in
search of tickets for the train journey to Jinan. I’m assuming I’ll see her
again—passport and tickets in hand—but I always feel vulnerable letting my
passport out of sight.
Monday,
the 17th
The
train journey was uneventful; I slept for the two-hour journey to Jinan. Fancy
decided to purchase my return ticket and disappeared again with my passport,
but passport and I have now been reunited, and I am in University Hotel at
Shandong University.
Breakfast
was a déjà vu experience; the food on offer was exactly the
same as dinner last night, which did not raise my hopes regarding lunch. Not a
word of English is spoken by the hotel staff so, using the international
language of pointing, smiling, and showing my room card, I managed to persuade
them, both last night and this morning, that I wanted to eat. To me, this
seemed an obvious conclusion given my presence in the dining room between the specified
hours, but nothing is ever straightforward in China.
My
run this morning was one of the shortest ever. I am not sure if it was the
subzero temperature or the pollution that was taking my breath away but, once I
circumnavigated the block, I lacked the willpower to pass the front door of the
hotel and was glad to see my room again. Because of jet lag, I’ve been waking
up at 1 a.m., so I had seen my room for most of the night.
My
emails this morning were comprised of communications from Fancy with nine manuscripts
attached. This is part of my job this week, to advise authors on these
documents with a view to publication. I will also deliver a lecture this
afternoon on the scientific and ethical aspects of clinical trials. This is not
especially my area of expertise, and which aspect of my résumé gave my hosts
the idea that it was, I cannot imagine. But, as my wife says, lack of knowledge
has never stopped me from speaking about anything.
There’s
a stuffed polar bear in the foyer of my hotel. As I say, this is China.
Tuesday,
the 18th
My session seemed to go well yesterday
afternoon despite the usual lack of access to the lecture room until exactly
the time I was due to start. It is incomprehensible to my
Chinese hosts that you would like to see the facilities and load your
PowerPoint and infrared slide changer in advance. Thus, the first five to 10
minutes of any session here are spent trying to keep your flash drive in your
hand and in sight. The over-helpfulness of my Chinese hosts means that, as soon
as it leaves your pocket, it is snatched from you to be inserted, clumsily,
into the USB port—nobody does anything slowly or carefully here—often upside
down with a lot of damaging wiggling before you can retrieve it and do it
yourself.
There
is also incomprehension that you need a device to change slides. After all,
there are buttons on the computer! In China, you stand behind a lectern, shout
into a microphone, and subject your audience to a nonstop barrage of PowerPoint
slides. Not my style. I like to be seen, to walk around the stage, and even
step off the stage to stand in front of the lectern. My hosts, here and in
Taiwan, have warned me that one should not undermine one’s status as an
authority figure by such informal behaviour. Again, not my style. I court
informality, hate titles and unearned deference, and do my best to undermine
these conventions, but they keep inviting me back, so it can’t be upsetting too
many people.
I
made a fundamental error last night by setting my alarm clock to UK time
instead of local time and slept in, which meant no running, little time for
breakfast, and then a “set to” with the hotel receptionist who, with
translation by Fancy, informed me that, if I had laundry collected today, it
should be back tomorrow. I pointed out specific details on the laundry card
that clearly stated a 24-hour turnaround if it was collected by 11 a.m. It was
8:45 a.m. “Should” was not good enough, because I was leaving at 6:30 a.m. on
Thursday, and my supply of underpants would not last.
“Would
I like the express service?” I was asked. “No!” I said, because the laundry
card informed me that it was not necessary and was more expensive. There is
always a solution here, but it is never “I will do what has been agreed and
what you want.” Finally, adding insult to injury, I was told via Fancy that
laundry had to be in the laundry bag with laundry card completed. I asked Fancy
to translate to the receptionist that 1) I had travelled a lot, frequently used
hotel laundries, and knew the system, and 2) I had already referred to the
card, which I had duly completed. Also, as I had told her, I had hung the
laundry bag for collection on the door handle outside my room. Did she think I
had hung my underpants and several pairs of socks, not in a bag, but on the
handle?
After
the first section of my rant, I think Fancy simply apologised for my behaviour
and probably said something to the effect of “Westerners, very rude, aren’t
they?” I always travel with carry-on cabin luggage only, no matter how long the
trip, so laundry facilities are a constant worry.
To
compensate for the lack of a run this morning, I went out this evening for 3.5
miles around Jinan. Several more near-death experiences—one of which left what
little hair I have standing on end—convinced me to stop running near the road
and go to the local park next time. Motorcyclists here interpret the
road-sidewalk distinction in their favour. They also weave in and out of the
trees at the edge of the road, so you often end up facing an oncoming motorbike
not knowing if it will disappear behind a tree or mow you down. I was glad to
see my room again.
Dinner
tonight was Chinese hot pot, and I mean hot. Health and safety regulations in
the UK would never allow such a thing—a pot of boiling hot water balancing on a
flaming pile of carbide. The idea is, you cook your own food in this, and I
just cannot relax as I see tables where small children are engaged in dropping
in and fishing out their cooked food on a table that is likely to topple and
scald the diners. I survived.
Wednesday,
the 19th
The past two days have mainly been spent
reading, editing, and commenting on manuscripts sent me by master’s students.
Despite my occasional lapses into frustration at how things
are done in China, I never cease to be amazed at the industry of students here,
especially these students. The manuscripts I am reading are the product of one
module in their programme, and they all intend to publish in international
journals. I had assumed these manuscripts were the outcome of their final
dissertations, but discovered they are currently engaged in research for their
final dissertations and that these manuscripts are “dress rehearsals,” based on
research projects carried out earlier in the programme.
The
programmes are long, at least three years. Coming from the UK, where the
majority of master’s students no longer carry out empirical work and where many
PhD students never publish, the work ethic here is impressive. These are not
trivial studies. They are well powered, original, and of considerable clinical-
and nursing-workforce relevance.
In
the meantime
Back
at the ranch (University of Hull), our dean has resigned to take up a clinical
post, and the search for a replacement has started—to be appointed in the
middle of 2015. Our associate dean for research is on long-term sick leave, and
I am acting in her absence.
This
week, from a distance, I have been helping to organise colleagues for an upcoming
visit by the director of research and development of a major engineering
company. They have an interest in health, and I think we can showcase two
excellent aspects of our work, one in telehealth, the other an invention
related to nasogastric tube positioning. (Patent considerations allow me to say
no more.)
The
deadline for submitting draft statements in advance of a dress rehearsal is the
day after I return from China, so I think I will have to eschew University of
Hull guidance that we take a day off following a long-haul flight, in addition
to the day before. Such guidelines—I’ve encountered them before—are intended to
protect the university in the event that one collapses, either in some far-off
place or in one’s office at the university following a long-haul flight, and
they are written by people who neither do long-haul flying nor have schedules
like mine. I forgot to add that the guideline also advises us to have a day off
after arriving at our destination and before leaving. If only!
I
take the early train to Beijing tomorrow for the early afternoon flight to
London. I leave China at midday and arrive in the UK at 3 p.m. the same day.
This will be one of the longest birthdays—20 November, 59 years old—I’ve ever
had. My next flight is to Dublin next week, and my next report will be from
Puerto Rico in December when I meet Hester C. Klopper, president of the Honor
Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, and GAPFON colleagues.
11 December
2014
GAPFON grows
SAN
JUAN, Puerto Rico—The second meeting of the Global Advisory Panel on the Future
of Nursing (GAPFON) is over. We spent a day and a half in Puerto Rico to review
progress since our first meeting in Basel and to plan for the future. Since
our last meeting, a website has
been created for GAPFON where you can see a list of panelists,
our purpose, and sponsors. Additional information will be posted there as work
progresses.
The
next step is to hold regional consultations on the work of GAPFON, starting in
the Middle East—in Jordan—and to determine priorities for these regions. In
July, the 26th International Nursing Research Congress convenes
in Puerto Rico, and, before Congress, two GAPFON consultations will take place
here for the Caribbean and Latin America. Did someone mention Puerto Rico? In
that case, I’ll be there!
Puerto
Rico
This
was my first visit to Puerto Rico. It will not be my last. I am glad to see
that I have space in my diary to be here in July, and I have already decided
that Puerto Rico is the destination for a holiday sometime soon for Mrs. Watson
and me, fuelled by air miles and hotel loyalty points. Perhaps it will make up
for missing our wedding anniversary—again—today. I have, literally, never
fallen in love with anywhere so quickly.
This place is an island paradise. It's
Hispanic, yet American territory, definitely the best of both those worlds.
Coming from London’s Heathrow Airport on a dark, subzero winter
morning and landing in this warm and sunny place with friendly people and
discovering, as I did, that Puerto Rico is the home of the piña colada only
accentuated my enjoyment. For me, it has everything. I could run in the early
morning, and Old San Juan is a most beautiful town to visit. It is also
inexpensive. My good friends and colleagues of GAPFON helped make this a
memorable two days.
I was also delighted to find the tomb
of Juan Ponce de León in the local
cathedral. Juan is a bit of a hero of mine as some consider him to be the
original gerontologist. The claim is a bit spurious. He did not study ageing as
such; he merely came in search of the Springs of Bimini which, to drink from,
allegedly give eternal youth. He may have found the fabled springs but, as his
tomb testifies, eternal youth evaded him. His conquistador colleagues did not,
exactly, acquit themselves with distinction. They enforced a new religion upon
the populace with considerable violence and introduced local women—and
presumably the men—to sexually transmitted diseases.
Flying
home for Christmas
I
am writing this in San Juan airport, officially known as the Luis Muñoz Marín
International Airport. As I await my flight to Miami and then on to London, the
holidays are on my mind. I like travelling, but these are the last flights
until mid-January when I visit Finland and Qatar in quick succession, and I am
quite glad.
When
I get home, I have a week of work involving a faculty forum, where I will speak
briefly to colleagues about our research and implications of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework,
the results of which are published next week. I also have several supervisions
with doctoral students, a writing-for-publication workshop for National Health
Service colleagues in Sheffield, and a teleconference on the day before we
break up. On the evening of the last day of work (December 19), my wife, two of
my sons, and I are going to listen to a show by comedian Frank
Skinner, one of my favourites. Then I plan to eschew the
Internet for two weeks and spend some time with my family, close and extended.
Normal service will be resumed after my visit to Qatar.
Happy
holidays!
17 April 2015
Another side of Saudi Arabia
JEDDAH,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)—At 2 a.m. the morning after my arrival, Saudi
Arabia’s health minister, Abdullah al-Rabeeah, was removed from office by King Abdullah
for claiming he did not know why the number of people with MERS (Middle Eastern
Respiratory Syndrome) was increasing, thereby admitting he had been unable to
address the problem.
The
unfortunate turn of events for al-Rabeeah meant I was one of the first people
to meet his interim replacement, His Excellence Acting Minister for Health Adel
Faqih, Saudi Arabia’s labor minister, who now serves in both roles. Faqih
presented me, later that morning, with my “hadyyah” (gift) for presenting
at The Second International Health Specialties Conference in
Riyadh, KSA, sponsored by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.
According to colleagues here, the sacked
minister, an engineer by background, was popular and had made a good impression
on my nursing colleagues, some of whom met him. However, politics is politics
the world over, and, frankly, honesty does not pay if you wish
to keep your job.
International
conference
My
paper at the conference was on the difference ethics can make to health care,
but I also gave a preconference workshop to 150 nurses and physicians on
getting papers published. Among the attendees was my former PhD student,
Mansout Alyami, who works at the Ministry for Health. The workshop was the most
popular of the two sessions, with an additional 150 people being turned away.
This
was especially surprising as I was competing for participants with such
luminaries as Geoff Norman, PhD, of McMaster University who, I now realise, is
one of the world’s foremost experts on medical education. I was very pleased to
get to know Norman over the course of the conference, and his presentation on
myths in medical education reinforced many of the things I had long held doubts
about, such as learning styles, self-assessment, high-fidelity simulation
(essentially a waste of money), and the predictive value of multiple-choice
tests (turns out they’re pretty good). Norman, who backs all this up with
evidence, has already sent me his portfolio of research papers and reviews on
these issues.
Jeddah
After
three days in the oppressive heat, oppressive atmosphere (especially for
women), and dry dust of Riyadh, I flew to Jeddah on the coast to participate in
a scientific forum at Fakeeh
College of Nursing & Medical Sciences, where I
presented three papers over two days. Another former PhD student, Wafaa
Aljohani, who is a faculty member at the school, facilitated my visit. I also
met former PhD student Samira Alsenany, who works at King
AbdulAziz University, the oldest university in KSA.
|
A preserved building in the old town of Jeddah, |
Compared with Riyadh, Jeddah is a coastal
paradise. In addition to the weather being cooler, it is less dusty and
less oppressive in many ways than Riyadh. The population is cosmopolitan, and,
because the city is close to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, it is a
tourist destination. This was my first sight of the Red Sea where, as the Old
Testament describes, Moses parted the water and crossed from Egypt to the
Promised Land. I can imagine that, all those thousands of years ago, this place
did not look very promising.
International
family
The
Watson family is scattered across the globe. Another contingent is in Florida,
where Mrs. Watson and our youngest daughter arrived this week. Our daughter is
taking part in a street-dancing competition at Daytona Beach, and Mrs. Watson
will continue training for the London Marathon.
My
ambitions are modest by comparison. I am training for a 10-kilometre race, and
managed to run 13 miles over four days along the seafront in Jeddah. My next
visit to the Middle East is in May, when I go to Bahrain, but a visit to Genoa,
Italy comes before that.
Podcasting continues,
if you want to listen to my daily reflections on Jeddah. With my new Veho MUVI Mini Cam, claimed to be the
smallest video camera in the world, I posted on YouTube a
compilation of video segments, all in one 48-minute clip, that range from Hull
to Riyadh. Persevere—or fast-forward—to take a cultural tour of Riyadh and hear
the call to prayer going out.
12 May 2015
Jasmine in Genoa
GENOA
AIRPORT, Genoa, Italy—The scent of jasmine hung in the heavy, humid coastal air
of Genoa. It was especially pleasant in the morning, when the flowers were
opening, and was still in evidence as the sun went down. However, not everyone
enjoys this. Many locals are allergic to the pollen. During my time here, the
offices around me at the University of Genoa echoed to the sounds of repeated
sneezing and Italian cursing.
This
was my second visit here this year, and the weather was superb. Lemons were
growing within reach of my window, and I was very tempted to slice one up for a
gin and tonic. My 10k training finished at the sea front on the famous Corsa
Italia, and I am now resting my 59-year-old legs before a race this weekend.
Climbing, including indoors, has been neglected lately due to running.
My work at the University of Genoa with
colleagues in the school of nursing continues to focus on the doctoral
students with whom I am working on a rapid evidence assessment. These are not
full-time students. Few live locally, and they meet only a few times yearly.
Working hard at a distance, they retrieved and filtered some useful literature
down to a few items that will form the basis of an excellent review paper, the
topic of which will be revealed nearer to the time of submission. I averted a
collective crisis of confidence, as they had convinced themselves that they
needed to scrap what they were doing and start again. They are now back on
track, and my visit, in this regard, was useful. Otherwise, I advised
colleagues on their publication plans and research projects.
A
new honor society?
I
was asked about membership in the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau
International (STTI) by one of the faculty who believes this would be a good
thing for Italian nurses. I agreed, given that there is no Italian chapter and
no Italian members that I know of. They were astounded when, within minutes, I
put them in contact by Twitter with STTI President Hester C. Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, RM,
FANSA, —who replied—and by email with Elizabeth Rosser, DPhil, president
of Phi Mu Chapter in England. I see
from my email trail that they already have advice from Rosser on how to join
and set up a society here. As the saying goes, “Watch this space.”
Rejection
News
arrived from a journal editor that a major manuscript, which I have been
leading and which has already graced the editorial desks—briefly—of three other
journals, has been rejected again. I had to heed my own advice about not
corresponding with editors over rejections and simply to take any good advice
on board and submit elsewhere.
My co-authors, both much younger than me,
kept me on track, but we were all astonished at a comment from one reviewer
that defied all logic with regard to the method we were using
and the principles we were addressing. Still, the experience was useful as,
when I was taking a class with the master’s students in Genoa on scientific
writing, I was able to say that I had just been rejected and was in the process
of applying my fourth rule of writing: treat a rejection as the start of the
next submission.
I
don’t leave the UK until the end of the month, when I visit Bahrain and the
fledgling Rufaida Honor Society at the RCSI-Medical University of Bahrain.
Before then, I will be participating in an online series of lectures for International Nurses Day and
presenting on “Global issues facing nursing” before travelling to London to
take part in a forum at the headquarters of the Royal College of Nursing of the
United Kingdom. The following week is spent mostly in Edinburgh, Scotland,
where I will examine a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, give a presentation
on research assessment at Edinburgh Napier University, and meet a research
collaborator at Heriot Watt University. Between those sessions, I will catch up
with as many colleagues as possible.
I
mentioned in my last entry that my daughter was taking part in an international
street dancing competition in Florida. Her team won, as did the junior team
from her dance club, so that was a memorable visit to the United States. I’m
also glad to report that the long-suffering Mrs. Watson and her itinerant
husband will be taking a holiday in New York City in July. I have never visited
NYC, although my wife has, and this will be her turn to show me around a
foreign city.
2 June 2015
Farewell to Bahrain
MANAMA,
Kingdom of Bahrain—My four years as an external examiner at the Royal College of Surgeons of
Ireland-Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI-MUB) are
over. I may have said something similar last year, after three years as an examiner.
However, I was invited to sit for a further year, and the absolute maximum is
four. I am sorry to leave and will miss my visits to the island, but other
opportunities are opening for me in the Middle East, to be reported in due
course.
In
addition to examining, I gave a workshop on scientific writing, after which I
presented certificates to newly inducted members of the Rufaida
Honor Nursing Society. Officers of the society recently met Hester C. Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, RM,
FANSA, president of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International
(STTI), when she was visiting the Middle East, and the local society is making
progress in its bid for STTI membership.
Uncool running
I
rose almost early enough on two mornings to avoid the sun but failed to escape it
completely. At 5:30 a.m., it is in the low 30s Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), but
during the day it has been as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), and
when the sun is up, it is impossible to walk, let alone run. Foolishly, I went
running at 6 p.m. one evening before it had cooled down, and the ambient
temperature was body temperature (37 Celsius/98.6 Fahrenheit). The rest of the
story is nearly heat-stroke history.
When I ran recently in a more civilised temperature
back home in England, I completed a 10 kilometres race in 46 minutes and 5
seconds, three seconds above my personal best. The 46-minute target continues
to elude me. For the rest of the running year, I’m going to focus on breaking
21 minutes for 5 kilometres, something I want to achieve before I am 60 years
old.
The
next few weeks
Back
home at the University of Hull, I am handing back the job of associate dean for
research and enterprise in stages to the incumbent, who will resume the
position in July. The role has not prevented me from travelling or missing the
most important meetings that go with it. Essentially, there is barely a job
that cannot be done remotely these days, and nearly all of the administrative
aspects of the role were done online. Our faculty of health and social care is
now under the leadership of Julie Jomeen, PhD, RN, RM, and I
look forward to discussing the next few years—the final ones of my career—with
her soon.
Over
the rest of June, I visit Spain, Hong Kong, Korea, and Australia. I will report
in detail from each of these places, but I am pleased to note that my link with
the Hong Kong Polytechnic will continue. I had reported its end in a previous entry, but today I was invited
to become a visiting professor again, but in a different role. The university
has launched a massive open online course (MOOC) in
anatomy, to which I will contribute. “Human Anatomy” is offered under the
auspices of EdX,
which involves prestigious partner universities such as Harvard and MIT in the
United States.
The
world needed another Watson
Two
weeks ago, Alex Watson, my sixth grandchild—no granddaughters yet—was born to
the delight of his parents and grandparents but consternation of his big
brother Connor who seems to be tolerating this 100 percent increase in number
of his siblings and 50 percent decrease in amount of attention he gets. Yours
Truly also has to fight for attention. I can almost predict the welcome
tomorrow: “Oh, you’re back. When are you away again?”
10 June 2015
First time in Valencia
HULL,
United Kingdom—Most of the time, travel goes well. Sometimes, it goes
spectacularly wrong, and Monday, 8 June, was looking as if it would fall into
the “spectacularly wrong” category.
I
arrived at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 early in the morning after an overnight
stay in one of the airport hotels only to be told that I had no seat booked on
the flight—or any flight. Apparently, all the air miles and frequent-flyer
status in the world will not get you on a flight it you have no ticket. The
travel agent used by my hosts in Spain had issued several itineraries but had
not actually booked and paid for a ticket. I found this out after several phone
calls to Spain that, in order to sort things out, required the travel agent to
open the office early. Had I been in Valencia, I would gladly have turfed the
agent out of bed myself.
Eventually, I caught a later flight for
the same connection from Madrid to Valencia, meaning I had to do what I have
done many times in the past: sprint through the terminal in Madrid to my
connection. I made it. After recounting this to a colleague that
evening on Skype, she described me as “the Daniel Craig of nursing.” With my
accent, I had always been satisfied with being the Sean Connery of nursing, but
I probably needed upgrading to a newer model.
Return
to Spain
The
international component of my nursing career began in Spain 25 years ago when I
took part in a staff exchange programme between the University of Edinburgh and
the University of Navarra in Pamplona. Thus began a love affair with Spain and
the first of many professional and family visits to Pamplona. My oldest
daughter, who studied nursing at the University of Hull and did an elective in
critical care in Pamplona, has since worked exclusively in critical care and is
well on the way to being a critical care advanced nurse practitioner.
This
trip, however, was my first visit to Spain in nine years and my first ever to
Valencia, located on the Mediterranean. Hosted by Universidad Europea Valencia,
I was there to attend a public event at which a former PhD student of mine was
making her case for promotion to associate professor. The former student—Silvia
Corchón Arreche, PhD, MSc, RN—was one of the best I’ve supervised, and she
sailed through the event. I was one of a panel of three external assessors. Colleagues
and family members of the candidate were present, as was the rector (equivalent
to president or vice-chancellor in the United States and United Kingdom,
respectively). Before you ask if I can speak Spanish, the answer is no, but it
is easy to read scientific Spanish, and I could follow the PowerPoint slides.
When it came to questions, I was allowed to ask and be replied to in English.
I
was accommodated in the historic quarter of the city, which houses many
churches, markets, and a cathedral. Like most Spanish cities, it is
magnificent. The temperature dropped from 49 C (120.2 F) to a cool 34 C (93.2
F) while I was there. Running was possible in the very early morning. A superb
feature of the city, and surrounding the historic quarter, is the bed of a long-ago
diverted river, complete with bridges, and it is ideal for running.
The
return journey was uneventful, and I leave for Hong Kong and South Korea in
three days. Dire warnings are being issued by the Hong Kong government about
travel to South Korea due to the MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome)
crisis, so I am hoping it does not lead to any restrictions.
22 June 2015
Hong Kong and Seoul
HONG
KONG, SAR, China—I’m posting this from the Cathay Pacific First Class Pier
Lounge at the Hong Kong International Airport. The Cathay Pacific flight from
Manchester to Hong Kong (CX 358) was restored toward the end of last year, and
this was the first time I had taken it with the intention of staying in Hong
Kong. My previous use of the route was for an onward flight to China. The
flight arrived at 6:30 a.m., and, to fight off jet-lag and avoid falling
asleep, that made for a very long first day in Hong Kong. I tried going for a
walk, which, in 75 percent humidity, lasted five minutes. Eventually, I surrendered
at 6:30 p.m. and slept until 6 a.m. the next—my longest sleep in Hong Kong and
my longest sleep for years.
I
was back in Hong Kong for a second set of meetings with the University
Grants Committee Research Grants Council. Most of the work of
the committee is done in the four months before we arrive, and these are the
meetings where final decisions are made. We also make an academic visit to one
of Hong Kong’s higher-education institutes, and this year we visited, in a
purely advisory capacity, the City University of Hong Kong.
Otherwise, I caught up with old friends and colleagues.
Thomas
Wong, PhD, RN, former vice president of Hong Kong
Polytechnic University and an entrepreneur with his own consultancy business (GINGER
Knowledge Transfer and Consultancy Ltd.) and health provider
spin-off (Seamless Care), is the best value
for money in Hong Kong and my oldest friend there. Little happens in nursing in
Hong Kong and mainland China that Wong either does not know about or has not
been instrumental in developing.
I
also met Eric Lu Shek Chan, MSc, RN, GAPFON member and former
deputy chief nurse at the Hong Kong Health Authority, now dean at Caritas Institute of Higher Education.
Chan had planned to meet me in Seoul, South Korea, at the 2015 conference of
the International Council of Nurses (ICN), but the Hong Kong government
prohibited any health-related personnel from travelling to South Korea due to
the MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) crisis. The risks of becoming
infected with MERS must rate similarly to the chances of winning the United
Kingdom National Lottery. Made of stern stuff and with the proverbial British
stiff upper lip, I decided to take my chances and head to Seoul.
ICN
International Conference
This
was my second visit to Seoul, my first several years ago in prohibitively cold,
subzero temperatures. This visit was warmer but at a much more civilised
temperature than Hong Kong. Conditions for running were ideal, and I recorded
Seoul, Gangnam District, on my Garmin webpage.
I
have attended ICN conferences before—in Taiwan and Japan—and this one bore the
same overriding feature: It was huge. There were thousands of people there, the
venue was enormous, and it was by luck much more than management that I ran
into colleagues from the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, China, and
Australia. I could see from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn that many other
people I knew were also there, but, despite trying, we never met. I was
especially pleased to meet for coffee with GAPFON colleagues Hester C.
Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, RM, FANSA; Cathy Catrambone, PhD,
RN, FAAN; Pat Thompson, EdD, RN, FAAN; and Cynthia
Vlasich, MBA, BSN, RN. I also had lunch with Sally Wai-Chi
Chan, PhD, RN, FAAN, featured in many entries passim from Singapore
and China.
|
Pam Mitchell, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of |
Sadly, my impression of Korean food,
honed during my first subzero temperature visit, did not improve as a
result of this visit. I simply cannot get the theme, appreciate the tastes,
marvel at the presentation—and I’m British! However, it was not for want of
trying, and I did enjoy one excellent dinner—mainly the beer and the
company—hosted by my publisher, Wiley, through its Asia-Pacific office.
Leaving
the best till last
Amidst
all this fun and frivolity, something wonderful happened last week, and that
was publication of the Thomson Reuters impact factors for 2014. My
journal, Journal of Advanced Nursing, has increased its impact
factor (1.741), its citations (12,024), and its ranking (10th place).
Therefore, we can once again claim to be a top-10 journal. I would like to
thank our authors, readers (especially those who cite us), our incredible team
of editors, and the staff at Wiley.
10 July 2015
Between Sydney and Hong Kong
CATHAY
PACIFIC FLIGHT 162—Another two-week visit to Australia is over, and I am
bouncing back over Typhoon Linfa on the way to Hong Kong. Turbulence on my last
few long-haul flights has been bad, and this one is no exception. Like all
seasoned flyers, I try not to look worried.
I
have been fulfilling my adjunct professor role at the University of Western
Sydney (UWS) and visiting my family in Brisbane. The UWS occupies several
campuses and, for the first time in many years of visiting, I was in
Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, the first week. Situated on the site of a
former asylum—a “lunatic” asylum, as it would have been called—the Parramatta
campus takes in many of the elegant buildings associated with the place’s
former purpose, and the older buildings are complemented by many fine, modern
buildings.
Numerous mental health hospitals in
Australia are located on the banks of navigable rivers, as lunatics were not
permitted to walk on the Queen’s highway—these institutions were built during
the reign of Queen Victoria—and had to travel by boat. A steep set of
steps leads from the river to the campus, and I imagine this is how many people
were led up to their new and permanent home. I met one of the senior managers
of UWS last year and only just managed to stop myself from cracking the old
“the lunatics are now running the asylum” joke. He had probably heard it many
times before.
With
apologies to the occupants of Parramatta, this is not the most salubrious
suburb of Sydney, and one of the missions of UWS is to serve these communities.
My hotel website boasted “access to a state-of-the-art gym.” There was access,
but the gym was a mile into town, a walk I made each evening past less than
desirable housing and youth that appeared intimidating. Some of my colleagues
were astonished that I had ventured out of my hotel. I reckoned that the sight
of an elderly man in shorts and T-shirt in temperatures just above freezing was
enough to keep me safe. It was very cold, the coldest winter in Sydney in 17
years.
Family
time
The
weekend I spent in Brisbane was warmer. I feel blessed to have such a great
family, who make me welcome. Apart from Christmas, it is one of the few times
of the year I leave work behind, literally in luggage left at the Sydney
airport, and spend time with family. I always come away grateful, a few pounds
heavier, and with an increased knowledge of Australian wines and beers.
(Someone has to do it).
But
my time in Australia was not all fun. Back at UWS, I gave a day and a half of
writing-for-publication workshops and two video-conference sessions, one on
social media and the other on marking theses and dissertations. Otherwise, I
held staff consultations about publication plans and kept up to date with
editing and supervising—from a distance—my PhD, master’s and final-year
students. Two of my PhD students, one from Taiwan and one from mainland China,
have completed their theses, and I am arranging for their examinations, which,
in the UK, is done by viva voce, otherwise known as the “viva”). The viva is a terrifying
prospect for most students, so I expect anxiety levels to be high when I get
back to my desk at the University of Hull.
Two
busy weeks
I
have two weeks of intense activity coming up. It has to be two weeks because,
although I have many July deadlines, it is only two weeks before I go on
holiday and take the long-suffering and mostly tolerant Mrs. Watson—it’s OK,
she never reads my blog—to New York. For the record, this is the first time in
31 years we have been away together on holiday without at least one of our
children. We have gone on work-related trips to the Far East and Southeast
Asia, but, as I am frequently reminded, those “don’t count.”
So,
before that happens, I have a PhD thesis and a pile of scripts from the Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland to examine, a handover of my acting associate
dean role to the incumbent who is now back in the role, Journal of Advanced
Nursing author guidelines to revise, and lots of research data to analyse. I
see the seat belt sign is on again, and I am trying not to look worried.
9 August 2015
Humidity and humility in New York
HULL,
United Kingdom—Unusually, I’m at home in the UK. My holiday with Mrs. Watson
(Debbie) in New York was one of the highlights of my life. Debbie, an
experienced New York visitor, impressed me with her understanding of how the
avenues describe latitude on Manhattan and the streets longitude, with Broadway
doing its own thing at an obtuse angle. I loved everything we saw and did. I
will spare you most of the details, but running in Central Park was a
particular highlight that also provides the title for this entry.
On
the way to New York, I said yes to everything that British Airways had to offer
in first class, most of which came with champagne. Suffice to say I had no problem
sleeping the first night. I woke at 6 a.m. and ran to Central Park, ran around
it and then ran back to the hotel, a total of nine miles. I would not recommend
this as a training regime, but it seemed to work.
|
Two days later, I tried to repeat this heroic feat—without the
champagne—and had to stop after five miles. The humidity and temperature had
spiked, and I discovered I was not Superman. It was a long walk back to the
hotel followed by a long talk from Debbie, a much more experienced runner
than me, about overdoing things. I’m glad to say I rallied for our last
morning, got up at 5 a.m., walked to Central Park and completed the six-mile
run without incident. I really felt like I was in a movie and expected to see
Woody Allen or the cast from Home Alone at any point. |
|
Our holiday started and finished in the Concorde
Lounge at London Heathrow Airport, so it was fitting that we paid
Concorde a visit in New York at the Intrepid
Sea, Air & Space Museum. Mrs. Watson in
foreground. |
Journal matters
I
am glad to say that authors submitting to Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN)
and Nursing Open were not all on holiday, nor were my editors
and associate editors. More than 50 manuscripts, at the various stages I
engaged with them, awaited my attention, so I did not have to wonder what to do
first. One of the proofs awaiting correction for JAN was an
article by Snowden et al. (2015) on which I am second author.
When I am the author of a JAN manuscript, I have no editorial
involvement with the manuscript until it is accepted and at the proofing stage.
This article reports on a study of the latent structure of emotional
intelligence and the discovery of a novel dimension, evident using two entirely
different analytical methods.
There
was more good news for JAN. I listen to “Today,” the BBC flagship
news programme, every morning from 6 a.m. (in bed for at least the first 30
minutes) and was startled at 6:45 a.m. (still in bed) by a mention of
“the Journal of Advanced Nursing.” What followed was a report on an
excellent article by Weldon et al. (2015) reporting on the effect that music played in operating theatres has
on communication between members of the surgical team. The piece was also
featured in the subsequent news bulletin. The study shows that music can be
detrimental to communication. If you want to hear the coverage, I made it
available with a short commentary in a podcast.
Also,
I had to resume arbitrating between some authors who dispute ownership of a
dataset from which an article was recently published in JAN. I find
these disputes often take months to resolve, and I feel sorry for the doctoral
student in the middle of this who hasn’t done anything wrong. Clearly, the
dispute is at a higher level, but its resolution may well have an impact on the
doctoral project.
Life
goes on
Along
with my wife and two of my sons, we spent a weekend in Scotland clearing my
mother’s house. My mother recently moved to a nursing home in Hull and her
house is for sale. There were plenty of laughs as we found things long
forgotten in the house and reminisced. Some harsh decisions had to be taken
about what was being removed and what was going to a local charity shop.
However, the hardest thing for me was locking my father’s workshop and studio
for the last time ever. The click of the padlock simply choked me and moved me
to tears as I recalled the boats built, wood turned, watercolours painted and
framed for sale.
My
sons took a selection of items but we had to leave many of his beloved tools
behind, some of which I recall watching him working with when I was a child; we
have no room for them. We managed to find around 50 of his watercolours, and we
have stored them. He died five years ago, and we all miss him tremendously. But
life, as the cliché goes, goes on, and next week my daughter, who lives in
Germany and who I rarely see, returns for two weeks for my son’s wedding. I
have no travelling planned until September and look forward to this precious
time with them and the rest of my children and grandchildren.
18 September
2015
Packing 'em out in Finland
KOUPIO,
Finland—A family wedding (our son Thomas), two visits to Ireland, and one to
Finland have taken place since my last entry. The wedding photographs are well
aired on family Facebook pages, but I thought it would do no harm to share one
here. My talented sister-in-law made the wedding dress.
|
From left to right: Charles, Joseph, William,
Yours Truly, Thomas, |
Ireland
The
visits to Ireland, made in close succession, were for the purpose of participating
on an interview panel for a senior academic position at University College Cork (UCC)
and to attend an examinations board at the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland (RCSI).
I
worked in Ireland for six months—from 1998 to 1999—but when the “Celtic
Tiger,” the rapid economic expansion that took place in
Ireland between 1995 and 2000, inflated house prices and kept my family stuck
in Scotland, I had to retreat back to the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, I have
maintained regular contact with the Republic and make several visits annually.
Cork
is a beautiful place, and I was very grateful to the UCC for two nights—my second
stay—in the five-star, family-run Hayfield Manor.
In Dublin, I have said goodbye several times to the RCSI at examination boards,
but I keep being asked back and have no complaints. It was a pleasure to introduce
a good colleague, Parveen
Ali, PhD, RN, lecturer in nursing at the University of
Sheffield, to Dublin and to have dinner with Catherine
McCabe, PhD RN, assistant professor in nursing at Trinity College Dublin,
with whom I have worked in Bahrain.
Finland
After
a weekend at home, I flew to Helsinki and on to Koupio to spend a few days at
the University
of Eastern Finland. My host here has been Mari
Kangasniemi, PhD, RN, with whom I had breakfast in Rome a few
years ago at a conference. I am always pleasantly surprised how these unplanned
encounters lead to future collaboration.
I
gave two classes here, one to assembled masses of doctoral and master’s
students in health on how to attract a reader’s attention in a manuscript. (To
listen to this lecture as a podcast, click here.) I am rarely able to
say that I packed out a lecture theatre, but I did this time. People were
sitting on the floor and out in the corridor, and I was asked some excellent
and challenging questions at the end.
The
point I made about attracting readers’ attention in manuscripts is to realise
who the initial readership is—first, the editor-in-chief and then the other
editors and reviewers. If you do not take these people into account, your
ultimate intended readership will never see your work. My second class, which
was more sedate, was a dialogue with the doctoral students in nursing.
Future
plans
After
I return to the UK, I have no further travel planned for this month. Next
month, I go to Australia and possibly Hong Kong and, if plans work out, Saudi
Arabia in November. I look forward to teaching my online module in quantitative
methods at the end of this month and getting reviews back on the manuscripts
I’ve submitted in recent months.
17 October 2015
Waltzing Matilda
SYDNEY
AIRPORT, Australia—Sydney’s Qantas First Class Lounge is my favourite airport
lounge in the world. Not only is it the untrammelled luxury, it is also the
view. From where I’m sitting, I can see the classic outline of the Sydney
skyline across a superb view of the airport with planes constantly on the move.
I
have been in Australia as a guest of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of
Newcastle, New South Wales. My good friend and
colleague, Sally Chan, PhD, RN, FAAN,
invited me for the week as an international visiting research scholar. I also
hold a conjoint professorship at the University.
Double
happiness
The
occasion for my visit is the 25th anniversary of the School of Nursing and
Midwifery, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the university.
Professor Chan describes it a “double happiness,” reflecting her Chinese
heritage and referring to a very common and much loved Chinese symbol.
The
week also coincided with the 2nd Australian Nursing and Midwifery Conference.
Held in Newcastle, it attracts delegates from across Australia, the Far East,
Southeast Asia, and Sri Lanka. My job for the week was to entertain the staff
for three days with seminars on the publication process and open-access
publishing. I also gave a lecture on my favourite analytical method, Mokken
scaling, captured for posterity on my podcast page.
At
the conference, I provided a workshop on writing for publication, which I
broadcast on Periscope TV. Twenty people joined
us, but I forgot to set my iPhone to save, so that was lost to posterity. I
won’t repeat that mistake. Finally, at the 25th anniversary celebration, I gave
the keynote address, titled “Nursing education: attitudes and evidence.”
This was an important occasion for the school as the Honorable Jillian Skinner, MP, New South Wales
Minister for Health, was present, along with the vice chancellor (president) of
the university and the pro-vice chancellor for health.
My
keynote focused on the need to maintain university level education for nurses
in the face of pressure in the UK to return to the “good old days.” I was very
pleased that Skinner—daughter of a nurse—made it clear that, while there is
such pressure in Australia, such a return will not happen during her term of
office. Before my address, we were entertained with some highly original a
cappella singing, including a rendition by the university Echology choir of “Waltzing Matilda,”
Australia’s unofficial national anthem.
Otherwise
It
was not all work. On my first day in Newcastle, we visited Hunter Valley,
famous for its vineyards. I tasted some of the best wines I have ever had.
Apparently, you sip a little and pour the rest out, which seems like a waste to
me. I slightly regretted my cabin-luggage-only policy, as I could not take any
back with me. Some of my Australian family came to visit, and I ran a total of
22 miles along the waterfront this week. This was my first time in Newcastle.
It will not be my last.
|
Yours
Truly with Professor Sally |
|
The smile on my face speaks volumes |
12 November 2015
St. Martin's summer in Genoa
GENOA,
Italy—Following my return from Australia, October was spent mainly in the UK.
Early November finds me back in Genoa, Italy for my final visit of 2015. My
visits for next year are planned already. The weather is exceptionally good,
and I’m assured this is St. Martin’s summer—a warm spell in early November during
the feast of St. Martin before the weather turns cold. I made the best of it
with several early-morning runs along the coast.
Mary
Seacole Leadership Awards
Soon
after returning from Australia, I was in London for the Royal College of Nursing Mary Seacole Leadership Awards.
The event was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
in London’s Regent’s Park, and it was a bit like revisiting the scene of an
accident. The 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise Nursing and Midwifery
subpanel meetings oscillated between the Royal College of Surgeons and
the RCOG, both in Regent’s Park, and while I enjoyed my time on that panel, the
work was hard and prolonged.
I was invited to the awards ceremony by
my very good friend and colleague Parveen Ali, PhD, RN, senior
lecturer, University of Sheffield, one of the recipients in 2014. In addition
to receiving her award at this event, she also presented her excellent project
on the use of multilingual nursing staff as translators in UK hospitals. Her
interest in the subject arose when she was working for a telephone triage
service—since discontinued—called NHS Direct. A native of Pakistan, she is a
fluent Urdu speaker, but when an Urdu speaker called, she was required to
transfer them to a translator. Listening to the translators, who were not
nurses, she often heard them misunderstand callers. These services cost a great
deal, and she wondered why the National Health Service did not utilize the
services of bilingual nurses, both for telephone services and in clinical
practice. For her project, she reviewed the policies of many NHS Trusts and
found much the same policy—with some anomalies—across England. Her study raises
some very interesting points.
Genoa
Links
between my own University of Hull and the University of Genoa are
strengthening. Our previous dean made a visit with me last year, and colleagues
from Hull are working, albeit at a distance, with Genovese colleagues on
translation and validation of a questionnaire designed to help in health
promotion related to melanoma. Mark Hayter, PhD, FAAN, my
colleague of many sojourns to the Far East and a Journal of Advanced
Nursing editor, visited two weeks before me and, like me, has a
programme of visits planned for 2016 and has also established collaborative
projects.
My
week here has been spent working with colleagues on a range of research and
writing projects and teaching research students about writing for publication.
The next visit, which will bring Hayter and me here at the same time, is in February
2016.
Pain
My
running continues, but climbing of all sorts and gym work have ceased, because
of a deltoid muscle-rotator cuff injury. I can’t pour water out of a kettle,
shake hands, use a mouse and keyboard, turn over in bed, or scratch my head without
extreme pain. Although I am having physiotherapy and taking some very powerful
antiinflammatory medication, I’m still in pain.
Next
week, I will be Aberdeen, on the north coast of Scotland, the city of my birth,
to take part in a review of the nursing and midwifery education provision at
Robert Gordon University. I’m hoping that will be the final flight of 2016, but
it looks like I may need to go to Saudi Arabia in late November or early
December. Next week, I also celebrate my 60th birthday with family and
friends at home in Hull, and then I look forward to a long break at Christmas
before traveling to Oman the first week of January.
3 December 2015
Sandstorms and traffic in Riyadh
RIYADH,
Saudi Arabia—Arriving at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in the
early hours of last Sunday impressed on me just how different this place is
from anywhere else I go. The streams of young ladies in various queues are
stopped past immigration and have their passports confiscated. This violation
of human rights means they are the indentured maids of Saudi families.
Misbehaviour of any kind ends in corporal punishment, or worse.
|
Yours Truly with Assistant Professor of |
The other side of Saudi
Arabia becomes visible when my Indian driver shakes my hand, this followed by a
charming young man in full Arab dress who also welcomes me to Riyadh. The
latter is Fayez, the unfortunate member of the teaching staff at King Saud University who
has been tasked to meet me. It is 3 a.m. before I arrive at my hotel. Fayez is
clearly getting the rest of the day off; I am not. Three and a half hours
later, I am up and off to meet the dean of nursing. I had my revenge on poor
Fayez, however. My driver had no idea where to take me—nobody gave us
instructions. We took in a great deal of Riyadh before I phoned Fayez, waking
him up to get directions.
The
dean is Associate Professor Ahmad
Aboshaiqah, PhD, RN, whom I met earlier this year on a
previous visit to Riyadh. Aboshaiqah, who lived in the United States for 10
years and whose doctorate was supervised by a mutual colleague, Marilyn Oermann, PhD, RN, FAAN,
commiserates on the loss of my good friend here, Professor James Ware, FRCS, who died a few
weeks back. I knew Ware in Hong
Kong, his death was sudden and, as
everyone here confirms, a great loss. He led the team responsible for medical
examinations at the Saudi
Commission for Health Specialties and also
established the Journal of Health Specialties.
I wrote his obituary for the journal, and that will be published soon.
Where
are the women?
I
am on my first visit to King Saud University to advise staff members on writing
for publication. Everything is done twice, as there is strict separation of
male and female students and, therefore, male and female staff members between
the main campus and the “girls’” campus. Apart from the Arab dress and Arab
manners—ultimate politeness to visitors and brusque orders to junior
staff—everything is quite normal with the men.
To
enter the girls’ campus is to enter another world. There is not a glimpse of an
undergraduate student and no view of the actual campus, which is behind high
walls and large double doors at the end of long corridors. I am in an outer
sanctum where men may wander freely and only staff members and masters’
students may venture. Most women—staff and students—are in the hijab,
with only eyes visible, which makes it very hard to know who is speaking.
There
are few non-verbal clues to indicate what they are thinking. I also keep introducing
myself to people—without a handshake—who tell me that I had already introduced
myself. There is continual and distracting adjustment of the abaya,
the yashmak, and the headdress and, as Arab
women do not project their voices, I am both confused and exhausted by the end
of two days. However, in two-to-one consultations—no female meets you alone—I
was able to advise on research projects and manuscripts and answer questions
about master’s and doctoral study at my university.
There
is virtually nothing to do in Riyadh. Where alcohol might take the edge off a
long evening for me elsewhere, it is not available here. To pass the time, you
work your way through a series of tooth-rotting and waist-expanding sickly
sweet fruit drinks and mountainous plates of food. Walking is virtually
impossible. Pavements—where they exist—are badly kept and where there is
construction, piles of bricks, tiles and sand block your way. Magnificent
buildings tower into the night sky, but getting to them on foot is impossible
and an incipient sandstorm makes being outdoors unpleasant. Crossing the road
to get to something that looks interesting is life threatening, as indicated in
this podcast clip. There was a gym at
the hotel, so I managed to burn a few calories in the evening.
I
will be in Saudi at least three times this next year, with one of those visits
to King Saud University. I visit Oman in January and Qatar in February, so it
seems that the Far East is becoming less of a venue for me as the Middle East
becomes more prominent. With the world the way it is now, I am frequently asked
about my personal safety. People unfamiliar with the region cannot distinguish
between Arab and terrorist, between Moslem and Islamic extremist. The religion
may seem incomprehensible and aspects of the culture repellant, but every
person who declines contact isolates the region further. As for personal
safety, if I change my schedule or the places I visit, I hand a minor victory
to the merchants of death.
Good
news and bad news
As
the joke goes, do you want the good news or the bad news first? The UK
government has decided to do two things with nursing education that make
perfect sense to me, one of which I have long advocated. Nursing students are
paid bursaries by the National Health Service (NHS) to study nursing, and this
will end. Despite progress made in moving nursing to universities and the move
to all-graduate entry to the profession, we have never completely broken the
link to the idea of the hospital apprenticeship model of training. Most other
students have to fund themselves or take out loans, which are repaid when they
enter employment. The UK is unique. In the United States and Australia, nursing
students have to finance their studies at university like any other student.
There is evidence—admittedly anecdotal—that some students come into nursing
only to be paid the bursary, with a low commitment to the profession. These
reports come from fellow students. It has always seemed wrong to me that, in a
situation where we are heavily oversubscribed to nursing programmes, that we
may be turning away people with a genuine commitment in favour of people doing
it for the bursary.
The
other thing that will change, mainly as a result of this change in funding, is
that the cap on nursing places in universities will be lifted, as it has been
lifted for other subjects. Universities can now take as many nursing students
as they can manage. These moves are proposed as a response to nursing shortages
and the high levels of non-UK nurses working in the NHS. These proposals were
raised in a report titled "Supplying
the demand for nurses" by Edmund Stubbs, whose credentials include
four years working as a health care assistant. When I downloaded my copy, I
opened it with relish. Thus ends the “good news.”
Expecting
to find a good read, I was horrified to find language that was highly
insensitive toward non-UK nurses, inappropriate nationalism, and complete
misunderstanding of how nursing education is organised. The insensitive
langauge came in the form of negative stereotyping of non-UK nurses who work in
the NHS. Stubbs describes how many go home after working for a few years, as if
they were to blame for being recruited, many leaving the poverty of their
country to earn money elsewhere and support their families. This seems like a
very acceptable form of foreign aid to me.
The
nationalism was apparent in the suggestion that, while those who choose to work
in the NHS should have their loans repaid, those who work abroad should not.
There is no logic to the NHS repaying the loans. I fail to see how this
represents a cost-saving (which is at the heart of the report), and it
continues to set nursing students aside from other students. Bribing nurses to
remain in the NHS by creating a financial differential is just wrong. If we
want to encourage nurses to work in the NHS, we must make it a better place to
work, and if we want to stop nurses from working overseas, then what about our
contribution to global nursing and how do we ensure that nurses gain international
experience that they can bring back to the UK?
Finally,
the report suggests that increasing the number of nursing students will be
beneficial to the NHS as cheap labour. This is ludicrous and, in any case,
nursing students have been “supernumerary” for nearly 20 years and are not
included as part of the nursing workforce. The author makes no mention of this
or about how nursing students will receive adequate supervision in clinical
practice. I assume he is unaware of the issues. I wish I could end on a higher
note, but, but except for this blog and podcast, where I describe fully what I
think of this and some recent research on non-UK nurses working in the NHS, I
find myself—finally—lost for words.
9 January 2016
Back in the sultanate
MUSCAT,
Sultanate of Oman—My Christmas holiday was cut short slightly by the need to be
in Oman on 2 January. This is my second visit to the sultanate, and I remain
impressed by the religious tolerance and relative freedom I observe here,
compared with some other parts of the Middle East I have visited. Also,
compared with last time, the January weather has been very pleasant, making it
possible to walk and even run in the evenings. My last visit here was at the
height of their summer when any outside activity is almost unbearable.
Virtually all Omanis are Muslim, and minarets and mosques are much in evidence.
The call to prayer goes out regularly.
Examining at Sultan Qaboos University
I
have been here as an external examiner at the Sultan Qaboos
University College of Nursing, located at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital.
The college is a cultural melting pot of nationalities with the staff composed
of local Omanis, Jordanians, Filipinos, Ugandans, Indians, and at least one
Pakistani. Normally, when I work as an external examiner, the job entails
reviewing the processes used to examine students, looking at examination
content, and assessing how well standards are being met.
All
of that is part of my role here, but external examiners are also expected to
participate in conducting final examinations of the students. Two days are
spent in the hospital listening to students presenting clinical cases and
observing them performing a clinical procedure. One day is spent taking part in
the oral examinations. It’s very stressful for the students, exhausting for the
examiners, and bears no resemblance to what I am used to back home. I am
uncomfortable in the clinical areas, as I feel my presence is an intrusion into
patient privacy. However, the role of external examiners is explained and,
together with previous examiners, I have been able to persuade the college to
minimize the time we spend at bedsides.
When I am overseas and invited to visit
clinical areas, I invariably refuse, unless I have some specific function there
that is related to teaching or research. Nevertheless, my time here in the
hospital, as in my previous visit, was informative. Sickle
cell disease is very common in Oman. The problem, as with many Arabic and
Muslim populations, is consanguineous marriage. Health education advice
and genetic counseling is provided in an effort to eradicate the disease, but
preference for cousin marriage—a very strong cultural drive to keep things “in
the family”—is hard to stop. Recessive carriers are so common that marrying
outside of the family is no guarantee of not having children with sickle cell
disease.
A
resolution and an anniversary
My
new year’s resolution, not the first time I have made this one, is to read
more, and I made a good start over Christmas with The
Alzheimer Conundrum by Margaret Lock. Lock is a
social scientist who, equipped with a thorough knowledge of the literature,
investigates theories about Alzheimer’s disease by interviewing some of the key
researchers. Essentially, causes of Alzheimer’s disease—as opposed to
correlates—remain controversial.
The Journal of Advanced Nursing celebrates
40 years this year—our “JANiversary”—and we will run a series of editorials
throughout the year reflecting on the first issue and key papers from the first
volume. These will be available to download free from our website for a few
weeks. You may wish to read my January editorial which reflects on
40 years of JAN.
After
leaving Oman, I return to the UK for 10 days, after which I travel to the
Netherlands and then almost directly to Taiwan. My trip to the Far East will be
a special one because, for the first time in many years, my wife will accompany
me. Because it will be her first visit to Taiwan, it is causing great
excitement among my colleagues there, as only a few have met her. On this
occasion, I may not be the VIP.
1
February 2016
From Utrecht to Tainan and back
home again
EN
ROUTE TO LONDON—January has been one of the busiest months I remember for a
long time. After visiting the Middle East, I was in the Netherlands, and now,
after a week in Taiwan, am returning to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong
aboard Cathay Pacific’s Flight CX253.
Utrecht
My
time in the Netherlands was spent in Utrecht, where I gave a keynote address to
the European Academy of Nursing Sciences (EANS) Winter Summit. I was originally
invited last year when the conference was in Athens, but other travel obviated
that. So I was really pleased to be able to accept this time, especially
since Julie Taylor, PhD, RN, FEANS, chair
of the summit’s Science Committee and professor of child protection at the
University of Birmingham in the UK, is a long-time and very good friend.
My
keynote (listen here) was on using social
media to promote academic publications. I met many other old friends and colleagues
in Utrecht and continue to be impressed by the quality of research carried out
by some of the up-and-coming nursing academics in Europe. I am not a political
Europhile, but I am very glad we have these trans-European organisations. David Richards, PhD, RN, FEANS,
president of EANS and professor of mental health services research at the University of Exeter,
UK, gave a very thoughtful and provocative summary of current events in Europe.
In
discussing mass migration from the Middle East, he addressed the dilemma of
responding with compassion to stateless people while having zero tolerance for
the despicable attitudes some male migrants display toward women in the
countries that have welcomed them. Moving to academic nursing journals,
Richards claimed that a great deal of what is published in them is flawed, not
the best introduction I could have had for my keynote address. Nevertheless, he
and I have exchanged a great deal of good-natured banter across the years, and
a little more never hurts.
The
Republic of China
The
election of a woman—Tsai Ing-wen—as president of Taiwan
put this small island country on the international stage in the week prior to
my arrival. I have to choose my words carefully here because describing Taiwan
as a nation will upset my mainland Chinese colleagues, and anything suggesting
Taiwan is less than independent will upset my Taiwanese Green Party colleagues.
This
week, I was in the south of Taiwan in Tainan, the former capital and heartland
of the Green Party, where everyone was
delighted by the recent election result. I was a guest of the Asian Congress in
Nursing Education held at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan. I was there
to give a keynote address and was “on the bill” with the legendary Afaf Meleis, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean
emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, USA.
My keynote (listen here) was on use of nursing
informatics in education, and I showed a picture of all eight of my children
and pointed to my oldest daughter Hannah Watson, RN, BSc, who, on that very
day, was celebrating 10 years as a registered nurse. In fact, on the day she
passed her finals, I was also in Taiwan. A critical care specialist, she is
just completing her advanced nurse practitioner programme at Sheffield Hallam University,
UK.
This
was a very special visit to Taiwan as it was the first time my wife had
accompanied me. I cannot list all the people in Tainan and Taipei who were so
wonderful looking after her, but special mention must go to Tzu-Pei Yeh, RN,
who recently completed her PhD under my direction. She attended to our every
need. We ate large quantities of Chinese food, listened to karaoke, and
copiously toasted everyone with wine at a formal banquet. At least Mrs. Watson got
some insight into my sufferings!
Two nights in Taipei, where the recent
election result was not greeted with much enthusiasm, completed the visit. We
met Nanly Hsu, PhD, RN, former dean of nursing
at Tzu-Chi
University in Hualien, on the Pacific coast of Taiwan
and Lin-Lian Huang, PhD, RN, FAAN, former
dean of nursing at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Former
president of the Taiwan Nurses Association, Huang is a candidate to sit on the
governing body of the International Council of Nurses (ICN).
Much
to my embarrassment, Huang recalled that the UK, through the offices of
the Royal
College of Nursing (RCN), is no longer a member of the ICN. I am
a long-standing member and a fellow of the RCN, but I simply cannot agree with
us losing our voice on the world stage. There is an All-Party
Parliamentary Group in the UK currently working with the RCN to
consider nursing’s contribution to global health. My individual response,
submitted recently to the group, included the point that the RCN should rejoin
the ICN.
A
meeting with Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, of National
Yang-Ming University, Taiwan—my longest-standing Taiwanese
colleague—completed our visit. Lin was Leverhulme Visiting Professor when
I was working at the University of Sheffield, UK. If I
pioneered assessment of feeding difficulty in older people with dementia, it
was Lin who took this work to another level by translating my scale into
Chinese and using it in the first rigorous intervention trials using Montessori and spaced retrieval methods.
She knows my wife and family very well, and we had our annual reunion in “our
place,” le
ble d'or.
Back
in Hull
This
coming week, I will be interviewed about nursing education by Jane Dreaper of the BBC; do
some “firefighting” over issues that have arisen and for which I am—pro
tem—responsible; and conduct an intimate but necessary medical investigative
procedure—you don’t want to know the details—before returning to the University
of Genoa in Italy for a week. Otherwise, the racing season for us runners has
started here, and I need to decide which races to aim for. My ambition remains
completing a 10-kilometre race in under 45 minutes.
24 February
2016
Italy, Qatar, and back to the UK
EN
ROUTE TO MANCHESTER—After a 4 a.m. start, I’m having breakfast in the
luxurious Al Mourjan Business Lounge in Hamad
International Airport in Doha, Qatar. I’m also reflecting on yet
another month spent largely away from home as I watch my diary fill up with
travel well beyond the middle of the year.
My
flight to Doha was aboard the fabulous Boeing
Dreamliner plane, and the picture shown below, which I
took en route from Manchester, England to Doha, shows its unique wing
shape against an extraordinarily blue sky. As I write this, I am about to
return to Manchester from Doha, aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR46.
Italy
Earlier this month, I
spent a week in Genoa, Italy at the University of Genoa, which I visit
regularly. The weather in Italy was beginning to warm up, which was a change
from a cold and dull UK. On this occasion, Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my
Hull colleague, was there, making his second visit. Since we both edit
the Journal of Advanced Nursing,
we often share our experience of writing for publication with colleagues and
students. It’s a good double act, as we complement each other methodologically
across the quantitative-qualitative spectrum.
One
of my tasks on this visit was to inaugurate a series of international lectures
for final-year nursing students, and I was asked to talk about writing for
publication. I am really not sure how relevant this is to all of them, but I
emphasised the bad things we academics get up to by way of cheating with regard
to publications: plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, falsification, creation
of bogus webpages and publications, and subversion of the peer-review system.
Frankly, they loved it.
Qatar
My return to the UK today follows a few
days of visiting the Hamad
Medical Corporation (HMC) in Doha. This visit was built around
several lectures, workshops, and tutorials on writing for publication, and I
was there at the invitation of Richard
Gray, PHD, RN. Gray is an editor of the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing,
also from the Wiley stable.
Hamad
Medical Corporation is, primarily, a private company that provides medical care
on an impressive scale to the population of Qatar. It is not an educational or
research institution but has a very active education department led by Annie Topping, PhD, RN, one of my
long-time friends in nursing. I may have mentioned this in a previous entry,
but I was a student nurse on the ward that Topping managed at St. James
Hospital in London when I did my ward management assessment. We go back a long
way.
In
addition to the work, which starts at 7 a.m. in Qatar, I visited The Pearl,
a housing complex mainly occupied by expatriates. The HMC owns two blocks there
for its employees. Over a barbecue and speaking with friends, I gained more
insight into expatriate lifestyle in Qatar, which, I imagine, is similar across
the Middle East.
In
a country that is nomadic in origin but now extremely urbanised, the
expatriates are the nomads. Few spend a long time here, but most have spent a
long time away from their native countries in expatriate communities. Similar
communities can be found in Hong Kong and Singapore. Although expatriate life
offers great rewards, it also requires great sacrifices, and I am not sure if
it is a life I would have liked to lead. On the final day, I gave a lecture titled
“Tips on successful publishing,” which you can listen to in this podcast.
Next
month, the Middle East beckons again. I note that my 50-page passport has only
one page left. and it is only four years old. My priority on returning to the
UK is to obtain a new passport, or I will not be going anywhere.
31 March 2016
Saudi Arabia, Part 1
HULL,
United Kingdom—Absence of a blog post from me for several weeks should not be
interpreted to mean that I only write when I am on my travels. Occasionally, I
post entries from Hull, where I have been for the past three weeks, but these
weeks have been packed with long days, many meetings, learning about new
processes, and catching up on supervision of doctoral students. As I remarked
to my wife: “It’s almost like having a real job. I’ll be glad
to get away for a rest.”
I have just returned to the UK from
Saudi Arabia, the first of three visits scheduled in quick succession. At the
invitation of Mustafa Bodrick, PhD, RN, director,
Center of Nursing Education, King Abdulaziz Medical City, I have been at
the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), where I
attended and presented—keynote, workshop, and plenary—at the 2nd International Conference in Nursing & Health Sciences.
We arrived in a dust storm and searing heat, which were followed by torrential
rain that cleared the air and cooled things down considerably.
There
were about 2,000 delegates at the conference, and I was one of five
international speakers, all of whom worked hard each day to fulfill their
obligations. I was delighted, for the second time this year, to meet Afaf Meleis, PhD, RN, FAAN, who is
now dean emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. We first
met in Tainan, Taiwan. She is sparkling
company, and her fluency in Arabic helped us all in several situations.
I was also glad to renew acquaintance
with Janye Smitten, PhD, RN, health
administration tutor, Athabasca University, Canada’s
Open University and Muntaha Gharaibeh, PhD, RN, former dean
of nursing, Jordan University of Science and Technology. I met Smitten the
first time a few years ago at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada,
and Gharaibeh two years ago in Saudi Arabia. At the conference, I was also very
pleased to get to know Shirley Moore, PhD, RN, FAAN, The
Edward J. and Louise Mellen Professor of Nursing at Case Western Reserve
University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and associate dean for research at that
school.
I
was able to squeeze in a meeting one evening with Ahmad
Aboshaiqah, PhD, RN, dean of nursing, King Saud University
(KSU), Riyadh, and a prospective doctoral student to discuss admission
processes at the University of Hull and the possibility of pioneering an
external joint supervision programme between Hull and KSU. There was no great
pressure to finalise arrangements, as I will return to KSU at the end of next
week. All I have to do between now and then is secure a visa, visit Dublin and
Edinburgh, and get back to London Heathrow.
15 April 2016
Saudi Arabia, Part 2
JEDDAH,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—Between “Saudi Arabia, Part 1,” posted 31 March, and
this entry, I have been home to Hull, visited Dublin for one night to give a
lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,
was in Edinburgh for three nights, and now I have been in Riyadh for a week.
This post comes from the Crowne Plaza Jeddah, a 90-minute flight
from Riyadh, where I have retreated for the weekend (Friday and Saturday).
My
Facebook memory told me this morning that it is, to the day, exactly one year
since I was last here. I need this break, because it has been a hectic week
with teaching, preparation for teaching, and meetings. I spent a day at the
Female Student Campus of King Saud University holding
consultations and teaching students who are pursuing their master’s degree in
nursing. I visited King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre to
arrange for my day of teaching there next week, and one evening I visited the
British ambassador's residence for a function organised by another UK
university, the University of Dundee, where I know
colleagues well. A farcical taxi journey caused me to miss the address by
British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Simon Collis, CMG, but I caught
talks given by the Dundee staff.
I was very pleased to see Janice Rattray, PhD, RN, who is also
working here this week. The last time I met her was a year ago in the
first-class lounge of King Khalid Airport, Riyadh when we were both leaving
Saudi Arabia. I also had lunch with her next day in the sumptuous Ritz Carlton hotel.
The
journey to the British embassy did not go well from the start. My driver was
unavailable, so the hotel staff summoned a taxi. It was clear from the outset
that the cabbie had no idea where the British embassy was, nor did he speak
English. When getting into the taxi, however, my thought was, “How bad can this
be?” Well, it got bad. He drove to the diplomatic area as directed, I think, by
the hotel staff, and tried to drop me off at a British school. I had the upper
hand, of course, as I still had the 50 Saudi riyal, the maximum taxi fare, in
my pocket.
We
proceeded to do a tour of the embassies, and when I spotted the Union Jack on a
sign, I thought I was safe, but it transpired—thanks to a Dutch gentleman who
was trying to hail a taxi outside the Belgian embassy—that this was not the
side of the compound where the British ambassador lived. My poor taxi driver
was almost as stressed as me and refused to move, even after instructions in
Arabic from the guard at the Belgian embassy who, I’m sure, was watching the
commotion with amusement. I goaded the driver to move, but he wouldn’t.
I
was standing outside the car when another drew up beside us to ask the Dutch
gentleman directions to the British embassy. The occupants were two ladies I
had met last year, and they recognised me. “Dr. Roger,” they shouted. I did not
recognise them, however, as they were wearing traditional Saudi female attire.
I paid off my driver, invited the Dutch gentleman to that taxi—he declined—and
I joined the ladies in their taxi. The story does not end there, but it would
take too long to describe every detail of our two tours round the diplomatic
area with me crying, “Stop!” when I correctly identified the proper drop-off
point—to no avail the first time, but successfully the second time.
Meantime, turning the clock back a few
days, I was in Edinburgh to attend the UK’s Royal College
of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference 2016,
which celebrated 100 years of the RCN, 60 years of academic nursing at the
University of Edinburgh, and 40 years of Journal of Advanced Nursing.
I was there to interview James P. Smith, DLitt (honoris causa), OBE, founding
editor of the journal, and Alison
Tierney, PhD, FRCN, CBE, former editor-in-chief. I also
entertained them, along with former editor Jacqueline Fawcett, PhD, FAAN. Fawcett
recalled a lunch with my wife Debbie and me, and our then 10-year-old son
Charles that took place more than 10 years ago on a very cold Boston winter
day. You can hear the interviews in this podcast.
Despite
coming to Jeddah to rest, I will be meeting two former doctoral students: Wafaa
Al-Johani, PhD, RN, and Ahlam Eidah Al-Zahrani, PhD, RN, who both now work
at The College of Nursing, King Abdulaziz
University. They invited me to lunch with their dean, Hasnah Erfan Banjar, PhD, RN. I also had
dinner with John Sedgewick, RN, director of nursing education and Saudization,
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, and a doctoral student
at the University of Sheffield, United
Kingdom.
I
don’t know if will return relaxed and refreshed to Riyadh tomorrow, but I have
enjoyed every minute of this short break. I have a busy week ahead before I
submit Part 3 of this Saudi Arabia trilogy.
20 April 2016
Saudi Arabia, Part 3
RIYADH,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—This is the end of my Saudi Arabia trilogy, although an
addendum will be posted in May when I come back to speak at a conference. (I
suppose I could identify the now four-part series as a tetralogy or
quadrilogy.) My visit to Jeddah was over too quickly. For the first three days
back in Riyadh, with teaching and other presentations from early morning until
late afternoon, I barely had time to think. Now, I have two days to reflect and
clear up loose ends before I return to the UK.
My first day back in Riyadh was spent
partly in the College of Nursing (male) with Master in Nursing students and
partly in the Medical College, where I gave a lecture about detecting
similarity in manuscripts (available on podcast). The next day was
spent at the leading hospital in Riyadh, King
Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH),
teaching on writing for publication and evidence-based practice. That day was
hosted by Marinha Macedo, RN, nursing research senior specialist. By
coincidence, I met her counterpart, Gillian Sedgewick, RN, at the Jeddah King
Faisal hospital on the weekend. Both KFSHs are Magnet hospitals, the first in the
Middle East. The third day was spent teaching at the General Directorate of Health Affairs, Riyadh on
research and publishing. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, but I was glad when
it ended, as I was exhausted.
|
Jeddah memories: Yours Truly with, l-r, Wafaa |
The day finished back at the Ritz Carlton
at a dinner hosted by my former University of Sheffield student, Mansour Al-Yami, PhD, RN, now
general director, training and scholarship, at the Saudi Ministry of Health,
along with several colleagues from the Saudi Ministry of Health. You know
you’re a frequent visitor to a place when you get tapped on the shoulder and
turn round to see someone you know. Mustafa Bodrick, PhD, RN, of King Saud bin
Abdulaziz University (blog passim) was also dining,
and he introduced me to Gwen
Sherwood, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, with whom I will be dining tonight. Leaving the Ritz, I almost
bumped—literally—into Joseph Westphal, U.S. ambassador to
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Any closer, and I think the security detail
would have “taken me out.” I wonder if he was making arrangements for U.S.
President Obama, who arrives today.
Reflections
on Saudi Arabia
I
have mentioned before in this blog that I am often asked about my safety when
travelling to the Middle East. When I ask people to specify more precisely what
they mean—I understand the question but am tired of it—they never can. There is
an association in people’s minds between Arabs and terrorists. The association
is understandable, given press portrayal of the situation in some parts of the
region. The same kind of association applied to Northern Ireland for a
prolonged period, now euphemistically referred to as “the troubles.”
However,
I have also noted a frequent question here—almost daily—in my meetings about my
impressions of Saudi Arabia. My answer depends on the question. If I am asked,
“Do I like Saudi Arabia?” I find it hard to say yes, simply due to the visual
impact of women peeping out over niqabs,
an image I find hard to accept. However, while the positional disparity of men
and women runs deep in Saudi society, I realise this cannot be a barrier to
cooperation and collaboration. I find the women charming, self-deprecating,
funny, and easy to work with. This is not my country, and I am a guest.
On
the other hand, I was asked if my view of Saudi Arabia was positive or
negative, and I replied without hesitation that it is positive. To someone from
the West, the intrusive nature of religion is alien. However, I have been
coming here since 1991, albeit with a significant gap in time, and things are
changing. This is a highly developed society with the best hospitality and the
most respectful people I have ever met. As I have said before, we turn our
backs on the Middle East at our peril.
Exercise
Running
has not been possible here, as there is not enough pavement to accommodate it
in the part of Riyadh where I have been staying, so it has been the treadmill
for two weeks. My various injuries are starting to resolve, and I can do a
full-length pull-up without screaming. This indicates that, if I continue to
improve, I should be able to start climbing again.
12 May 2016
If it's Wednesday, I must be in
Spain!
RIYADH,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—I’ve been mostly confined to Europe recently, but
that’s not a complaint. In fact, it has been pleasant to take short flights for
a change, and those flights—and two rail journeys—have taken me to Edinburgh,
Belfast, Manchester, Madrid, and Genoa. This has given me a respite from the
medium to long hauls that started with Qatar and Saudi Arabia (reported here),
followed in quick succession with trips to China, Hong Kong, and Australia, all
with return flights to the UK.
Edinburgh
I
take every chance I can to visit Edinburgh. My recent trip was to address a
conference of doctoral students and staff members on using social media to
promote research (click here for podcast). In
doing so, I mentioned this blog. In fact, on my travels I meet a great many
people who read “Hanging smart.”
The
conference was held at Edinburgh Napier University, and I used the
opportunity to meet my oldest school friend—of 55 years standing—for dinner. On
the way to meet him, a colleague from Pamplona, Spain contacted me to ask what
I knew of Nan Shepherd. My friend in Spain is
interested in all things Celtic, and he knew I came from the same area of
Scotland as Shepherd: Royal Deeside. That morning Shepherd, a writer of novels
and poems, was featured in the news as only the second woman—the first being
Florence Nightingale—to have her image on a UK bank note and the first woman
featured on a Scottish bank note. (Scottish banks have always had their own
bank notes.)
“Where’s
this going?” I hear you ask. My host and old school friend is the “honorary”
grandson of Nan Shepherd, his mother having been brought up by her, and his
brother Erlend Clouston (former
journalist and hotelier extraordinaire) is Nan Shepherd’s literary executor.
Later, on this European journey, I had dinner with my Celtic colleague in
Pamplona and was able to recount this extraordinary coincidence.
Belfast
and Manchester
My
visit to Belfast was to examine the thesis of a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast.
I felt very sorry for the student as my flight was delayed two hours, and I
doubted I would make it. I took the flight, conducted the examination with both
eyes on my watch, and was back at Belfast City Airport approximately 90 minutes
after arriving, only to suffer another delay of nearly one hour.
In
the meantime, I was speaking on my phone at every opportunity to the Saudi
Health Office in London about my visa for the next visit, and they were
doubtful if they could get it to me within a week. The problem was, I needed my
passport within the week for a visit to Spain. At the last minute, and at great
inconvenience to my contact there, the visa was obtained. Sometimes, I wonder
if the stress is worth it. The day after my return from Belfast, I was in
Manchester to address the Saudi Association in the UK on “Writing your thesis: Chapter by chapter”
and “The four rules of writing your thesis”
(both available as podcasts).
Spain
I was pleased to complete, before leaving
the UK again for a few days in Spain, one major piece of work for our associate
dean for learning and teaching and also to make significant progress with a
research grant proposal. I flew to Madrid to address alumni of
the University
of Navarra School of Nursing, Pamplona campus, on “'Keeping the science in nursing,”
and then I was off by train to Pamplona in the north of Spain, made famous by
Ernest Hemingway for its running of the bulls. Although I had been in Spain
recently, many years had passed since visiting either Madrid or Pamplona.
|
With former doctoral students Christina
Oroviocoicoechea, |
Madrid and the University of Navarra,
which was established by the Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei,
hold a special place in my academic career. It was there, in 1991 when I was at
the University of Edinburgh, that we had an exchange programme for staff and my
international career began. It was there that I first lectured through
translators, occupied a desk in a university outside the UK, spent prolonged
periods (other than military service) away from my family, and began to see the
potential of international work.
I
have had great success with four doctoral students from Pamplona who studied
with me in the UK, three of whom are now good colleagues (one decreased,
sadly), and I have established strong professional and family links. My oldest
daughter Hannah came here with me when she was 8 years old. She made two other
family-exchange visits and then returned in the final year of her nursing
diploma to work in critical care for a month, which led to her securing a job
in critical care in the UK. Hannah has remained in critical care and is on the
verge of qualifying as an advanced nurse practitioner.
We
also have additional family ties here in that another of my colleagues and his
wife are godparents to my son Joseph. My visit to Pamplona was to address
colleagues on writing and publishing in impact-factor English nursing journals
(podcast), in addition to attending a
doctoral student examination and holding other meetings with faculty members in
the School of Nursing.
Italy
I
returned to the University of Genova in Genoa on the Ligurian coast of Italy.
One of the hazards here is that, whereas Spanish women greet you with two
kisses, right cheek first, in Italy they greet you with two kisses, left cheek
first. Get it wrong, and a nasty head butt or a clash of spectacles can easily
take place. This visit was to make further progress on some research work,
establish a new project, and continue working on publications with doctoral
students. I also managed a 10-mile run on my final morning.
Middle
East
Passing
through the UK, I transferred from London Gatwick to London Heathrow at the
weekend and proceeded to Doha in Qatar for lunch with Richard Gray, PhD, RN, of Hamad
Medical Corporation before flying on to Riyadh to deliver on Monday two papers
at the nursing stream of the Saudi
Health 2016 Conference. Tomorrow, I meet with colleagues
at King Saud University and then fly home via Doha.
Running
Between
trips to Spain and Italy, I spent one day at home and took part in the Beverley 10k race. It was not my best
effort and, for the UK, it was hot (20 Celcius, 68 Fahrenheit). I have had
difficulty finding the time and the right places to do the sort of fast
training you need for races. However, with my youngest son injured at the
moment, at least I was the fastest Watson at 51:05. My ambition to beat 45
minutes will have to wait for another race.
6 June 2016
China: Hot food and hot weather
LUZHOU,
Sichuan Province, China—I have been in China this week, making my third visit
to what is currently known as The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical
University. On each visit, the name has changed—on one hand, as the status of
the institution has risen, and, on the other hand, as objections from elsewhere
in the province have risen about the name that is being used. Apparently, there
are objections to the current name, and it may well change again before I
return. Whatever the name, the hospital I visit here is in the same place:
Luzhou, China, on the banks of the mighty Yangtze River.
Ostensibly,
my visit here is to deliver a lecture at an international conference on
transitional care. My topic? Telemonitoring of older people. When asked by
other presenters if I am an expert on the subject, my reply was: “Well, I am
now!” I have to admit to only a passing acquaintance with telehealth in any of
its varieties, and there is much greater expertise available on the topic at my
university. But I am the visiting professor here, and I am expected to know
everything.
|
Yours Truly with Pulon Chang, Yang-Ming
University, |
I enjoyed reading about telehealth and
telemonitoring and, with the help of my old friend and interpreter Daniel Liu,
I managed to deliver my session. I am also very grateful to David Barrett, PhD,
RN, senior lecturer on my faculty at the University of Hull, for some
PowerPoint slides based on his recent research. Otherwise and more
significantly, I am here to continue collaboration between the hospital and my
university. We have already graduated one doctoral student, and we plan to have
academic visitors and additional doctoral students.
About
the food
Food was plentiful and spicy as ever. My
hosts outdid themselves one night when we visited a very traditional
restaurant. My advice: If you have doubts about spicy
food, avoid anything labelled “traditional.” Not for the first time in Luzhou,
I was rendered speechless by some of the food, which combines the heat of
chillies and the local specialty spice, which I now know is colloquially called
“tip of the tongue,” as it renders the tip of your tongue, lips, and inner
cheeks numb. You can’t speak, and neither should you, until the effect passes.
The only known antidote is cold beer, also plentiful. I ran on the banks of the
Yangtze River again, but the weather was too hot for anything very serious.
Climbing
Finally,
after some procrastination, I returned to the climbing wall, my first visit in
nearly 10 months. I really enjoyed my half hour (all I could manage) but have
been unable to return due to a severe shortage of skin on my fingers, which are
mostly healed now. I’m ready for a second visit soon.
17 June 2016
Hong Kong: The same but different
HONG
KONG, SAR, China—Five days ago, less than a week after transferring through
Hong Kong International Airport, I was back, jet-lagged. Although I have been
through the airport 10 times since my last visit, this was the first time I had
stepped out of the airport in 12 months.
I
am back in Hong Kong to sit on the University
Grants Council (UGC) Humanities and Social Sciences Sub-Panel.
Under excellent chairing by Cindy
Fan, PhD, vice provost for international studies and
global engagement, UCLA Department of Geography, we disbursed approximately HK$
50 million for research to eight universities in the Special Administrative
Region. I am halfway through a six-year term (maximum), which guarantees me
three more annual visits to Hong Kong.
We
also made a UGC advisory visit to the University of Hong Kong. My assignment
was to meet with the dean and colleagues in the Faculty of
Medicine, which includes the School of Nursing.
The University of Hong Kong is the oldest in Hong Kong and, for 50 years, its
only university. Currently, the president and vice-chancellor is Peter
Mathieson, a nephrologist from the United Kingdom. En route
to a meeting, he introduced himself to me in the elevator, and I was able to
tell him I was from the University of Hull. The University Grants Council,
under which the Research Grants Council (RGC) sits, hosted an excellent banquet
on the final working day.
Friends,
old and very new
Outside of meetings, I had dinners with a
series of old friends and colleagues, including Eric Chan, MBA, RN, dean of Caritas
Institute of Higher Education and member of GAPFON.
I extended my stay to attend a 100 Days celebration for Nathaniel
Smith, 100-day old son of my good friends Graeme Smith, PhD, RN, of Edinburgh
Napier University (UK) and his wife Maggie. I attended their wedding here six
years ago. This was my first meeting with Nathaniel, and I think I made quite
an impression.
The
weather is always a topic of conversation in Hong Kong, something I think the
locals inherited from the days of British colonisation. It’s been wet, humid,
and increasingly hot over the course of the past week. That’s the same as
usual, but during my 12-month absence a new high-rise building has risen on the
Kowloon side of the harbour. Also, Louis’s Steakhouse, Hong Kong’s oldest and
one of my favourite places to eat, has closed, priced out of business by rising
rents in the Wan Chai district. I am lucky this year, because I will be back in
Hong Kong in early July en route to Australia. I am taking my son Joseph, and
we are meeting my daughter Lucy. Some of that will feature in my next entry.
20 July 2016
Evidence in support of baccalaureate nurses stacks up
HONG
KONG, SAR, China—Less than a week after leaving Hong Kong, I was back, this
time for a few days with my son—his first visit to Hong Kong—on the way to
Australia. It is easy to make an impression on people with Hong Kong: the
world’s highest bar (the 118th floor Ozone), possibly the best high-level
restaurant in the world (the incomparable Felix restaurant), and searing hot
temperatures.
The
Conversation
One
of the best things to come out of Australia in recent years is The Conversation.
This is an online newspaper for which only academics may write. Supported
financially by CommBank and most universities, The
Conversation now exists in three other countries, including the United States
and the United Kingdom. The articles take the form of short, blog-like entries,
and individuals have to “pitch” pieces to the editors. After several failed
efforts at pitching, I finally had one accepted on the basis of a study that I
co-authored, which was published in Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Even
for an experienced writer and editor, it was an instructive process. Once the
pitch was accepted, I was given very specific instructions on how to write the
piece and was given 48 hours to produce 700 words. The house style aims for the
reading level of a 16-year-old with short sentences, no polysyllabic words
(i.e. no “big” ones—sorry, couldn’t resist that), main points presented in the
opening, and not ending with “More research is needed.” I am tempted to
introduce the same style for Journal of Advanced Nursing. It works!
My
article was titled “You’re more likely to survive hospital if your nurse has a
degree.” The study was led by Richard Gray, PhD, RN, of the Hamad
Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. Evidence that baccalaureate nurses save
more lives is already available from the work of Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN,
of the University of Pennsylvania and the RN4CAST study, and our study takes
this work forward.
In
Qatar, each incident of nursing care is recorded electronically, which means
the nurse’s name is recorded. From that, we were able to see whether the nurse
is a baccalaureate graduate. We were then able to calculate the extent to which
patients received care from baccalaureate—as opposed to diplomate—nurses. The
results show that when baccalaureate nurses deliver care, patients are less
likely to die. As I write, less than two weeks after publication, my article
has had more than 9,000 reads, and its Altmetrics score is
currently 70.
Meantime,
in Australia
I
am making my annual visit to Western
Sydney University (until recently called University of Western
Sydney) as adjunct professor and also visiting my relatives in Brisbane. My son
Joseph is here with me, and my daughter Lucy, an RN in the British Army, has
also been here for a few weeks. We had a good family reunion.
Looking
ahead to travel plans for the rest of the year, I see that Turkey is on my
calendar for December. I have been invited to speak at a conference, and my
wife will accompany me for our wedding anniversary. For that reason and because
I have friends and colleagues in Turkey, I hope events following the failed
military coup have settled down. I have been in contact with a very good
nursing colleague who says they are all “stressed and depressed” at the present
situation. Once again, I find that problems in another part of the world help
put my own problems into perspective.
5 September 2016
How many shopping days?
HULL,
United Kingdom—This entry finds me after significant breaks from blogging—at
least in “Hanging Smart”—and travel. I take the title of this post from the UK
obsession this time of year, when summer is ending and people are looking
forward to their next major holiday, Christmas—especially the constant
reminders from the retail sector of how many shopping days and weekends we have
left in our spending spree.
Over
summer, the long-suffering Mrs. Watson insisted we take a break, and that led
to a few days in London doing things we never did when we lived there many
years ago. On the scholarly side of things, two major research-grant proposals
have been submitted to potential funders, and several manuscripts have been
revised and resubmitted to journals.
We
are now at that time in the academic year when our modules have to be revised
for the coming semester and dissertations from final-year students marked.
People often ask if, with all my travelling, I actually teach and mark
students’ work. The answer is yes. I must admit that my incredible colleagues
at Hull carry a heavier load than I of these things and, without their support,
I could not maintain my international work. However, I like to think I am still
engaged with students at all programme levels.
Since
my last entry, I have been to Oxford, UK, to attend the management team meeting
of Journal of Advanced Nursing.
This is the best two days of the year in terms of discussion and decision-making,
and I keep reminding myself how lucky I am to work with a superb publishing
team at Wiley—I have known and worked with at least one of its members for 25
years—and a highly professional team of editors.
Immediately
prior to that meeting, I attended the 2016 meeting of INANE (International
Academy of Nursing Editors) at the headquarters of the Royal College of Nursing in
London. There I had the privilege of listening to Ben
Goldacre, MB, BS, MA, author of Bad Science (the book and
the blog), Bad Pharma, and now I Think You’ll Find it’s a Bit More Complicated Than That.
He signed a copy for me. Goldacre initiated the AllTrials campaign,
which aims for total transparency in reporting clinical trials. I reflect on
this meeting and what he had to say in a post titled “Being Ben Goldacre” in my
blog “Publishing Standards.”
The break from travel ended last week. I
have just returned from Edinburgh Napier University in
Scotland, which has launched a new School of Health and Social Care.
The launch event took place over two days and was attended by colleagues from
Hong Kong and Singapore. Of those colleagues, I was especially pleased to see
my good friend Eric Chan, MSc, RN, dean of Caritas
Institute of Higher Education in Hong Kong,
former deputy chief nurse of the Hong Kong Health Authority, and one of the
founding members of GAPFON (Global Advisory Panel on the
Future of Nursing & Midwifery).
I
suppose I ought to be counting the time to Christmas by air miles and how many
weekends I will actually spend at home. This week, I’m spending three days at
Churchill College, University of Cambridge, at the 2016 NET (Nurse Education Tomorrow) conference where I
am providing early-morning consultation sessions on writing for publication.
Looking
further ahead, between now and the end of the year, in addition to another
visit to Edinburgh and at least three to London, I will make two visits to
Spain (Madrid and Pamplona); one to Maribor, Slovenia; one to Rotterdam,
Netherlands; and one to Istanbul, Turkey. I will also visit Washington, D.C.
for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Nursing. A visit to
Egypt is also being arranged but is not yet finalised. I am sure these visits
will have their high points and their low points. Either way, you’ll read all
about them here.
30 September
2016
“Hanging Smart: The Movie” and Slovenia
VIENNA
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Austria—Many wonder about the title of this blog. Maybe
you're one of them. It’s a climbing term, and I have made a short video titled
“Hanging Smart: The Movie” to help
explain. Warning: This is not for the fainthearted. Yours Truly in mortal
danger may be more than you can cope with.
Slovenia
I
have just been in Slovenia—essentially—for the first time. I say that because
Mrs. Watson and I crossed the Italian-Slovenian border at Trieste several years
ago to have dinner with an Italian colleague, but we were there and back in the
same evening. This time, I spent a week at the University
of Maribor in the Faculty of Health Sciences providing
workshops on writing for publication. I am prone to falling in love with the
last new place I visit, and it has happened again. Slovenia is a wonderful
place.
This
was the first country to break away about 25 years ago from the former
Yugoslavia, and it did so peacefully with only a few border skirmishes and a
handful of unfortunate deaths. They continue to have border disputes with neighbouring
Croatia, but, to date, these have been conducted without gunfire.
Some here still hanker back to the days
of communism when everyone had a job, but they need to look
around them. With the exception of North Korea, the military-industrial complex
that was the basis of the Soviet bloc economy has proved untenable. Even where
the ideology remains—in Russia, China, and Cuba, for example—the economic
benefits of personal choice, financial reward, and movement across borders have
prevailed.
The
scenery is superb, the food a delight, and the hospitality overwhelming.
Nursing at Maribor, under the leadership of Dean Majda
Panjkihar, PhD, RN, is impressive. They have just
established the first PhD programme for nurses in Slovenia and have an intake
of five students. While I was there, Brendan
McCormack, PhD, RN, FRCN, head of nursing at Queen
Margaret University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, gave his inaugural
professorial lecture on his field of person-centred care. It was an inspiring
event. Over the course of the week, he and I sampled a wide range of local
alcoholic beverages—colleagues, someone has to make these sacrifices—and found
we had almost identical likes and dislikes about modern nursing in the UK.
McCormack and I have often found
ourselves on opposite sides of many arguments,
and I am sure that will not change. We come from very different academic
backgrounds and philosophical positions. Where he may refer to releasing
creative energy, I am more likely to regard that as thermodynamically
impossible. It’s a case of flamboyant
creativity versus plodding objectivity, but we have
decided to inflict our collective view on the public. Watch this space for a
link to our collective and—potentially—career-ending editorial.
Homeward
bound
I
write this at Vienna International Airport, for me a first, as I have never
been in Austria before. The drive from Maribor is two and a half hours at
speeds unimaginable—legally—in the United Kingdom or United States. I am home
for the weekend and then go to Rotterdam to attend a conference, about which I
will report in these pages.
I
have managed to buy two tickets for a home game over the weekend between Hull
City Football Club and Chelsea Football Club—football as in soccer. My home
team is again part of the English Premier League, so far with mixed results,
some of which I have witnessed. We have never beaten Chelsea, and I don’t
expect we will this time, but, as the saying goes, it gets me out of the house.
13 October 2016
This could be Rotterdam ...
GENOA,
Italy—The well-known British pop band The Beautiful South played a song
titled “Rotterdam,” the chorus of which observes, “This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome …”
It felt like that for me these past two weeks because, following Slovenia, I
have been in Rotterdam and Genoa. Telling you this also allows me to note that,
while many readers of “Hanging smart” will know the song,
they may not know that The Beautiful South comes from my home town of Hull and
evolved from an equally famous band The
Housemartins. So, after that trip down musical memory lane …
Rotterdam
I
was in Rotterdam last week for the 5th European Nursing Congress.
The theme of these meetings is always care of older people, and the congress,
held over four days, provided a series of keynotes and parallel sessions on
research and practice related to gerontological nursing. The opening ceremony
was attended by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
One of the keynote speakers was my good friend and colleague Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, of National
Yang Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan. Lin has pioneered the use of the
Montessori method and spaced retrieval to help older people with dementia eat.
I had the privilege of co-authoring an article reporting the first randomised controlled trial using
these methods. Lin also spent six months with me at the University of Sheffield
as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor,
and her invitation for me to visit her in Taiwan in 2004 led to an unbroken
stream of annual visits to Taiwan.
My
own contribution to the Rotterdam proceedings was a workshop titled “Four easy
steps to publishing your manuscript,” which was well attended. The Journal of Advanced Nursing provided
a special issue for the conference abstracts, and it was good to see each of
the 1,000 delegates holding a copy of the journal. Six years ago, at the
previous congress, the abstracts were published in a special issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing,
which I then edited.
Genoa
After
one day at home to remind the family of my existence, I went to Genoa, Italy
for a week of activities as a visiting
professor (docenti) at the University of Genoa. In
Rotterdam, I had met Julita Sansoni, PhD, RN, associate
professor at Sapienza University of Rome, and illustrating the cliché “It’s a
small world,” she was here in Genoa this week, and we had dinner together.
Excitement is growing in the nursing
department here because, next week, Loredana
Sasso, MSN, MedSc, RN, will be inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in
Washington, D.C. Sasso is the first Italian nurse to be inducted, and I am very
proud to be her co-sponsor, along with my colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, (also
a docenti in Genoa). I will be there with Mrs. Watson and a delegation of 14
Italians cheering on this great pioneer of Italian nursing. Pictures and news
from the academy meeting will feature in my next entry.
24 October 2016
An honor to run with Her Honor
RONALD
REAGAN AIRPORT, Arlington, Virginia, USA—Between my previous entry—from Italy—and this one, which
follows my visit to Washington, D.C., I had two days in the UK, one day at home
and then a day in London at “the mother of parliaments” to attend the
launch of Triple Impact, the outcome of the
report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health (APPG)
on nursing’s contribution to global health. I was invited as one of those who
provided evidence to the APPG.
The
report was presented by Lord Crisp and others also
spoke, including Janet Davies, RN, FRCN, chief
executive officer of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Frances Hughes, DNurs, RN, ONZM,
chief executive officer of the International Council of Nursing (ICN). I
thought it ironic that they were united here given RCN’s decision to quit the
ICN several years ago, a move I consider very nearsighted. Following the meeting
and before taking the train home, I had a very special treat when I was taken
for drinks to The Athenaeum, the most prestigious
club in London, by member Anne Marie Rafferty, CBE, PhD, FAAN.
Washington,
D.C.
Next
day, I returned to London with my wife to stay overnight before flying to New
York and then on to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, the nearest airport
to Washington, D.C. I avoid Washington Dulles International Airport, which,
despite the Washington tag, could be situated (in my humble opinion) a lot
closer to Washington.
|
Loredana Sasso proudly points to her picture on
the Wall of Fame |
We were in D.C. for the American Academy
of Nursing’s (AAN) 2016 Transforming Health, Driving Policy Conference and
induction ceremony for new fellows of the academy. Together with Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, I
sponsored the first Italian to be inducted, Loredana
Sasso, MSN, RN, FAAN. We had a thoroughly good time, and
I showed my wife the sights of Washington, from the Capitol to the Lincoln
Memorial. We took in a few museums, the White House, and the Vietnam War
memorial. We also visited Arlington Cemetery, my first time there.
At
the AAN conference, I had the most wonderful time running into old friends and
making new ones. Old friends included: Frank Shaffer, EdD, RN, FAAN, chief
executive officer of CFGNS; Afaf Meleis, PhD, RN, FAAN, former
dean of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania; Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN, nurse
scientist at The Ohio State University and one of my fellow Journal of
Advanced Nursing editors; Jean
Watson, PhD, RN, FAAN, nurse theorist and Distinguished
Professor of Nursing from the University of Colorado; Cathy Catrambone, PhD, RN, FAAN,
president of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International;
and Susan Gennaro, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean
and professor at Boston College’s William F. Connell School of Nursing and
editor of Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
Three
old friends were inducted into the American Academy of Nursing: Dawn
Downing, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor of nursing, Columbia
University, New York, and long-standing colleague formerly in the UK; Ying Wu,
PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of nursing at Peking Capital Medical University, Beijing,
China; and Esra Al Khasawneh, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean
of nursing at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. One new friend I was delighted
to meet was Sean Clarke, PhD, RN, FAAN,
associate dean of nursing at Boston College.
The
induction ceremony was a triumph, and Mrs. Watson and I sat with a delegation
of 14 Italians who were there to support Professor Sasso. The Italians were
great company. One of the “upsides” for me was that my wife had a large
selection of handsome tuxedoed Italian men with whom to dance while I got on
with the serious business of running quality-assurance tests on a bottle
of Yeungling beer, made by the oldest
brewery in the United States.
|
At American Academy of Nursing conference, |
Running in D.C., but
not for office
Naturally,
Mrs. Watson and I took our running shoes with us, and we had a very pleasant
run around Crystal City. The running triumph was finding a local ParkRun and
working out how to get there. ParkRun started in the United Kingdom but has
spread across the world. There are three in D.C., and the ambition is to start
one in each ward of the city. We chose an amazing event to attend as Muriel
Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C., joined us on the
morning of the run as a way to promote her campaign of fitness in the city. I
met Her Honor, shook her hand, and spoke to her. She ran the 5k course with us.
I was very pleased to do a time of 22:34, coming in 14th out of 98 runners and
first in my age category. Mrs. Watson came in first in her age category, too. I
don’t think I can top that for this entry, so I’ll end there.
Next
week, from Egypt.
John
Adams
As
I was finalising this entry and on the verge of submitting it for posting, I
received news that a great friend and scholar, John Adams, PhD, RN, formerly of
Homerton College, University of Cambridge, had just died. John was a mental
health nurse and historian and one of the most entertaining public speakers I
have had the privilege to know. In retirement, he had taken to writing
obituaries of our departed colleagues, and I joked with him recently—while he
was in poor health—that he would live long enough to write mine. Dear John, requiescat
in pace.
30 October 2016
First trip to Egypt and first to Africa
DAMANHOUR,
Egypt—I imagine emergency departments in Egypt have a thriving “trade.” I had
been warned about the driving here but was not prepared for the terrifying
three-hour drive from Cairo International Airport to Alexandria. I may have
reported what I considered the most terrifying drive ever in blog entries
passim, but this one topped the league.
Collected
from the airport at 1:30 a.m. after the flight from London, I was taken by
people who spoke very little English to an unmarked and battle-scarred car with
no rear seatbelt and a pervading reek of exhaust fumes. I had visions of my
death certificate with entries of “carbon monoxide poisoning” or “multiple
trauma.” I was unsure if I was being kidnapped, taken to Alexandria, or both.
Turned out my destination was my hotel in Alexandria, but that
became clear only after being driven by someone in contention for the land
speed record who was unsure of the route.
To
compensate for his lack of direction, he chased and then drew up alongside
other drivers, sounded his horn, and then leant over the sleeping passenger in
the front seat to ask directions. Meantime, both cars were swerving and nearly
colliding. Twice this happened with an intersection looming. I registered 140
kilometres per hour (86 miles per hour) at one point. We arrived at 4:30 a.m.,
but it was nearly 6 a.m. before my vital signs were within the normal range. I
vowed the return journey would not be made in the same manner and emailed my
hosts to that effect the next morning.
|
Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt and
its largest – Photo by Zbruch/iStock |
Damanhour University
I
am here at the invitation of the Faculty of Nursing at Damanhour University,
which is approximately 40 miles inland from Alexandria. Alexandria, which is on
the Mediterranean Sea, reminded me of Jeddah, except it is more crowded and
less of a paradise. You get the impression it will take only a small percentage
increase in the number of cars on the roads, and the whole city will grind to a
standstill amidst a cacophony of car horns.
Today,
my hosts drove me around and then down to Damanhour. Egypt is almost everything
I expected. There is an acute sense of entropy here with little aesthetic
appeal to buildings, with many of them—especially in the rural areas—leading
you to wonder if they are under construction or demolition.
International
conference
The
Faculty of Nursing at Damanhour University is holding its 1st International
Scientific Nursing Conference, and I am the international person. I gave a
keynote today titled “The Path to Publication,” and tomorrow I give a workshop
on writing for publication. Academic nursing here is organised very differently
from in the UK. They have fewer students than we do at Hull, but there are far
more staff members, and they are organised into departments around each of the
subspecialties, such as paediatrics, and around more general areas, such as
nursing management.
|
The author with Assistant Professor Enas Ibrahim
(dean), |
The senior students—the
men with suits and purple ties and the women with purple headscarves—acted as
doorkeepers and helpers, something I could not imagine our own students being
expected to do. This demonstrates a striking cultural difference among students
I have seen in the Middle East, the Far East, and Southeast Asia. The students
were fun, and my jaws ached from posing for hundreds of camera shots and
selfies. It must also have been a slow news day in Damanhour, as three
television channels interviewed me.
My
first visit to Egypt—my first also to Africa—ends in the small hours of the
morning after tomorrow. I have had to compromise on the return journey and
accept being driven in a hired car with a qualified driver, as opposed to the
university driver who initially collected me and whose driving is legendary. I
cannot imagine a slower driver, but seatbelts are promised. I have not seen the
pyramids or the Sphinx, but I have made some new friends who are planning to
have me back again.
I
return to the UK Tuesday night, 1 November, and then go to Edinburgh University
to deliver, as part of its 60th anniversary of nursing studies, the Elsie Stephenson Memorial Lecture on
the theme “Towards a public understanding of nursing.”
29 November
2016
To Spain and back, and back to Spain
MADRID,
Spain—I reported on my recent visit to Egypt in the last entry, but I didn’t mention
my “souvenir,” which became apparent only after my return. Microbiologically,
it remains unidentified, but I think I can narrow it down to either Salmonella or E.
Coli. Either way, the result was indescribable illness during which time I
had to give a major public lecture and travel to Spain. I was debilitated for
only 24 hours, but these bugs completely alter your gut fauna such that nothing
works properly for days—10 days, to be precise.
Pamplona
I gave the Elsie
Stephenson Memorial lecture at The University of Edinburgh (click here for podcast) with great
trepidation but without incident. I then travelled to Pamplona in the north of
Spain to spend a week as a visiting professor at Universidad de
Navarra in the Faculty of Nursing, where I gave
lectures and met with staff to discuss research projects and publications. I
have a great many friends in Pamplona, as described in a previous entry, and the local food is
very good. I have been coming here for 25 years, and someone found this picture
from my first visit. I had more on top and less round the middle in those days.
I
had to decline most invitations to eat until my intestines were finally brought
under control by a combination of semistarvation and isotonic drinks. The visit
to Spain reminded me how great international travel is—when it works! On the
way to Madrid, I had a four-hour delay at London Heathrow and an unexpected and
unwanted night in an airport hotel. On return, the flights worked, but my train
to Hull from London was delayed by two hours.
Madrid
After two weeks at home, I returned to
Spain but, this time, to the outskirts of Madrid to spend two days at the Universidad
Europea de Madrid, one of three in Spain. I visited another campus
of the same university in 2015, reported in a previous entry. These universities,
part of the Laureate International Universities,
are run as private universities and commercial companies, a very different
model from the one I am used to in the UK where there is only one private
university—the University of Buckingham.
My
visit was organised around one lecture to staff and students titled “From
research results to publication.” It was well attended, but what pleased me
most was the intense and thoughtful questions from staff members and students
about trends in scientific publication. I also had a long meeting with staff
members to discuss publication strategies and to go into more depth on some
aspects of the lecture.
The
visit was hosted by Ana María Giménez Maroto, PhD, RN, head
of nursing, whom I was delighted to meet. I was also very pleased to meet an old
friend, Juanjo José Beunza Nuin, DE, MMed, Msc,
a former cardiovascular physician who worked in Pamplona but who now divides
his time between the Universidad Europea where he runs interprofessional
learning and his consultancy company. Many years ago, we
climbed together on some of Navarra, Spain’s enormous limestone crags.
This
visit introduced me to a wonderful designer hotel, the Petit Palace Art Gallery near Plaza de Colón in the heart of
Madrid. I was very amused to find one of those elevators you see in movies. You
know, the ones that run up the centre of a spiral staircase with two sets of
doors that you operate yourself and—in movies at least—always seem to be
associated with suspense and drama. I have no idea what they are called, but I
made a video that I uploaded to YouTube.
Some people might say I need to get out more often.
9 December 2016
At last, back in Istanbul
ISTANBUL,
Turkey—It has been four years since I last visited Istanbul, and this is my
third visit. Istanbul is one of my favourite places and lives up to every
expectation of noise, chaos, culture, and scenery. Islamic fundamentalism is
rising here. Since my last visit, the calls to prayer seem louder, and the
number of women wearing headscarves and veils has noticeably increased. The
recent military coup failed, largely because the army seemed to misjudge what the
people wanted.
The
international terminal at Istanbul Atatürk Airport recently underwent some
structural alterations thanks to a car bomb, yet Istanbul remains a paragon of
religious tolerance with mosques, churches, and synagogues in close proximity
to one another. The scenery across the Bosphorus, especially where Europe and
Asia almost touch, is wonderful. Of course, this is where modern nursing began.
Several years ago, I had the privilege of a hastily arranged private visit to
The Florence Nightingale Museum, which includes her rooms at the Turkish First
Army Base. It normally takes a year to make an appointment, but I had
“contacts.”
Conference
I am here to address the
2nd National Management in Nursing conference at Istanbul
University. I eschewed a personal translator for the
three-day conference—personal translation is very hard work for both the
translator and the listener—and spent some time catching up with old friends
also attending the conference. My keynote address, “Through the eyes of the
editor,” was on the theme of nursing research (click here for podcast).
|
Yours Truly with, l-r, Xin Wang, Guangzhou
Medical University, |
That time of year
In
blogs passim, I have alluded to the fact that, as we approach the holidays this
time of year, I always hope to wind down without being “wound up.” Once again,
this did not happen. I was prepared to let pass UK government policies in
relation to associate nurses. Others had said
plenty But the recent declaration about apprentice-style training for nurses
hit the right button, and a lucky meeting with one of the editors of The
Conversation persuaded me to contact the health editor and
suggest a piece. Within two days, it was published. I am heavily critical of the
proposals of our Secretary of State for Health, the RHon. Jeremy Hunt, MP.
Fortunately, this was not out when my colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN,
FAAN, met Hunt recently in China.
Social
life in Istanbul
The
lucky, but long-suffering Mrs. Watson accompanied me on this visit. I managed
to bribe her to join me by employing a guide to show her the wonderful sights
of Istanbul, and she has now seen more of the city than I have. It’s our
wedding anniversary while we are here, and I have booked my favourite
restaurant in Istanbul: The Armada Terrace Restaurant.
The food and the wine are top class and the view over the Bosphorus one of the
best in the city. The view takes in two magnificent mosques which, in the
evening, are illuminated beautifully. Only after we arrived in Istanbul did I
learn from our invitation that the conference dinner is also in the Armada. I
hope Mrs. Watson likes it as much as I do.
Back
in Hull, it has been time to say goodbye to one Chinese visitor and welcome
some new ones, as captured in the picture that accompanies this entry. This is
the last entry of 2016, and I do not travel again until February. I hope you
have enjoyed reading “Hanging Smart” as much as I have enjoyed writing it this
past year. I would like to thank Jim Mattson, editor of Reflections on
Nursing Leadership, and the team at STTI who support and administer the
blog. Happy holidays to all our readers. See you in 2017!
P.S.
After I submitted the above entry, my wife and I woke up on Sunday morning to
the news of the Saturday, 10 December bombing in Istanbul. We were well away
from the event, but I want to express my sympathy to the people of Istanbul who
lost family and friends and to anyone injured in this atrocity. We are safe,
and Istanbul carries on as normal, which is the best reaction to terrorism.
Connecting
Continents
20 January 2017
Bullish on
Pamplona
The author runs the famous Running of the Bulls
route—minus the bulls.
PAMPLONA, Spain—I am back in Pamplona, which is best known for The
Running of the Bulls. This week I ran part of the route. No bulls were
harmed in the process. Later, as I have done many times, I walked the route
from its start to its terminus, the Plaza de
Toros de Pamplona with its statue of Ernest ‘Papa’ Hemingway, who lived
and wrote here and helped make The Running of the Bulls famous. The event takes
place each day during the eight-day, annual festival of San Fermín, Pamplona’s patron saint.
I have never seen the bulls run in person. One of my daughters has. To
secure a place in the crowd before the early-morning event, one must rise very
early. Each day, six bulls are transferred from fields outside the city to the
bullring, where they meet their gory and inevitable fate in the afternoon. In
case you don’t know, people “run the bulls”—in front of them! As far as I know,
only men take part in this madness, which requires considerable skill, speed,
and understanding of a bull’s behaviour. The objective is to keep the bulls
going in the same direction. As a few unfortunate tourists have discovered, a
bull that stops or changes direction is essentially a killing machine. I have
not made my mind up if I ever want to see the bulls being run.
How this place has changed
I pointed out in a previous post that I have been
coming here for many years. How many years? Well, I noted in the main entrance
to the hospital that a 25-year thanksgiving Mass was being celebrated for
the oratorio (chapel) located in the basement, and I
realized during this visit that I recall the chapel being opened. When I first
came here to the University of Navarra, the present chapel did not
exist, only the much smaller oratorio next
to it.
It struck me that, in my professional life, I have done only one thing
that has continued for 25 years and that is to maintain my relationship with
the University of Navarra and its clinica (hospital).
In that time, the hospital has nearly quadrupled in size. The university’s
School of Nursing has evolved into a Faculty of Nursing. (Outside the United
States, a faculty is an organisational unit.)
A physician was in charge of nursing education when I arrived, and men
were not permitted to study nursing here. Nurses have been in the lead for more
than 20 years, and there are now male nursing students. Few of the lecturers
spoke English, and none had doctorates. Now they teach in English, run a
doctoral programme, and hold significant research grants. Over lunch with Mercedes Pérez Díez del Corral, dean of
nursing, I was asked how I thought they had done since I first arrived. “Quite
well,” I replied.
During my time here, I have been teaching undergraduate, master’s, and
doctoral students and advising staff members about publications. However, the
day job continues, and I have kept up with work at the University of Hull and
with my journals. One of the less pleasant sides of editing is dealing with
complaints from authors about other authors and editors of other journals. They
range from authorship disputes to complaints about duplicate publications and
plagiarism. They all have to be investigated, and it often takes months to
arrive at a clear view of what has happened and then agree upon a suitable
course of action. I am very grateful for guidance offered by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). There is rarely a time when a case is not ongoing.
Meantime, I am preparing lectures for a week at the University of
Maribor, which I first visited last year. Before going to Maribor, I spend one night in
Northern Ireland and take part in a PhD examination at the University of
Ulster.
Great news!
I heard this week that I am to be inducted into
the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place on 29 July 2017 in Dublin, Ireland during
the 28th International Nursing Research Conference, sponsored by the Honor
Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. This is a great honour,
especially when I see who has previously received it. Next entry from Slovenia.
6
March 2017
What I saw in
Slovenia
They wore cowbells, but they weren’t cows.
I first met Ali in Sheffield when I interviewed her for a post as a
research assistant on one of my projects. In a manner of speaking, we’ve been
together ever since. She was working on her PhD while assisting me and gave
birth to her second baby without any noticeable decline in work rate. (NB: I’m
not advocating this!) I was very happy when she joined me at the University of
Hull for a short time in her first lecturing role before returning to work in
Sheffield. She is an expert on interpersonal violence, especially in the
Pakistani community.
Meantime, in Slovenia
I was working in my hotel room one evening this
week and heard cowbells approaching. In the street below, a white bear-like
creature with a grotesque mask and cowbells strapped around the waist appeared
and then entered a building opposite. I really had to pinch myself, and, yes, I
was awake. Next day I discovered that I am here in the middle of Kurentovanje and that what I had seen was a man in a Kurent mask. The mask is,
essentially, a costume, and I had seen them in a museum on a previous visit.
But the difference between seeing a static mask in a museum and a large, noisy,
hairy creature running along the street is striking.
The tradition, which occurs close to Easter, reaches its peak on what we
call Shrove Tuesday in the United Kingdom, the day before Ash
Wednesday and the start of Lent. Back home, Shrove Tuesday is also called
Pancake Tuesday because we traditionally eat—and toss—pancakes. (My oldest son
is an expert.) Here in Slovenia, they have a higher calorie tradition of
consuming large doughnut-like cakes filled with marmalade, which we ate at
the Faculty of
Nursing at the University of Maribor. The man in the Kurent mask is doing an important meteorological job;
he is chasing out winter.
This is my second academic visit to Slovenia. I have been
teaching doctoral candidates about evidence-based practice and systematic
reviewing, and they have been a pleasure to be with. I am collaborating here on
a few studies and I think other European and UK universities could learn a lot
from my nursing colleagues in Maribor. I was in Northern Ireland last week, and
they were there. I go to Edinburgh regularly and have discovered they have
links with all three universities there. Soon Dean Majda
Pajnkihar, PhD, RN, and some senior colleagues will make
their first visit to China.
Next on my agenda, after one full day at home, is a visit to Hong Kong
to participate in the 20th EAFONS (East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars). It is being held at Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, and I look forward to catching up with old
friends.
21 March 2017
Both ends of
Asia
From Hong Kong to Turkey by way of the UK.
ATATÜRK AIRPORT, Istanbul, Turkey—One full day at home after Slovenia
before flying to Hong Kong seemed very short. I was in Hong Kong for the 20th
East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars (EAFONS), hosted by Hong Kong
Polytechnic University. Thus, I was reunited in the Far
East with Mark Hayter, my Hull University and Journal of Advanced Nursing colleague.
Our commitments and travelling schedules mean we rarely meet in the UK, so it
was good to have time to reflect on life, work, and academic publishing.
We are both intensely interested in nursing in the Far East, and EAFONS
is a great opportunity to check how things are. We both presented at the
conference, and my contribution to a Round Table on Doctoral Education in Nursing
is available on podcast. The second keynote by Sonja McIlfatrick, PhD, RN, Ulster University, UK, on the same topic but covering the work of the International
Network for Doctoral Education in Nursing (INDEN), of which she is now president, was superb. McIlfatrick made the point
that, because a PhD can be clinically oriented, it follows that PhDs can be
relevant to clinical practice.
EAFONS provides an opportunity for me to catch up with old friends who
are, literally, too many to mention. I was especially pleased to see Sophia
Chan, PhD, RN, FAAN, again. Formerly head of the School
of Nursing at the University of Hong Kong, she is now
undersecretary for Food and Health, Government of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region. Numerous other FAANs were also there, two of whom I
witnessed being inducted into the academy in Washington, D.C., last year.
I also met Tzu-Pei
Yeh, PhD. A former PhD student of mine from Taiwan,
she is now an assistant professor at China Medical University. I also had an
opportunity to meet another very good friend from Taiwan, Lian-Hua Huang, PhD, RN, FAAN. A professor in National
Taiwan University School of Nursing, she is now a committee
member of the International
Council of Nurses.
Hong Kong was, mercifully, cool, and I recommend March as a time to
visit. It will not be as cool when I return in June to work with the Hong Kong
University Grants Committee.
The other end of Asia
Returning from Hong Kong, I landed at London
Heathrow, arrived in Hull late having missed a train. After spending a full day
there, I returned the next evening to Heathrow, this time to travel to Turkey
to give a keynote titled “From results to readership: Publishing your research”
at the first International
Congress on Nursing in Antalya, Turkey (click here for podcast).
I had a heart-stopping moment on arriving at Antalya Airport—no driver.
I phoned the number I had—“Sorry, no English.” Foolishly, I had no idea where I
was staying and no other means of contacting anyone. After a long wait, a man
holding a card with ROGER WATSON written on it turned up. This has only
happened to me once before—in Turkey!
Most of the proceedings of the two-day conference were in Turkish, but
this gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with people individually outside
the sessions. I met Gülcan Taskiran, MSc, RN, again, who was a great help. She is a
research assistant and PhD student in nursing at Istanbul University, where I met her last December.
I spent my final day in Antalya as a tourist and visited some ancient
Roman ruins. The city of Perga is breathtaking, both for the ingenuity of its architecture and
sheer size. The 15,000-seat amphitheatre at Aspendos almost defies description.
Time to breathe
My travel schedule is mostly self-imposed, and I
pride myself on never putting up an “out of office” email when I am away. But
even though I assiduously keep up with emails and writing, travel sometimes
makes things are made more difficult. For example, Hull colleagues Jane Wray, MSc, RN, David Barrett, PhD, RN, and I were awarded a substantial
research grant by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. The funds
will enable us to investigate the transition from student to registered nurse
as well as issues related to workforce retention at this critical time. Job
adverts for project-related personnel are out, and, in the next few weeks, we
will get it running. Meanwhile, I have mountains of data to analyse and several
manuscripts in draft to move along toward submission. So, the long-suffering
Mrs. Watson will have to put up with me for a few weeks.
However, I have just agreed to my third invitation to China this year to
help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing. The dean of nursing, Hauping Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a
dear friend with whom I was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2007. That's the good news. The great news is my wife is coming
with me for her first visit to mainland China.
10 April 2017
Back to
basics at Oxford
On keeping the important things important.
VIRGIN TRAINS EAST COAST, somewhere
between London and Hull—Looking ahead, I have seven weeks in the UK, a record
in recent years. Since the second week of January, when this year’s travelling
began, I have not been home for more than a week.
I have just departed from the gleaming spires of Oxford and the RCN International Nursing Research Conference and Exhibition 2017. Well attended, there were several hundred delegates representing many
countries, and the quality of papers and keynotes was high. With few
exceptions, I have attended this conference since I was a staff nurse in 1988.
These days I attend in my capacity as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. The
conference has grown, my colleagues have grown older, and it remains the main
scientific conference for nursing in the United Kingdom. In pursuit of
accommodation close to the venue, I chose Magdalen College (pronounced
“modlin”) and was impressed by how cheap it was. Then I found out why. With
mental images of a stately room overlooking the famous deer park or the
splendid chapel, I was assigned to an “out house” quite a long way from the
main college with no en suite facilities—a
proper student dorm or hall of residence as we would call them. It was like
being back in my junior officer training with the army. But, in fact, it was
very pleasant and it led to some great anecdotes over dinner with other
“inmates.” Good for the soul, I think. A perfect antidote to the business
lounges and hotels I normally frequent.
Memory lane
In the two weeks since my visit to Turkey, I have
been in London and Edinburgh, where I delivered sessions on writing for
publication to staff members and students at London South Bank University and The
University of Edinburgh. In a previous life at The
University of Edinburgh, I was senior warden with responsibility for 3,500
students in university accommodation. The building where I gave my session at
Edinburgh was the location of my office and, 19 years later, I could still see
the mark on the door where the varnished and gold-lettered “Senior Warden” sign
had been located before being unscrewed by my secretary and given to me as a
present. I am not sure how my successor’s presence was indicated after my
departure, but the sign now hangs in the summer house that is located in our
back garden (“yard” for North Americans). The building is now called St
Leonard’s Hall, but it may interest you to know that it was
originally a girls’ school called St Trinnean’s and was, in fact, where the
original St Trinian’s stories was based.
Publish or perish
So far, this has been a productive year with four
refereed articles published, two under revision and, of course, the usual
rejections. A career motto has been to make each rejection the start of the
next submission, so the search for alternative destinations for the rejections
is underway. The immense satisfaction of publishing anything and seeing my name
in print has never waned since my first article in Nursing Times in 1984.
Returning to the Royal College of Nursing International Research
Conference, Philip Darbyshire, PhD, RN, reminded us how
publishing an article is the beginning of a process and not the end. To a
packed fringe session, he gave a challenging session on self-promotion of your
profile and work. We must, he said, get over the feeling that confidence in
what you are good at and telling people about is arrogance.
In fact, it is essential to share what we accomplish. If we have a skill
or have discovered something useful, we have a moral duty to promote it, and
social media are the best way to do it. Challenged by some who claimed they had
no time, were too busy, and already worked 12 hours a day, leaving no time for
social media, he exhorted them to do an hour less of something unproductive. He
asked how many meetings they attended were unnecessary and how often they sat
in their offices waiting to see students who did not need to see them.
I have far less of my academic career left than has gone before and, as
that time shortens, I want to see how much less I can do of some trivial things
to help me achieve more of the important things. I left Oxford with many
invitations pending, some obvious avenues for research collaboration, and new
contacts to cultivate. My priority will be to prioritise these opportunities.
5 May 2017
Back to
globe-trotting
But first, a virtual tour of where I live.
HULL, United Kingdom—I am in the final week of seven weeks at home, and it has
been a good opportunity to catch up with the kind of work that can be hard to
accomplish when you are on the move. Six manuscripts have been written, five
submitted, and one already rejected (an occupational hazard). The latter will
be revised and resubmitted. I can write easily when travelling, but data
analysis is harder—impossible on a tablet and difficult on a laptop. For that,
I need my own desktop computer with all the correct software installed.
In the meantime, I was very happy to have an article accepted in Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, co-authored with my doctoral student Alvisa Palese, RN, from the University of Udine, Italy; other Italian
contributors; and Hull colleague Mark
Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN. Palese is possibly unique. She is
a full professor in Italy—no mean achievement—with an unmatched publication
record in nursing, but only recently has she found time to pursue her PhD.
I met Alvisa years ago when she attended a conference workshop on
questionnaire design I organised. She invited me to visit Trieste, Italy, and
teach her graduate students. That was my first visit to Venice—the location of
the nearest airport—and my first brief visit to Slovenia, which borders with
Italy and is very close to Trieste. We have maintained contact, and it is my
privilege to work with her. Already, an article from her doctoral work has been
published in JAMDA, and others
have been submitted. Words like dynamo and whirlwind always come into
conversations about Alvisa. She never walks—always runs—and I have never known
her to waste a minute of her academic career.
#Hull2017
The above subhead is the hashtag for Hull’s year as UK City of Culture, and I was very pleased to organise an event to celebrate the life of
Hull native Kay Mander (1915-2013). We showed the film “One
Continuous Take” and were very lucky to have the film’s
editor, Adele Carroll, who is also an award-winning producer and
director, address us. Mander was a cinematographer of considerable repute. A
woman in the man’s world of cinema in the 1940s, she was born in Hull less than
a half mile from my house. We hope to celebrate this in due course by erecting
a commemorative “green plaque” at the site. Perhaps you’ve never heard of
Mander, but you will have heard of her lover Kirk
Douglas, who recently celebrated 100 years.
Green plaques are unique to our conservation area of Hull, which is looked
after by The Avenues and Pearson Park Association (APPRA). An alternative to the more official blue
plaques, common in London and other cities of the UK, our
green plaques require a great deal less bureaucracy to erect. We have already
celebrated other famous residents, including actor Ian Carmichael; aviator Amy Johnson, another pioneering woman in a man’s world; and
crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers, who developed the character Lord Peter Wimsey.
I can see her plaque from my office window as I write.
Other famous Hull residents include another cinema link—director Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient” and
“The Talented Mr. Ripley”)—and one survivor of the Titanic disaster, Fourth
Officer Thomas
Boxall, allegedly disowned by his family for surviving.
If we succeed in having a green plaque erected for Kay Mander, it will be the
first one honouring someone born—as opposed to only residing—in the area.
After giving you a virtual tour of the area where I live in this very special
city of Hull, I now face a period of intense travel, starting at the end of
this week. My number of visits to mainland China this year has increased to
four. I have added another visit to Hong Kong, making that three this year. And
I recently agreed to a visit to Taiwan, thus maintaining an unbroken record of
at least one visit annually since 2003. I have a multi-entry visa to Saudi
Arabia in my passport, arranged for by the Saudi Ministry of Health, and expect
to be making a few visits to the kingdom soon. If the airline industry is
struggling to make profits, it is certainly not my fault.
16 May 2017
It’s all
‘shuang’ in China
Check out my chopstick skills.
LUZHOU, Sichuan Province, China—The Chinese word “shuang” means cool. I
learned this word on my previous trip to China and was determined to include it
in my repertoire of Chinese words on this trip. It’s a great word. It can be
used in the affirmative with an enthusiastic expression that says, “Yes, I’ll
have more of that,” or in the negative with a raised hand and head shake that
says, “No, I’ve had enough.” Given the lavish hospitality one is shown in
China, the latter is a necessity.
My Chinese vocabulary amounts to about 10 words, and five of them are
the words for one to five. It’s a challenge. For example, in the names Zang and
Zhang, “z” and “zh” are pronounced quite differently. If you’re talking to a
friend who has one of these surnames and pronounce their name incorrectly,
you’ll be met with a blank expression, as so often happens to me. On the other
hand, although my linguistic skills may be poor, my chopstick skills are
impeccable, as this YouTube clip shows.
This is my fourth visit to Luzhou. Chen Yanhua, PhD, RN, my first
Chinese doctoral student, is now second in command of the nursing school at
Southwestern Medical University, and I have now recruited a second student who
joins us in Hull at the end of the year. We are also expecting an academic
visitor soon, who will work with me for one year.
I have always maintained that any relationship in China takes three
visits to establish, often over three years. The purpose of the first visit is
to look at you, the second visit to listen to what you want, and the third
visit to tell you what you will get. In the fourth year, things start to
develop, and this is exactly the process that has occurred here. I think things
have been greatly helped by a visit earlier this year from Julie Jomeen, PhD, RN, RM, dean, Faculty of Health and Social
Care at Hull.
My visiting professorship here enables me to make one visit annually and
to deliver one lecture at their annual conference. This year, I spoke about
nursing care of older people with dementia. I have also been helping to edit
and comment on manuscripts for publication. My colleagues here keep apologising
for their poor English and the work it takes me to help them get manuscripts to
the stage where they can be submitted. I marvel at the work they accomplish
while using a second, very different language and the fact that they produce so
many manuscripts. I emphasise that it’s a process, and, provided they get help
with their English—especially with the final draft before submission—they
should keep their production line working. I also tell them about publication
ethics and the poor reputation some institutions in China have, as evidenced by
high levels of retracted articles.
My next visit to the Far East is next month, to work for a week on the
University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong University Grants Council.
Currently, I am working through grant applications that have been given to me
to administer to determine if they are worthy of funding. Each year, there are
more applications, and it becomes harder to find reviewers, but I am very
grateful to the many people across the world that are on my list and never fail
to provide their reviews on time.
12 June 2017
Ramadan in
Riyadh
Author teaches night classes—from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
ABOARD TRAIN BETWEEN LONDON AND HULL, United Kingdom—I have just
returned from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where I experienced Ramadan, the Muslim
holy month, for the first time in the Middle East. It was unusual to be invited
during Ramadan—quite a privilege, in some ways, as this is a spiritual time for
Muslims, and most non-Muslims leave to take a holiday. For me, with the very
short working days and long nights associated with Ramadan, life essentially
got turned upside down during my time in Riyadh. During Ramadan, eating and
drinking are completely forbidden to Muslims during hours of daylight.
Mercifully, days are short in the Middle East during that time. (Spare a
thought for our Muslim colleagues in the upper reaches of the Northern
Hemisphere).
Fasting is only during the day and, frankly, a considerable amount of
eating goes on from the evening meal—iftar—until dawn. Work also goes on during
those hours, and I had my first experience of teaching from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Thus, I needed coffee to stay awake without the subsequent benefit of alcohol
to help me sleep. I was not obliged to fast, but if I wanted breakfast I had to
order it before dawn. So, I got into a routine of pocketing a few items at
iftar—fruit and yogurt—and depositing them in my fridge. Although eating and
drinking are forbidden in front of Muslims during Ramadan, my friends and
colleagues were helpful in providing me with water and opportunities to drink
it at meetings. One day, I delivered a four-hour workshop and had to be excused
several times to take a few sips. By the end of the day, because of the dust in
the air and the fierce air-conditioning—the outside temperature was 55 degrees
Celsius (131 degrees Fahrenheit)—I was croaking like a frog.
The ‘Godfather’
I was in The Kingdom at the invitation of Mansour
Saleh Alyami, PhD, RN, director general for training at the Saudi Ministry of
Health and a former PhD student of mine. The ministry is currently upgrading
the educational level of a vast range and number of health
technicians—including nurses—who are not presently able to practice safely. The
next step is to upgrade the equally vast numbers (tens of thousands) of
diploma-educated nurses to degree level. It was wonderful to see Mansour in his
“empire,” with four floors of a ministry building under his command and an
office that would not shame a prime minister. Well respected by his colleagues,
he is a man of impeccable manners who ensured that his personal assistant,
through whom my arrangements had been made, was found and taken to meet me. A
nice touch in a country where hierarchy and upward respect are prominent with
little reciprocation. I am touched that he refers to me, and did so publicly,
as his “Godfather.”
I had a very pleasant dinner with an old friend, Mustafa Bodrick, PhD,
RN, who is a former PhD student of Hester Klopper, PhD, RN, past president of
the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Mustafa is now the
first nursing adviser appointed to the Saudi Commission for Health
Specialities. A man of incredible erudition and learning, his life story is
fascinating. A Roman Catholic and a Muslim, we toasted, in light of recent
events, world peace with a fine, nonalcoholic Tempranillo.
I also had the privilege of meeting a new and much younger friend, Jonas
Cruz, PhD, RN, who works at a university three hours outside Riyadh. We have
been corresponding about research, and when I told him I was coming to Riyadh,
he arranged to drive up and have dinner with me.
These are tense days in the UK, and that tension was reflected in the
Middle East. I woke on the first full day of my visit to the news that Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates had severed diplomatic
ties with Qatar.
This train journey from London to Hull takes me home for one night. I
then return to the airport and board for Hong Kong.
20 June 2017
Renewing
connections in Hong Kong
Despite a typhoon and torrential rain, a good week.
HONG KONG, SAR, China—This has not been the best week for weather in
Hong Kong. We’ve had a typhoon, torrential rain, thunder, and intense humidity.
Professionally and socially, however, it has been very worthwhile.
I am back for my annual visit to the Research Grants Committee of
the Hong Kong University Grants Committee, where we
distribute approximately HK$50 million (more than US$6 million) to local
researchers. I also attended the Prestigious Fellowships Committee, where
senior academics are recognised and allocated funding to undertake a year of
study. I looked around the table at Ivy League, Oxbridge, and Russell Group university colleagues—distinguished in all sorts of fields from
design to social sciences—and had to pinch myself. However, I was equally happy
to introduce myself as “Roger Watson from Hull, UK, and I’m a nurse.”
Outside of meetings, I have had an intensive series of lunches and
dinners to catch up with old friends and colleagues, including Alex
Molasiotis, PhD, RN, head of nursing at Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, and Sek-Ying, PhD, RN, chair of Nethersole School of Nursing, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
For the first time in more than a decade, I visited Chinese University,
which is in Shatin District in the New Territories near the Chinese border, to
give a seminar on publishing in impact-factor journals. I first visited here as
an external examiner in 2003—my first visit to Hong Kong and my first to the
Far East. It was the start of a love affair with this part of the world.
I had dinner with Fowie Ng, PhD, occupational therapist and Hull
graduate. I also visited him at the state-of-the-art hospice where he works in
the New Territories. On my final day, I had lunch with Eric Chan, MSc, RN, dean
of Caritas Institute for Higher Education and
founding member of the Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing & Midwifery (GAPFON).
Good news
Meanwhile, work goes on, and this has been a week
of good news. First, I had two manuscripts accepted by good journals, one a
first-authored article reporting on a longitudinal study of feeding difficulty
in older people with dementia in Italy and the other a systematic review with
one of my colleagues at Hull.
Then, contrary to our expectations, the impact factor for Journal of Advanced Nursing increased to 1.998. We
continue to hover under the magical number 2.0, but there is always next year.
Then Yu Chen, my colleague from Southern Medical University in
Guangzhou, China, graduated with her PhD. Yu spent a year working with me in
Hull. In two weeks, I return to Hong Kong to take the train up to Guangzhou to
spend two weeks with her.
The visual backdrop as I write this post is a 26-story view of Hong Kong
harbour. Immediately below me intensive construction work is taking place—as it
has ever since I started serving on the Research Grants Committee. One thing is
always assured in Hong Kong: Everything changes.
12 July 2017
In the
footsteps of Marco Polo
From Italy to China, with a quick flight home to
England.
GUANGZHOU CITY, China—The gross domestic product of China’s Guandong
Province exceeds that of many
countries. Its population is more than 100 million, and its
capital—Guangzhou City—has a population of 14 million. Southern Medical
University’s Zhujiang Hospital, which I visited, has 2,200 beds.
Last week I was in Genoa, Italy, the birthplace of Marco Polo, who did so much to tell Europe about China. After a single night at
home to remind my wife she is not a widow, I flew to Hong Kong and took the
train to Guangzhou. Since my first visit to Hong Kong, when I saw trains
passing through the New Territories to China, I have wanted to make the
journey.
The conveyance I took used to be called—eponymously and romantically—the
Kowloon China Railway (KCR), which describes its function perfectly. Now it is
called, less romantically, the East Rail Line. The journey takes two hours, and
I arrived in Guangzhou in torrential rain. According to my hosts, when an
important person arrives in a Chinese city, it rains. “Who is coming?” I asked.
Genoa
My week in Genoa was in fulfilment of my role as
visiting professor at the University of Genova (another spelling of Genoa), one
of three visits I make annually with my colleague from Hull, Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN. Between pizza and pasta, we met
daily with colleagues and graduate students to discuss progress on several
projects and publications on which we are collaborating. This has been a very
productive group effort that has resulted in several publications, one of which
was recently published
online.
The weather in Genoa was superb and conducive to running in the morning
before the sun rose. We happily agreed to another year of visits. I am also
pleased to report that, this coming October, a second Italian nursing academic
and my good friend Gennaro Rocco, PhD, RN, of Rome will be inducted in Washington,
D.C., as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
China
I am finishing the first of two weeks as a visiting
professor at Southern Medical University. My inauguration to that role took
place on my first day. In addition to delivering three conference keynotes and
giving a lecture at Zhujiang Hospital, I’ve spent morning and afternoons this
past week teaching. Next week, things will be less hectic, and I will meet
individually with staff members to advise on publications. As is typical in
China, my hosts have been very generous with their hospitality. In addition to
visiting Canton Tower, which was, briefly, the tallest tower in the
world, we made a boat trip one evening on the Pearl River (the Zhujiang). This
weekend, I explore Guangzhou and more of Guandong Province.
The rain that accompanied my arrival in Guangzhou set the meteorological
tone for my visit. The kaleidoscope of weather has included thick clouds,
bright sunshine, and driving rain, often in the space of 10 minutes. Determined
to keep running, I went out in the pouring rain at 6 a.m. the first morning
after my arrival, to the astonishment of campus security staff and sweepers. My
hosts have registered me with a local fitness club, which I can see from the
main gate of the campus. Nevertheless, there is constant worry that I will
either become lost or be hit by a car on the way there. Has the ageing process
left me looking that helpless? This constant and close attention to guests is
also a prominent feature of Chinese culture.
I have no doubt I will survive the week ahead. Proof of my survival will
be a blog entry later this month about the 28th International Nursing Research Congress in Dublin, Ireland, sponsored by the Honor Society of Nursing,
Sigma Theta Tau International. During my time in Dublin, I will be inducted
into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
23 August 2017
Taiwan,
possibly my third home
Oh, THAT vice president!
HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Hong Kong SAR, China—My unbroken record
of visiting Taiwan annually since 2003 remains, thanks to an invitation to
visit China Medical University in central Taiwan this week. This is my first visit
to Taichung, which is a beautiful city. It’s green (politically and
ecologically), it’s quiet and has many interesting modern buildings.
The invitation came from my former doctoral student Tzu-Pei Yeh, PhD,
RN, an sssistant professor here. It was especially nice to share the visit and
the travel with Graeme Smith, PhD, RN, professor of nursing, Edinburgh Napier
University and Hong Kong University. We are both editors; Smith edits Journal of Clinical Nursing, and part
of his time here was devoted to reviewing and advising on manuscripts for
publication. We also gave lectures on our areas of research and on writing for
publication.
With high temperatures and high humidity, it was possible to run only in
the very early morning, by which I mean starting at 5:30 a.m., before the sun
was up. The first morning, I got completely lost, prompting me to wonder if I
ought to be allowed out alone in foreign places. Confidence was restored later
in the week, however, when I managed to find the route I had planned and my way
back to the hotel without stopping to get my bearings.
At the end of the week, I travelled to Taipei spend some time during
which I met several old friends. These included Hui-Chi Huang, DNS, RN, whose
doctoral examination at the University of Ulster I attended more than 20 years
ago. She has worked in several universities and has invited me here several
times. Retired from university work, she now consults for various bodies on
long-term care.
Today I attended Mass at the Holy Family Church—my “parish” church in
Taipei—with Lian Hua Huang, PhD, RN, FAAN, formerly dean of nursing at National
Taiwan University and recently appointed a committee member of the
International Council of Nurses. After Mass, she introduced me to their vice
president who, I assumed, was vice president of her university but came to
learn I had been speaking to the vice president of Taiwan, Chen Chein-jen.
Former minister of health in Taiwan, he earned his ScD in human genetics and
epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University!
Finally, I had lunch with my oldest and dearest friend in Taiwan,
Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, professor of nursing, National Yang-Ming University, who
first invited me here in 2003.
JAN news
Since my last entry, the annual release of journal
impact factors has taken place. Amidst concerns that the impact factor of Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) was going to fall, we were very pleased—and
relieved—that it improved to 1.998. Due to some spectacular increases in impact
factor by a few other journals, we have fallen down the “league table.” I would
like to be higher up the table, but for the time being, I’ll settle for an
increased impact factor.
Other news from JAN is that we
are going to lose two excellent colleagues: Brenda Roe, PhD, RN, FQNI, and Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN. Roe is professor of health
research, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK, and has been a colleague since
1984 when we were fledgling nurse researchers at the Nursing Practice Research
Unit, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK. She joined JAN a long time before I became editor-in-chief,
and her profound experience of clinical trial and systematic review methodology
as well as her clinical expertise in care of older people will be hard to
replace. Pickler is FloAnn Sours Easton Endowed Professor of Child and
Adolescent Health, Ohio State University, Columbus. I am delighted to say that
she has been appointed editor-in-chief of Nursing Research. The search for replacements is
taking place, and we are especially interested in having editors from North
America and the Far East.
A sign proclaiming “Taiwan touch your heart” used to greet arrivals at
the Taipei-Taoyuan International Airport (next to one stating that drug
traffickers will be executed), and over the years it certainly has touched my
heart. A visit to Taichung is already being arranged for next year. On the
immediate horizon is my first visit to Karachi, Pakistan.
29 September 2017
Celebrating
in Beijing
Facts and figures about Chinese nursing stagger me.
The author recounts his recent visit to
Beijing to join in centenary observances of Peking Union Medical College.
HONG KONG, SAR, China—I am on the home leg of a visit to Beijing with my
wife, her first to mainland China, and we are having “a relax”—as my Chinese
friends endearingly refer to it—in Hong Kong for a day before returning to the
rigours of life in the UK. I have to say that Mrs. Watson is very impressed
with China, but, as I pointed out to her, I don’t always stay in the Grand
Hyatt. We were there courtesy—and extreme generosity—of Peking
Union Medical College (PUMC), which was celebrating its centenary.
Specifically, I was invited by Liu Huaping, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor at PUMC School
of Nursing, with whom I was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of
Nursing in 2007 and with whom I have maintained contact. This was my second
visit to PUMC.
Founded by the Rockefeller family in 1917, the college established—with
the help of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA—a fine medical
school, now one of the most prestigious in China. With help from Christian
organisations in the United States and the United Kingdom, it also established
the first university school of nursing in China. I could not help but reflect
on the influence of the Rockefeller family on nursing, as they also
established, at the University of Edinburgh, the first school of nursing in
Europe. Indeed, descendants of the Rockefeller family were present in Beijing
this week.
The history of PUMC
School of Nursing is fascinating and was beautifully told by
Sonya Grympa, PhD, RN, dean and professor of Trinity Western University,
Canada, in her keynote. During the Sino-Japanese war, when Beijing was invaded
by the Japanese, the school was closed. Undeterred, the then dean and a handful
of staff members undertook their own “long march” and walked to Chengdu in
Sichuan Province to re-establish the school. It’s a three-hour flight from
Chengdu to Beijing. The nursing dignitaries from around the world who also
attended the centenary observance are too numerous to mention, but I was especially
pleased to meet Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN, former deputy secretary at the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and to learn we have many
colleagues in common.
The celebration included entertainment by nursing students, a first-rate
Chinese banquet, and a morning of speeches and films about PUMC, its history,
and distinguished alumni. I came away laden with gifts and brochures, many of
which had to remain in my hotel room in Beijing, but I will take home and
treasure the panoramic precelebration photograph of nursing dignitaries present
at the centenary and a beautiful two-part pictorial history (in Chinese) of
PUMC.
Facts and figures related to China and Chinese nursing stagger me. There
are more than 900 nursing schools. In 2012, China had 2 million nurses, and now
it has 3.5 million. By 2025, they aim to have 7 million nurses, a fraction of
what they need to reach the nurse-population ratios of other developed
countries. It puts UK nurse shortages—a serious issue, to be sure—into perspective.
As usual, it was not all work. Daniel Liu, my good friend and oftentimes
translator in China, took my wife Debbie to see the Forbidden City and
Tiananmen Square. Then Debbie, who now, of course, knows her way around Beijing
better than me, took me to see the Olympic Stadium, known now as the National
Stadium but affectionately referred to as “the bird’s nest.” My wife is an
Olympics nut—ask her any question about it—and I have never seen her so
excited.
Next week, we go to Washington, D.C. for the annual meeting of the
American Academy of Nursing. At the end of that week, I am back in Hong Kong
for another celebration followed by another week in China.
10 October 2017
Sadness and
celebration
First FAAN inducted from UK-Europe honors recent inductees.
Author attends American Academy of
Nursing induction ceremonies in Washington, D.C.
HULL, United Kingdom—Flags were flying at half-staff for the duration of
our stay in Washington, D.C. last week. For anyone unaware of the shooting incident in Las Vegas, the
constant television coverage would have brought them up to speed very quickly.
Notwithstanding the devastating effect of this tragedy, life went on in the
U.S. capital as usual, the best response to those who would attempt to
terrorise us.
I was in Washington with my wife for the induction of the 2017 class
of 173 fellows into the American Academy of Nursing, which
brings current FAAN ranks to approximately 2,400. In light of continuing
arguments in the UK over the value of nursing more moves to undermine the present model of all
graduate entry to the profession, it was almost therapeutic for me to read and
hear about achievements of the people who crossed the stage last Saturday
evening.
I am inordinately proud of my own FAAN designation. As a pioneer of
those inducted from outside the United States into the American Academy of
Nursing, I am very pleased to see an increasing number of international FAANs
being inducted, including many of my friends from across the world. [Editor’s
note: Inducted as a fellow in 2007, Watson was the first UK-European nurse to
be elected to the American Academy of Nursing.] It is always my pleasure to
attend the annual ceremony and to applaud and personally congratulate those who
are inducted.
This year, I was there to support my Italian colleague, Gennaro Rocco, PhD, RN, FAAN, who pioneered regulation of
nursing in Italy and parts of Eastern Europe. I first encountered Rocco a few
years ago when he was head of IPASVI—the nursing board of Rome—and I look forward to
joining him in Palermo, Sicily, in a few weeks to address a conference on
advanced nursing practice.
Another inductee I was very pleased to see was Edith Hillan, PhD, RN, FAAN, a fellow Scot now at the
University of Toronto, Canada, where she has served as dean and continued her
work in midwifery. Others whose induction I was personally gratified to witness
were Melissa Batchelor-Murphy, PhD, RN,
FAAN, Duke University, who works in my own area of dementia-related feeding
difficulty, and Sek Ying Chair, PhD, RN, FAAN, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
whom I have known for many years. A most impressive inductee was Walter
Sermeus, PhD, RN, FAAN, Leuven University, Belgium, who
has extended RN4CAST work across Europe.
The highlight of the evening for me, however, was an emotional reunion
with my own FAAN sponsors from 10 years ago: Paula Milone-Nuzzo, PhD, RN, FAAN, former dean of
nursing at Penn State and now president of MGH Institute of Health Professions,
Boston, and Elaine Amella, PhD, RN, FAAN, Medical University of South
Carolina. It is a privilege to have such friends.
Behind the scenes, Mrs. Watson and I “ran” D.C. On our first morning, we
were leaving the hotel at sunrise, intending to head directly into town from
Dupont Circle. But the bellman asked where we were going and suggested an
alternate three-mile route to the White House, which we took and then ran back
through the city. Running along the Potomac with the sun coming up as teams of
rowers were being put through their paces, and then running by the Reflecting
Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial was wonderful. On Saturday morning, we
participated in the Roosevelt
Island DC parkrun with 70 other runners, many from the UK and
some from Australia and South Africa. My wife recognised and spoke to one of
the organisers from the run we did last year at Fletcher’s
Cove. Her recognition ability is a skill that completely
eludes me.
The academic year has started in the UK, and I am pleased to see a good
number of graduate students signing up to take my online quantitative methods
module. I also have a group of final-year, undergraduate-student projects to
supervise, and I look forward to meeting this group soon. In addition, we have
new PhD students, and I have the pleasure of supervising two of them, one from
Thailand and another from China. I also have international visiting scholars
from China to work with.
Our community of Chinese nurse academics is growing, and they are a
great pleasure to have with us. As they adjust to their new surroundings, one
of my major tasks will be to help them relax as they contemplate what lies
ahead and begin establishing—unassisted—daily goals for themselves. Our
cultures are very different, as I will be reminded again next week when I make
my final visit to China for 2017.
7 November 2017
My final
China tour for 2017
Includes Hong Kong, Wuhan, and Shanghai.
The
author recounts his final visit to China in 2017—his fourth this year.
SHANGHAI, China—My fourth visit to China this year and my final visit to
the Far East in 2017 began with three nights in Hong Kong. I was invited
by Hong Kong Polytechnic University (referred
to locally as ‘PolyU’) to take part in their celebration of 40 years of nursing education. Until recently, I was an honorary and visiting professor. The paper I
presented at the International
Nursing Research Congress (INRC) in Dublin—my second
INRC presentation—was part of the celebration and represented the end of a
10-year association with PolyU. I look forward to taking up a visiting
professorship at The
University of Hong Kong.
I also gave a workshop on grant writing at Caritas
Institute of Higher Education, which is
in the capable hands of Director Eric Chan, MSc, RN, a founding member of
the Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing & Midwifery (GAPFON). The final evening in Hong Kong witnessed a marvellous party in the
luxury Icon Hotel, belonging to PolyU. Entertainment was by The President’s
Band with Timothy Tong, PhD, FHKEng, outgoing president of PolyU, on lead
guitar, shown here on my YouTube channel. Sophia
Chan, PhD, RN, FAAN, Minister for Food and Health, was
the guest of honour, and it was very good to have a few minutes catching up
with her.
Next, I flew to Wuhan in Hubei Province to spend seven days at Wuhan Polytechnic University teaching staff and research students about writing for
publication. I also gave speeches on research and nursing education at two
local, modestly sized, 5,000-bed hospitals. Wuhan itself is a city of 10
million people. So rare are westerners in Wuhan that I was often stopped on the
street by people wanting to exchange hellos. Asked by my hosts to sum up my
first impressions of Wuhan, I said, “Friendly.” Wuhan is also very historical.
The first shots of the revolution against colonial rule were fired here in
1911. An excellent museum was built in 2011 to mark the centenary.
My time in China ended with three days at Fudan University in Shanghai at the invitation of Dean Hu Yan, PhD, RN, a member of the editorial board of Journal of Advanced Nursing. I
presented a paper on
evidence for practice at the first Joanna Briggs Institute Asia
Symposium on Evidence-Based Health Care. The opening address was given by Alan
Pearson, PhD, RN, FAAN, founder of the Joanna Briggs Institute, which now has more than 70 centres worldwide.
Apart from a brief journey between airports, this was my first visit to
Shanghai, which is very different from any other city in China. Shanghai has
retained a great deal of its colonial past with the various “concessions”
(British, French, German, and Dutch). The waterfront at The Bund is spectacular at night, not so much for the bright lights and
high-rise buildings—Hong Kong style—on Pudon Island but for the massive French
colonial buildings illuminated opposite. I had a very attentive and willing PhD
student assigned as my helper, but I insisted he take the day off on my last
full day to allow me to negotiate the Metro and explore by myself. The other
highlight of the visit was the Shanghai Circus. I rarely recommend things, but
I think this should be seen if you come to Shanghai. See this link on my YouTube channel.
So, my time in Asia for 2017 is over, and only April and June next year
are fixed for return visits. However, several other activities are planned,
though not yet in the diary. I return to Hull to meet my new Chinese visiting
academic from Beijing, who has arrived ahead of my return and will be with me
for one year. She has been able to fit right in, thanks to my existing doctoral
student and another visiting academic from China. The next three weeks find me
in that part of Europe we British call “The Continent,” with two visits to
Italy and one to Spain.
13 December 2017
A royal visit
A few trips to “the Continent” before year’s end.
HULL, United Kingdom—In November, the University of
Hull was honoured by a visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to open
our new medical building. I was not directly involved in
the visit, but my colleagues who were involved all reported on her genuine
interest in the people she met and the sheer stamina of our nonagenarian
monarch who remained on her feet for more than two hours at Hull after visiting
two other local projects earlier in the day. Royal visits literally take years
of preparation, and this was a day that staff and students of the University of
Hull will never forget.
Following my final visit of 2017 to China, I have been confined to
Europe. I took in Italy (twice), Spain, and Ireland, and I even spent some time
in the United Kingdom. These travels started with a very short visit to
Palermo, Sicily, to give a paper on the development of advanced nurse
practitioners in the UK. The conference was held under the auspices of IPASVI, the Nursing Board of Rome, and it was the first time I had been to
Sicily. It was nice to swap a cold, wet, and windy UK for a warm and dry place
and still be in Europe.
Spain
With a turnaround of less than 24 hours, I was on
my way to Pamplona, Spain, to spend another week at the University of Navarra as a visiting professor. The weather was more or less the same as
at home, but an imminent 10k race meant I had to explore the dark, cold, wet,
and windy streets of Pamplona on my evening runs.
I mainly advised colleagues on research projects and manuscript
preparation, but I also had the privilege of meeting the international master’s
students and a large class of undergraduate nursing students who were preparing
to visit various places across the world as part of their international programme. The School
of Nursing at the University of Navarra is committed to international exchanges
for students, and I had previously provided them with contacts in Singapore.
This time, we discussed how they could make links in the Far East. As I write,
these connections are being formed.
Italy
Next, I spent a week in Italy. It was my third visit of the year to
the University
of Genova. Over the years, it has been impressive to watch
them develop their PhD programme and increase the number of publications
resulting from their research. I am one of several UK and Irish colleagues who
visit the university, and we all agree that, although we work hard, the rewards
of a week in Genoa with some of the best food in the world and the sheer
pleasure of the Ligurian coast are ample reward. As ever, this is one of my
favourite places to run, and the poor weather could not deter me as my 10k
training continued.
Ireland
My mention above of Irish colleagues is a neat
segue for telling you about traveling to Dublin, Ireland, for my final
work-related visit of the year—three days at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Formed in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, some parts of this
very traditional university date back to that time. Outside of the Oxbridge
universities in the UK, it is unlikely you will find
anything quite like The Commons. Essentially the staff club, it is a labyrinth
of dining rooms and bars joined by magnificent large function rooms with
carpets several inches thick and invaluable portraits on the walls. Mobile
phones are forbidden, and decanters of port and sherry are placed strategically
on tables.
Back in the real world, my job at TCD was to provide a workshop on
writing for publication to Faculty of Health research students and a paper on
publishing to a local research group focusing on spirituality. I also met Mary
McCarron, the dynamic dean of health sciences—the first
female dean—at TCD. By sheer coincidence, Mary’s sister is married to one of my
best friends from my undergraduate days, and he and his wife are the godparents
of our second daughter, Lucy. In another neat segue, my final flights of the
year are to Cyprus with Mrs. Watson to visit Lucy before her current army
posting there ends.
The race
Twice, I’ve mentioned a 10k race. It’s the
famous Percy Pud race, now in its 25th year, and I ran with Mrs. Watson,
who had run the course before. I was dressed for deepest winter, and the day
turned out to be bright and warm. So, it was a hot race for me but I was
pleased with a time of 28:13, which is still a long way from my target and
slower than my wife’s best time on this course.
The family will gather in Hull for Christmas, but we will be minus my
son-in-law, who is currently engaged with peacekeeping duties with the United
Nations in South Sudan. He returns next year in time for the birth of our
seventh grandson in February to our daughter Emily, by which time I will have
been to South Korea, Spain, and Slovenia. You will hear about these visits next
year.
Best wishes for 2018!
7 January 2018
Cold in Seoul
The author shares highlights from the
East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars, which he attended in Seoul, South Korea.
LONDON, United Kingdom—In less than a month, I have visited two countries
divided by demilitarized zones: Cyprus and Korea. Cyprus, which seems to live
with this reality very well, has, essentially, free movement across the zone.
Korea lives less comfortably with theirs. Nevertheless, the zone between North
Korea and South Korea (always referred to in South Korea as the DMZ) has, with
typical Far Eastern entrepreneurship, become a tourist attraction. As one
colleague aptly put it, “They have commercialized their difficulties.” I
declined my opportunity to take a tourist trip to the DMZ, mainly because the
temperature there was at -14 Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit). It was not that cold in
Seoul, but it was cold enough to make even the shortest walk—with four layers,
hat and gloves—a miserable experience. Mostly, I moved between my hotel and the
underground restaurants located at the basement level of the shopping malls. It
reminded me of Toronto in winter.
I was in Seoul for the third time to attend, for the second time,
the East Asian Forum of Nursing Scholars (EAFONS).
This was the 21st EAFONS, and it attracted more than 1,000 people,
significantly more than the few hundred delegates I recall in the early years.
I was not invited this year to address the conference, and I decided not to
submit an abstract. This gave me wonderful freedom to move among sessions and
meet all sorts of interesting people.
The keynotes were of a very high standard with a range of North American
and local speakers. Notably, Sally
Thorne, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada, addressed the conference twice. Her second paper on the
value of qualitative research was one of the best justifications for the method
I have heard, cutting through much of the obfuscation that I often associate
with it. Sally and I are both Wiley editors. She edits Nursing Inquiry. Sarah Kagan, PhD, RN, FAAN, of the University of Pennsylvania,
was also a keynote speaker. She edits the International Journal of Older People Nursing, which I launched many years ago as a supplement of Journal of Clinical Nursing. Under the
initial editorship of Brendan McCormack, PhD, RN, of Queen Margaret
University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, the journal soon became independent.
It was especially good to see Sigma’s continued presence at the
conference and, even more, Cynthia Vlasich, MBA, BSN, RN, Sigma’s director of
Global Initiatives. Both of us were members of the initial cohort of GAPFON global panelists. I also greatly enjoyed
meeting more junior colleagues, particularly those I consider “rising stars.”
Amongst those I met and spent some time with was Ken Ho, PhD, RN, Tung Wah College, Hong Kong, SAR, China. I first met Ho a few
years ago in Hong Kong while he was still working toward his PhD. He submitted
a manuscript that we published in Journal of Advanced Nursing,
and I was impressed by his writing and clarity of thought.
In Seoul, Ho made a presentation in which he discussed his work with
migrant workers who are hired by families to look after older members. A
fraction of the thousands of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong who come
from poorer countries in the region, they have, traditionally, not had a voice
among the local Hong Kong Chinese population. Ho is doing something unique and
worthy, and he is winning the respect of the migrant domestic community.
Another person I consider a rising star is Su Wai
Hlaing, MSc, RN. She is from Myanmar, but works
clinically in Singapore. She is the only Burmese person I know. As such, she
has educated me about her country, which has been much in the news lately, and
what it is like to work in Singapore. She provides a different perspective from
the somewhat rarefied view I often get from senior academic colleagues. Hlaing
recently completed her master’s degree through Edinburgh Napier University and is already putting her skills to work by leading a project in
her hospital on the sexual needs of older people with stroke. Internationally,
this is a largely neglected area and, locally, in a Southeast Asian culture,
almost a taboo. I am convinced she will become a regional leader in nursing.
My year of connecting continents has begun. Next, I visit Slovenia and
then Spain and Italy. The rest of my year’s schedule in the Far East and other
places is not clear yet, but I have several invitations to honor in China, Hong
Kong, and Taiwan. I also hope a symposium jointly submitted with Australian
colleagues on the topic of open access and predatory publishers will be
accepted for the 29th International Nursing Research Congress in Melbourne,
Australia, in July. I’ll let you know.
8 February 2018
Celebration
in Slovenia
Dean of nursing at University of Maribor—a Sigma
member—promoted to full professor.
The author returns to the University of Maribor,
where he teaches, reviews manuscripts, and celebrates achievement.
LONDON, United Kingdom—This time of year, you can expect temperatures
well below freezing in Slovenia, but I arrived during a week of exceptionally
warm weather. Everyone was complaining. Warm weather melts snow, and it is said
that Slovenian children are born with skis on their feet. The locals regard
skiing almost like jogging. Local ski slopes, which use artificial snow during
warm spells, dominate the skyline. It is not uncommon for Slovenians to ascend
the slopes after work, make a quick downhill run, and be home for dinner.
Several of my children are very good skiers, and one of my daughters organizes
the British Army Medical Services cross-country ski team—on one occasion to
victory. Her abilities were not inherited; I am not a skier.
I was back at the University
of Maribor in Slovenia for three days of classes with
first- and second-year doctoral program students. My sessions were on writing
for publication and questionnaire development. Because it’s a two-year program,
some of the students have heard a great deal of my material before, but it’s
still a different experience for them as they have now made a start toward both
publication and research design. I was really pleased at the level of
engagement, so I came in early and sacrificed a lunch break to meet with
students and give advice on their manuscripts. It was a real pleasure.
The big news during my visit was the promotion of Dean Majda
Pajnkihar to the rank of full professor. I was
especially pleased, as I was one of her international external assessors. Her
prolific output, remarkable achievements, and contributions to the university
made the case for promotion clear-cut. Professor Pajnkihar established the
first doctoral nursing program in Slovenia and works tirelessly to represent
nursing at the nation’s highest levels.
My visit was not all work. One afternoon, we visited the town of Bled
with its famous and beautiful
lake. The Slovenian Alps—snow-tipped this time of
year—are reflected perfectly in the still, clear water. An island with a church
on it is a tourist attraction, and you can be transported to it in a rowboat. I
thought I was the first in our family to visit Bled, but after putting some
pictures on Instagram, I learned that my son-in-law had already been there and
had swum to the island. In light of the imminent birth of our seventh
grandchild—his first child with my daughter—I am assuming he will develop a
more responsible attitude.
1 March 2018
Homage to
Catalonia
If you’re in Barcelona, you’re in Catalonia.
The author chairs an appointment panel
at the University of Girona, teaches at the University of Navarra, and appoints
three editors in meetings at Oxford.
HULL, United Kingdom—Following decades of work in Spain and transits
through the Barcelona airport, I finally set foot on terra firma in Catalonia.
I am sure that, until recently, many people who aren’t residents of Spain were
unaware that Barcelona is in Catalonia. Although it is a part of Spain, the
region has a fierce sense of identity and its own language. Of course, many are
now aware of Catalonia’s special status following the referendum for
independence and events that followed, which continue.
I have no view on the issue of Catalan independence, but I am frequently
reminded of George Orwell’s first-hand record of the Spanish Civil War as
recorded in his book of essays titled Homage to Catalonia.
The tragic brutality of civil war and Orwell’s own near-death experience made a
great impression on me as a schoolboy, and I went on to read all his books.
I was in Catalonia to chair an appointment panel at the eponymous University of Girona, situated on the Mediterranean.
The appointment was under the auspices of the Serra
Húnter Programme, which seeks involvement in promoting prestigious
academics—from assistant to associate professor, for example. Successful
candidates are then partly funded for a few years by the program. The universities
making the appointments thus benefit financially while reaping increased
research activity from Serra Húnter scholars.
One of my panel members was Dame Nicky Cullum, DBE, PhD, FAAN, dean of the Division of Nursing,
Midwifery, and Social Work at the University of Manchester in the UK. I first
met Cullum at the University of Edinburgh in 1989. She was sitting outside the
office of the dean of social sciences, and we were both waiting to be
interviewed for a lectureship. On that day—and she will not mind me recalling
this—I was the successful candidate, but her career has been the more stellar,
culminating in her elevation to Dame of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth. My note of congratulation included the hope that we were “good”
following the events that took place way back in 1989. We were, and we are!
On to Pamplona
After chairing the panel, I traveled by high-speed
trains back to Barcelona and on to Pamplona. Next to China, Spain has the most
high-speed rail track in the world, and the services are punctual, fast—as the
name suggests—and very comfortable. I spent a week in Pamplona at the University of Navarra as a visiting professor, advising colleagues on publications and
lecturing to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as usual. On my first visit
to the university in 1991, I needed a translator with me always. Now, all my
colleagues are fluent in English, and I can teach without a translator. My
Spanish remains as good as it was in 1991—i.e., not very.
And back to the UK
Back in the United Kingdom, I have just returned
from a meeting at Oxford of the JAN management
team. (We have dropped use of the name Journal of Advanced Nursing and
are now officially going with JAN.) This is one of
the best weeks in my annual cycle of activities. We had two full days of
meetings, and, as usual, I spent four nights there to ensure that I caught up
socially with all of the editors. Last year, we lost two excellent colleagues—Brenda Roe, PhD, RN, who demitted, and Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN, who left to take up the reins
at Nursing Research. I was very pleased to make not
two but three new editor appointments: Doris Yu, PhD, RN; Cindi
Logston, PhD, RN, FAAN; and YingJuan Cao, PhD, RN. These appointments maintain our U.S.
profile and increased our Chinese profile.
March will be spent in Europe—UK and Italy—before my Far East work in
China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan starts in April. I’ll be reporting from Italy
next.
2 April 2018
Research
assessment season in the UK
A veteran of research panels and subpanels, the
author opts out this time.
Between trips to Italy and
Finland, RNL’s roving blogger discusses
university research funding in the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom was the first country to have a government-based
assessment system to disburse teaching and research funds to universities. When
I matriculated at university in 1974, there were no fees. In fact, I received
money from the government in the form of a student grant. These grants were
means tested against parental income and family circumstances.
The conditions under which I went to university could not be more
different from the conditions my children face. They pay tuition fees, and
low-interest loans are available that leave them with considerable debt upon
graduation. However, the money paid from these student loans to the
universities barely covers the cost of the education delivered, and we remain
largely dependent on government funding.
Compared with the money raised by deans and university presidents in the
United States, the amounts raised by UK universities are risible. I recall when
the University of Sheffield raised 1 million pounds in a year. I have seen more
raised in one week by the dean of nursing at UCLA. Only the Oxbridge
universities could afford to dispense with government funding, and we have only
one private university in the UK, the University of Buckingham.
More universities, same funding
Returning to the topic of research assessment, when
I went to university, the government could afford—wholly—to fund university
students and research, the latter based on the size of the university. There
were only 40 universities in the United Kingdom. However, at the hands of both
Conservative and Labour governments, there was a three-fold increase in the
number of universities between the early 1980s and the end of the 1990s with no
increase in funding. Thus, the introduction of tuition fees in the UK (except
for Scottish students attending Scottish universities) and a more meritorious
system of disbursing research funds, loosely referred to as “research
assessment.”
I am old enough to have been involved in all of these periodic research
assessments. They began in 1989, my first year as an academic. I have had the
honor to serve twice on assessment committees—the Research Assessment Exercise
in 2008 and the Research Excellence Framework in 2014. It has been my even
greater honor to serve on both occasions under the chairmanship of Hugh P.
McKenna, CBE, FRCN, FAAN, and I am delighted to say that
McKenna has been elected again to lead the subcommittee that assesses
dentistry, allied health professions, nursing, and pharmacy for the 2021
Research Excellence Framework.
Exercising discretion on the homefront
In addition to this role, McKenna, a former
university pro-vice chancellor (equivalent to vice president), is now leading
the establishment of a medical school at Ulster University. We often bemoan the lack of nurses at the “high table” of
decision-making in UK academia and health, but McKenna, in addition to winning
the respect of his own profession, commands the respect of other professions
that will be assessed by his committee. I was asked if I would consider sitting
on the committee again, but I decided that the fees we earn would make little
impression on the divorce settlement when Mrs. Watson discovered that I was to
be almost permanently in absentia for another year. On the other hand, I am
delighted that my dean, Julie Jomeen, PhD, RM, of the University of Hull, has been
appointed.
There is never a time when research assessment is not high on university
agenda. However, with the recently published criteria and announcement of the
composition of the panels and subpanels, our focus on research assessment has
become more intense. As a veteran of every exercise—in addition to leading
three and assessing two—I am in demand at Hull and at other universities for
advice on research assessment. Primarily, I am involved in assessing
publications and advising my own and other universities on the best ones to
submit. I possibly spend as much time on this as being a subpanel member. The
difference is, once submissions have been finalized at the end of 2020, when
the intense work of the subpanels begins with whole weeks spent in various
locations around the UK throughout 2021, I can put my feet up, figuratively speaking.
My recent travels included a week in Italy at the University of Genoa
with doctoral students. I left the UK covered in snow, so the blue skies and
warmer days were a welcome break. After Easter, I go to Oulu in the north of
Finland to teach master’s degree students, and that precedes by a few days my
first visit of 2018 to China and Hong Kong.
12 April 2018
Snow in
Finland
The author shares publishing knowledge with
doctoral students near the Arctic Circle.
An award-winning writer of many words,
the author is gratified to learn he has won an award for just a few.
HULL, United Kingdom—I recently returned home after the first of three
visits to Finland this year. I was there slightly longer than expected as my
tight connection at Helsinki airport did not connect. My incoming flight was
late, and the lady at the transfer desk kept telling me, “It does not look
good.” I kept asking, “How much worse can it be?” In the end, I did not make
the flight and had to spend the night in the airport hotel and take a very
early flight home. I travel strictly with cabin luggage and calculate my
laundry needs carefully, but any more information will be too much for my
readers.
I was in Oulu in the north of Finland for the first time. The city is within
sight of the Arctic Circle. The days were quite long and there were copious
amounts of snow, most of it piled 10 feet high by the road or at the end of
parking lots. Like all countries that expect large amounts of snow on a
predictable basis, Finland works normally despite the snow, and the Finns just
take it in stride. With sheets of ice on the sidewalks, walking was dangerous.
I ran three miles one morning in -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit), but a
nosebleed and red raw skin on my face convinced me, thereafter, to run in the
afternoons.
My work was at the Nursing Science Department of the University of Oulu where, for three days, I taught doctoral students on systematic
reviewing and writing for publication. I am used to teaching in Finland. Finns,
being a polite and reserved people, are initially quiet. Once they have
“weighed you up,” the questions start coming, and by the end of the week my
sessions had turned from monologue to dialogue. My next visits are in quick
succession—next month to Tampere (for the first time) and later to Turku.
I visit my own University of Hull from time to time. In fact, over
Easter, while most colleagues were sunning themselves on the Mediterranean, I
was teaching quantitative methods at the University of Hull Easter School,
which is designed for doctoral students not based at Hull. I never cease to be
amazed at the calibre of our doctoral students. When I ran into some problems
while demonstrating aspects of a statistical package, a computer science
student showed me how to do it. From that point on, I took a back seat and the
class ran itself.
So far this year, I have published 10 refereed articles. I am especially
pleased with two articles published in collaboration with my former doctoral
student Mansour Al-Yami. As general director of academic affairs and training
at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health, Al-Yami is third in line to the kingdom’s
minister of health in Riyadh. He is a remarkable man who combines a
high-pressure job with academic work and impeccably good manners. He remains a
good friend—my “godson,” as he describes himself—and I look forward to seeing
him in October when I next visit the kingdom.
I have another piece in The
Conversation this week where I outline reasons nursing students in the UK should not be paid bursaries by the National Health Service. I have already drawn fire on this
issue, and my popularity rating with the Royal College of Nursing and
the nursing student body will not increase. But I am not alone in this
view.
Finally, and for the first time in this blog, I refer to my increasing
interest in haiku poetry. I have composed haiku regularly for
the past two years and, last year, began getting published. To date, I have
three poems published in the Journal of the British Haiku Society, with more accepted by them and another journal. But my surprise at
coming in among the top 32 with an honorable mention in an international haiku competition of
more than 700 entries is one of the best surprises I have had in years. The
editor of RNL permitting, I may inflict
a few on you. I start with my honorable mention. Most are more cheerful than this
one.
silent shredder
graveyard
of all my thoughts
30 April 2018
Stirring
debate about nursing scholarships in the UK
The author expresses his opinion and hears back
from those who disagree.
While visiting China, Watson politely
fields a flood of comments from readers reacting to an article he wrote and
keynotes a nursing conference in Luzhou, Sichuan Province.
HULL, United Kingdom—I’m not sure I was ever the most popular nursing
professor in the UK, but my ratings certainly tumbled after my piece “Nurses don’t need bursaries—here are four reasons why” was published in The Conversation. Colleagues
alerted me that I was being heartily criticized for my article, and the media
office at the University of Hull fielded many enquires and issued a press
statement. While I was sitting behind the great firewall of China, my article
had more than 17,000 reads, a typhoon of protest on Twitter, and a series of
comments—only one of support—on the publication’s webpage.
Once I had gained access to the internet and—via a virtual private
network—to Twitter (otherwise blocked in China), I understood what the fuss was
about. I made a point of responding to all the comments on the webpage and as
many as I could on Twitter. Expressing gratitude for the comments, most of
which I predicted, I tried to politely neutralize the anger directed at me. I
cannot deny, however, that some of the more personal comments penetrated. I am
now back home, and things seem to have calmed down.
China
My China visit was to Luzhou in Sichuan Province, where I gave a keynote
at an annual nursing conference. In addition to my keynote, I also consulted
with Master of Nursing students at Southwestern Medical University about
writing manuscripts for publication.
I have often reported that the mighty Yangtze River divides Luzhou in
half, and I have written about the caustically hot food they serve. I took in
the Yangtze on a morning run but refused to take in any local food promised to
be, as my hosts would say, “a bit spicy.” The local airport is closed while
they build a new one—nobody knows why they didn’t keep the old one open until
the new one was built—so I had the pleasure of a three-hour round-trip drive
from Chongquing (pronounced chong-ching), where they have a magnificent new
airport.
This was my second visit to the Far East this year and the first of what
will probably be four visits to China. On the way back to the UK, I spent one
night and one day in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong
I stopped in Hong Kong to chair a meeting at The Education University of Hong Kong. The university accommodated me in the Royal Park Hotel Shatin, where
Mrs. Watson and I stayed the first time I came to Hong Kong in 2003.
I had dinner with Doris Yu, PhD, RN, of The
Chinese University of Hong Kong in the
evening. Yu was a doctoral student when I first met her in 2003, and now she is
a well-established nursing academic and a recent addition to the editorial team
at Journal of Advanced Nursing (now simply JAN).
The meeting at The Education University of Hong Kong was to review the
Bachelor of Health Education program following the graduation of its first
cohort. I met senior staff members, teaching staff members, students, and a local
stakeholder. I also visited several on-campus facilities.
The institution only recently attained full university status. As a
member of the Research Grants Committee (RGC) of the Hong Kong University
Grants Council, I visited the former Hong Kong Institute of Education to assess
its research activity and make a recommendation to the UGC about granting
university status. It is nice to have played a small part in Hong Kong’s
educational history.
26 May 2018
A Finnish
fortnight
For his 100th RNL blog entry, the author
reports on recent trips to Finland.
Looking for tips on writing for
publication? Roger Watson, editor-in-chief of JAN and
editor of Nursing Open, provides helpful resources he has
created.
HULL, United Kingdom—After a visit earlier this year to Oulu in Finland, I made two more trips to that
country, a week apart. Unlike my visit to Oulu, when snow was still on the
ground, Finland was experiencing a heat wave with temperatures rising to 28
Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit), and the days were very long.The first of my last two
visits was to the University
of Tampere, where I had not been previously, to deliver a
seminar on writing for publication to doctoral students in health sciences. My
hotel was one of the tallest buildings in Tampere, and, from the roof bar, I
could see lakes surrounding the city and well into the distance. The air in
Finland is unpolluted.
Dinner with my hosts was in an even taller structure—the Näsineula—which has a revolving restaurant at the top. Again, the view was
superb, and in the two revolutions it took to eat dinner, I was able to take it
all in. I had never experienced a revolving restaurant before, so my vision of
having to hold on to my plate was unfounded. The pace of revolution is quite
sedate and barely perceptible, but I did wonder why the bar was getting further
away during dinner, only to reappear. Yours truly really needs to get out
more.
After a weekend at home, I was back on another flight to Finland—to
Helsinki. This time I was with my University of Hull and JAN colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, and we visited a place with which
we are both very familiar—the University
of Turku. Again, the purpose was to deliver seminars on
writing for publication to doctoral students in various health sciences.
Running
I was able to fit in two lovely early-morning runs
in Finland. In Tampere, I ran through fragrant forest. Apparently, after the
snow clears, the smell of the tree resin emerges. In Turku, I ran along the
river to the harbor and over some very picturesque bridges. I am in training
for the Humber
Bridge 10K race on 27 May, my first race this year. The
Humber Bridge is pictured at the top of this blog entry.
I have been trying to emphasize quality over quantity in my program with
frequent track training sessions—mostly spent catching up with the rest of the
pack, which is much younger—and hill training, which, from start to finish, has
me praying for it to stop. Derek Rickets of City of Hull Athletic Club, our
fantastic coach, is ever encouraging with choice phrases, including: “Never
mind, Rog; the one at the back is always benefiting the most.” I must,
therefore, be gaining maximum benefit. In my heart, I want to get a good time
in the race. In my head, I will just be glad to be standing at the end.
Readers of “Connecting Continents” will realize that I deliver many
seminars and workshops on writing for publication. This is an integral part of
my role as an editor-in-chief, and I always enjoy doing them. I have a range of
presentations available, and what I deliver depends on what I’ve been requested
to present. Over the years, the hot topics in academic publishing have changed.
The topics that interest people also vary across the world, depending on local
and national academic pressures, and awareness of issues in academic publishing
varies across the world. In recent years, however, I am increasingly
emphasizing publication ethics, open access, and the problem of predatory
publishing.
Nurse Author & Editor
I am also making a habit of pointing audiences to
the publication Nurse
Author & Editor, edited by Leslie Nicoll, PhD,
MBA, RN, FAAN. Published under the auspices of the International Academy of
Nursing Editors (INANE), the online Nurse Author &
Editor, to which I am a frequent contributor, can be subscribed
to at no charge. It’s a good venue for sharing short, accessible, and useful
pieces on emerging issues in academic publishing and on writing for
publication.
I have recorded my most recent pieces as podcasts, which are available
on my
podcasting site and my YouTube channel. Even though I say it myself, they are proving very
popular. You may want to check out two: one on writing an introduction
and background to a manuscript and another on how to start
a discussion section of a manuscript. The
advantage of the podcasts is that they can be downloaded.
I inflicted one of my haiku on you in a recent entry. I am delighted to
say that I now have an entry in the Living Haiku Anthology. I see some
of the truly “big names” in haiku there, so it is a special honor to be counted
amongst their number. Someone has tried several times to register my interest
in haiku on my
Wikipedia entry, but an editor quickly removed those attempts
because there was no published evidence. Last time I checked, the link to the
anthology was there, so I think the Wikipedia editors must be happy now. Anyone
who doubts the rigor of Wikipedia should try creating or editing a page; little
gets past the editors without scrutiny.
I have one week in Hull before I head back to the Far East for a short
tour, taking in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. That will be the subject of my
next entry.
15 June 2018
The Far East
and a bridge too far
RNL’s bridge-running, continent-connecting globetrotter provides an
update.
HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT—Viewed from the outside, China can
seem impenetrable and daunting. My most recent visa application was initially
refused because I was an editor-in-chief and thus, in their view, a journalist.
“Face” (mianzi) prohibits Chinese officials from backing down—demonstrated in my phone
call with the embassy—but a solution always arises. In this case, a letter from
my publishers at Wiley confirmed my status but assured them I was not there to
write or report as a journalist. They also explained that JAN is an academic journal, not a newspaper. In the future, I must
ensure that letters of invitation make no mention of my editorship.
Next problem: I had been asked to give a “lecture” at a conference, and
this was not permitted. Lecturing is a job and requires a work permit. The
compromise? I was permitted to give a “speech.”
My visit to China, my second this year to the Far East, lasted a little
over 24 hours. The bureaucracy left me with a dark cloud over my head but, as
always when I enter China, the doubts and fears dissolved when I received a
welcoming smile from the immigration officer at Beijing airport and was greeted
with a wave at the arrivals lounge by my very enthusiastic helper. Her
enthusiasm wasn’t dampened by the fact I had been delayed by monsoon rains for
two hours in Hong Kong and it was already past midnight. I got to bed in the
Beijing Hilton at 2 a.m. only to rise again a few hours later for the next
stage of the journey. Later in this post, I’ll tell you what I was doing in
China.
Taiwan
This Far East visit began in Taiwan, where I was
visiting China Medical University (CMU) in Taichung for the second time. It was
the 60th birthday of the university, and I was asked to give two lectures at
the School of Nursing. I spent three days in Taichung, managed to fit in some
early morning running in the parks, and was looked after very well.
My very good friend Lian Hua Huang, PhD, RN, FAAN, former head of
nursing and former head of the Taiwan Nurses Association, is now chief
executive officer for nursing at CMU. It’s a new post with responsibility for
overseeing and integrating nursing across the university’s campuses and
associated hospitals. Huang also represents her region in Geneva, Switzerland
at the International Council of Nurses. A tour de force of Taiwanese nursing,
she is always busy but always has time not only to meet me but to take me to my
favorite restaurants. On the return journey, I spent a day in Taipei catching
up with several old friends before leaving for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong
Most of the next week was spent in Hong Kong
serving on several Hong Kong University Grants Committees: the General Research
Fund, the Early Career Researcher Scheme, and the Prestigious Fellowships
Awards Committee. I do not serve, as you may assume, on the medical panel where
nursing research is considered, but rather on the Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences Committee, to which many nurses also submit applications. We deal with
a fascinating spectrum of topics, ranging from archaeology to design. I nod
sagely at the appropriate times until something I understand is tabled.
The committee work is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the work we do.
In January, we are presented with the complete list of nearly 200 applications
and asked to indicate our preferences. After they are allocated in February, we
spend four months finding reviewers and conducting our own reviews. The work is
not easy, but it is a great pleasure, and it’s a privilege to spend three days
with some of the top scholars from some of the top universities across the
world, e.g. Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, and Oxford.
China
I was in China at the invitation of the Chinese Nursing Management Journal, which, along
with two other journals, is published by the Chinese Association of Nursing
Managers. I gave the opening keynote on challenges for nursing management at
the 2018 China Nursing Management Conference in Tianjin. I think it was a
record audience for me—3,000 people. Not spoiled for choice regarding topics, I
selected: the scope of the role; the ageing nursing workforce; demonstrating
cost-benefit of nursing; and leadership training.
Tianjin is 30 minutes from Beijing by high-speed train. These trains are
wonderful! They travel at 300 kilometers per hour, but the movement is barely
perceptible. The longest trains have 16 carriages and, at what I call the
“pointy ends,” four-berth business class carriages rival in comfort anything
offered by most airlines. My visit to Tianjin was too short to explore the
city. Just over 24 hours after arriving, I rose early to take a direct flight
from Tianjin to Hong Kong, from where this blog entry is submitted.
Running
In my previous entry, I mentioned I was preparing
to run in a 10-kilometer race over the Humber Bridge and back. It is the second
longest suspension bridge in the world. (The longest is here in Hong Kong.) I
did not do too well. It was very hot and, despite lots of running, I had not
done enough training—specifically, not enough hill training. For anyone who
thinks bridges are flat, try running the Humber. Suspension bridges have slopes
at both ends, and I felt every one of my 62 (and a half) years as well as my
lack of hill training. That will be remedied over the rest of the summer.
5 July 2018
Sun, soccer,
and Italy
The author pays tribute to Jim Smith, his friend and mentor.
GENOA, Italy—I start this entry with the sad news that James Patrick
Smith, OBE, FRCN, founding editor of Journal of Advanced Nursing—now
known as JAN—has passed. Always known as “Jim,” Smith not only
was a great figure in 20th-century nursing, he was my close friend and mentor.
Indeed, as I have said many times about him and to him, “I would not be where I
am today without Jim Smith.”
Jim had a truly remarkable career. Qualifying as a nurse in 1955, the
year I was born, he was the first man appointed to the nursing staff at St.
George’s Hospital, London, which, incidentally, is the hospital where I trained
as a nurse. He published my first scholarly article in JAN in 1989 and later invited me to join the
editorial board. Jim gave me many opportunities to publish, including my own
column in JAN, and edited my earliest
efforts ruthlessly. I learned how to write and edit from Jim, and it was always
my pleasure, as time passed, to see fewer underscores, strikeouts, and marginal
comments. “You’re learning,” was his phrase of encouragement.
Jim attended the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing
Research Conference in Edinburgh in 2017 to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of JAN. I interviewed him—against a great deal of
background noise—and that exchange is available as a podcast. I last saw Jim late in 2017 when he came to hear
me deliver the Elsie Stephenson Memorial Lecture at The University of
Edinburgh, also available as a podcast. Jim died peacefully at age 84 near his home of
Fochabers in Scotland and is survived by John Forde, his partner of 54
years. INANE published a short tribute, and I hope, in due course, to organize a memorial
service for Jim in London.
Italy
This post comes from Genoa, Italy. Genoa, also
known as Genova, is the subject of many of many of my entries as I have been
visiting the university here regularly for many years. I left a sweltering heat
wave in the UK to arrive in an even more sweltering Italy. (Frying pan and fire
clichés come to mind.) The fantastic weather, food, and wine are always a
distraction from work here, but this time there was an even greater
distraction—England’s knockout match against Colombia in the World Cup. The
competition itself was a sore point here in Italy, as they failed to qualify,
but the local fans happily cheered on England as they beat Colombia on
penalties. Mark Hayter, PhD, FAAN, my Hull colleague with whom I visit
Genoa, was a nervous wreck!
I’m a Scot but happy to transfer my allegiance to England, my home at
various stages of my life for a total of nearly 30 years. This is unthinkable
for many of my compatriots for whom, in sporting terms, England is “the enemy.”
But my native country has had such a dismal record in the World Cup and in most
international competitions that we rarely have a team to support. Naturally,
when Scotland plays England in any competition, I am 100 percent Scottish.
Haiku
In a recent entry, I advertised the fact that I
dabble in Haiku poetry. I expounded on this a bit more in a blog entry titled “Stuck in a
moment,” published recently on the National Conference of
University Professors website. I am very pleased that more of my poetry is
being published and that I qualified for an entry in the Living Haiku Anthology, updated
each time a haiku is published. Moreover, Patricia McGuire of the Poetry Pea website featured me in one of
her podcasts. I don’t think I will be giving up my day job any
time soon, but it helps me look forward to eventual retirement when I will have
more time to study and write haiku.
New horizons
My next post will report on my first visit to New
Zealand. I won’t be working while in New Zealand, but I will be making a
work-related stop in Australia—together with Mrs. Watson, our youngest daughter
Rebecca and her boyfriend George—for a week. My family has a house on the Gold
Coast, where we will be based for a few days, and I will make a brief
appearance at Sigma’s 29th International Nursing Research Congress in Melbourne
where, for fewer than 24 hours, I will cram in a couple of meetings and a
symposium. From there, we travel to New Zealand for 10 days of touring on the
North Island before making a 48-hour stopover in my beloved Hong Kong and then
traveling back to the UK.
14 August 2018
Touching down
in Melbourne
The author takes a break from vacation to attend
congress.
While vacationing in Australia and New
Zealand, Roger Watson flies to Melbourne to visit friends and co-present a
session at research congress on predatory publishing.
This is a retrospective entry written after my return to the UK
following a three-week vacation in Australia and, for the first time, New
Zealand. The vacation was punctuated by a flying visit—literally—to Sigma’s
29th International Nursing Research Congress in Melbourne.
Our family vacation was based in Brisbane, where winter is like summer
in the UK. When my flight landed in Melbourne on Sunday evening, 22 July, the
weather was very different from Brisbane—cold and windy. I went into town to
meet two very good friends: David Thompson, PhD, RN, FAAN, of Queen’s University Belfast, UK,
and Philip
Darbyshire, PhD, RN, international consultant and inspirational
speaker. Thompson, a leading cardiovascular nurse in the UK with a stellar
international profile, preceded me here at the University of Hull, and I have
known him well for the past 20 years. Darbyshire and I go back to my earliest
days in nursing when, from 1974 to 1978, I worked during university vacations
as a nursing auxiliary. A staff nurse at the time, he was inspirational for me
and has since become one of the best-known faces in nursing in both the UK and
Australia. He made his home in Australia many years ago.
Fighting the fakes
On Monday, Darbyshire and I, together with Linda Shields, PhD, MD, another long-time friend and former Hull
colleague—now of Charles Sturt University in Australia—presented a symposium at
congress about the problematic rise in predatory journals and conferences. We
titled the session “Fighting the Fakes: How to Identify and Beat the Predatory Publishers,” and were delighted, considering our early morning slot on the final
day of the conference, to have 40 attendees. The session has created a buzz. In
addition to invitations to speak on the topic when I return to Australia, I
have been asked to author an article on predatory publishers for Reflections on Nursing Leadership. Watch for it in
coming weeks! Later that day, I flew back to Brisbane.
Back to vacation
My vacation, shared with the long-suffering Mrs.
Watson, my youngest daughter Rebecca, and her boyfriend, George, took in
Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Byron Bay. My family has a beach house on the
Gold Coast. I had barely opened my first beer on the balcony when we spotted
the spouts of humpback whales migrating along the Pacific coast. At Byron
Bay—Australia’s most easterly point—we were entertained by dozens of humpbacks
spouting and rearing themselves out of the water. It was a truly moving and
memorable experience to see these leviathans gracefully making their way north,
oblivious to our attention.
A week in Australia was followed by 10 days on New Zealand’s North
Island. After spending time in Auckland, we took the 10-hour Northern Explorer
train to Wellington through some outstanding scenery. Wellington was wonderful,
and I managed to run 10 miles along some of the most beautiful coastline I have
ever seen. We had lunch with David Prentice, PhD, FIPENZ, another long-time friend. Former
chief executive of Opus, a multinational New Zealand company, Prentice now
chairs the New Zealand government’s Interim Committee on Climate Change. My two
middle daughters were bridesmaids at his wedding in the UK when we worked
together at The University of Edinburgh.
Finally, we hired a car and drove to Napier, which was rebuilt in the Art Deco style after its destruction by an
earthquake in 1931, and then on to Rotorua to witness the geothermal geysers and smell the sulphur—a truly
extraordinary place. Our final day in New Zealand was back in Auckland,
followed by an overnight in Hong Kong and then home. My next “Connecting
continents” entry will be from Turkey.
21 September 2018
Airport
stress and Turkish delight
The author gives keynote at conference on nursing
history.
With international travel comes the anxiety of
logistical uncertainty. For RNL blogger Roger Watson, it also brings the wonderful rewards
of meeting new and old friends.
ISTANBUL, Turkey—Arriving in Turkey can be anxiety provoking, as
attested to by my virtually unbroken record of not being met here at airports.
This was the third time it happened. Actually, I dislike being met at airports,
preferring a destination address and local taxi service. Fewer things go
wrong.
The worst scenario is arriving to find nobody among the line of awaiting
drivers who bears a sign with your name. Without a destination and given the
extreme difficulty of making an international call on my cellphone, I feel
really stuck—as I did when I arrived this week in Izmir. With the help of the
young lady at the information desk, I managed to contact a person from the
travel office who assured me the driver was there—patently not the case—and
that he was outside. I went outside, and he was not in sight, but eventually
someone waving a sign with my name on it emerged from the airport. Because of
my Turkish deficiency and my driver’s English deficiency, I was unable to
ascertain why we missed each other. Anyway, as assured by local colleagues,
“Don’t worry, you made it.”
Ege University
Ege
University—like me—was founded in 1955. Located in Izmir,
Turkey, which is situated on the Aegean Sea, Ege (pronounced egg-ye, which
means Aegean) University houses the largest school of nursing in the country.
They have more than 3,000 undergraduate students, hundreds of master’s and
doctoral students, and more than 1,000 faculty members.
I had been invited to give the opening keynote at their Third
National and First International Nursing History Congress. I also delivered an afternoon workshop on writing for publication,
which had 50 participants. The conference was truly international with
contributions from the United Kingdom, Greece, Iran, Portugal, Palestine, and
the United States.
Turkey continues to experience political change, but the area where
Izmir is located is fiercely loyal to Atatürk, the father of the nation, and
portraits of him adorn every room. The Turkish border with Syria continues to
be disputed, and the Turkish economy has been considerably weakened in recent
years. But the spirit of the Turkish people, and especially Turkish nurses,
seems unyielding. They are rightly proud of their country and their legendary
hospitality to visitors. You may be abandoned at an airport, risk death in any
kind of transport, and find the language incomprehensible, but you will never
starve and will rarely be without a cup of Turkish coffee or tea in one hand
and a delicious piece of Turkish delight in the other.
My fitness regime has faltered due to a running-acquired injury, and the
recent assault on my digestive system in Turkey has set my program back by
weeks. But it’s all in the line of duty, and, as I remind my colleagues,
“Someone has to do it.”
Mirror images
The two best aspects of traveling are mirror images—meeting new friends
and meeting old friends. I was very pleased to meet the dean of nursing at Ege
University, Fisun
Senuzun Akyar, PhD, RN. Amongst the old friends were PhD
student Gulcan Taskiran, MN, RN, whom I met in 2017 on a previous visit to
Turkey, and longtime friend retired Col. Sevgi Hatipoglu, PhD, RN. Formerly of
the Turkish army and founder of the first army nursing school in Turkey, she is
a highly respected figure here. She recalled our first meeting many years ago
when my second daughter had just joined the British Army.
I return to Hull briefly before going to Edinburgh next week to advise
at Edinburgh Napier University on their Research Excellence Framework strategy, then to London to deliver a keynote at the Beta Gamma Sigma Global Leadership Summit and to attend my first meeting as a committee member of the National
Conference of University Professors.
Haiku writing continues. Editors of the Living Haiku Anthology have
seen fit to give me a page. Take your pick, but I was quite pleased with:
at the junction
only my mood changes
broken lights
Blithe Spirit 28.2,
May 2018
6 November 2018
One month,
three countries
The month of October found RNL blogger
Roger Watson in Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, where he taught,
advised, attended conferences, met friends, and ran races.
WASHINGTON—For me, October started in Genoa, Italy, continued in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, and ended in Washington. Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my University of Hull and JAN colleague, was with me in both Genoa and Washington.
Mark and I were in Italy for the third time this year, fulfilling our
visiting professorial arrangements at the University of Genoa. It’s never a
hardship to be there; we were doing our usual work of advising on research
projects and publications and teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate
students. Our colleagues in the School of Nursing at Genoa, under the
leadership of Loredana Sasso, MSc, RN, FAAN, are currently engaged in seeking
to establish a Sigma chapter at the university, the first in Italy.
As usual, it was an enjoyable time but also sobering. The expanse of the
motorway Morandi Bridge that collapsed in August was clearly visible
from the plane as we landed, and we had very good views of it on the way from
and to the airport. Everyone had a story to tell related to the disaster—either
near-death escapes for themselves, friends, and family or of knowing someone
who was injured or killed. The effect on the people of Genoa is palpable—the
shock of the tragedy as well as the shame associated with the poor workmanship
and fear of similar disasters. (I just received news of a terrible storm that
hit the Ligurian coastline and caused a great deal of destruction in Genoa.)
Saudi Arabia
This was my only visit to the kingdom this year,
and it coincided with the current diplomatic row about which few can be
unaware. Although the story in the kingdom about events in Turkey and the
brutal slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi differs from the prevailing one
outside Saudi Arabia, life seemed to proceed as usual in Riyadh. Whatever our
governments do and say—and whether or not we agree—there is always a place for
personal interaction with people who are simply trying to do their best for
their colleagues, their workplaces, and their country.
I was there at the invitation of the leadership of King Fahad
Medical City to address its annual International Nursing
Symposium. As is often the case, what happens between sessions and outside the
conference is as important as the proceedings, and I was very pleased to catch
up over dinner with Mustafa
Bodrick, PhD, RN, consultant in nursing education to the
Saudi Commission for Health Specialties and chair of Sigma’s Research and
Scholarship Advisory Council. In addition to being a gold mine of information
about Saudi Arabia, he knows the best restaurants in Riyadh. After spending the
weekend in Riyadh, I returned to the UK for a week before traveling to
Washington for what has become my annual visit to attend the American Academy
of Nursing’s Transforming Health, Driving Policy Conference.
Washington
Because the academy’s conference events hold less
interest for non-U.S. fellows than their American counterparts—although we keep
trying to establish a foothold—I forgo attending them and use most of my time
in Washington to run, sightsee, and visit friends. I was delighted, however,
that Frank Schaffer, EdD, RN, FAAN, president and chief executive officer
of CGFNS International, organized a reception for recently inducted
international fellows and invited me to attend.
I find the hotel lobby of the academy’s conference venue the ideal place
to position myself and watch national and international stars of nursing mingle
and, occasionally, to pick off a few with whom I really want to speak. It was
good to see Gennaro Rocco, PhD, RN, FAAN, again. He was inducted last year.
A new inductee, Alessandro Steviano, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate
director of the International Council of Nursing’s Nursing Health Policy team
and a longtime friend of mine, accompanied him. Another new inductee, also
well-known to me, was Col. Alan Finnegan, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN. Formerly of
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC), he met my daughter Captain
Lucia Watson, QARANC, in Afghanistan. The Saturday night event at which new
fellows are inducted is not to be missed, and I was there this year to see my
nominee, Majda Pajnkihar, PhD, RN, FAAN, inducted.
Not all work
I love Washington, and I was really pleased, after
a long spell of resting due to injury, to repeat the 10K run I did last year.
The course begins at the Washington Hilton, follows the Potomac to the Lincoln
Memorial, then up 17th Street to Connecticut Avenue and back to the hotel. On
Saturday morning, I went down to Theodore Roosevelt Island in Virginia and took
part in the 5K parkrun, my second time there and my third parkrun in the United
States. After a week at home, I go to China for three weeks.
30 November 2018
Making
connections in China, logistically and professionally
Three seasons in two weeks.
The author gives two keynotes on
getting published in Science Citation Index journals and celebrates a birthday.
In my last entry, I indicated I was about to leave for three weeks in
China. In fact, it has been only two weeks, as I visited three cities—Jinan,
Guangzhou, and Wuhan—instead of four. (Click here to view map locations.) These are all places I had visited before,
but their vast geographic separation required a complicated series of
flights—from Hong Kong into China, back to Hong Kong, then back into
China—followed by a 600-mile, high-speed train trip.
The journey also took me from freezing temperatures in Jinan to
Guangzhou—where there were still blossoms on the trees—and then up to an
autumnal Wuhan marked, as it was on my previous visit, by noxious pollution. As
I write this, I am about to take a flight to Hong Kong and then home to the UK.
Jinan
In Jinan, I became reacquainted with colleagues at
the Second
Hospital of Shandong University. I was
previously an honorary professor there, and this year I was appointed a
visiting professor for three years. My induction took place to theme music from
“The Magnificent Seven”! In accepting, I joked that, although there is only one
of me, I am magnificent. Silence. I think I’ll leave that
joke in the bag next time.
To earn my stay, I gave a keynote speech at their international
professional nursing conference on getting published in Science Citation Index
(SCI) journals. This was ably translated by Zang Yuli, PhD, RN. Also known as
Amy, she is one of my longest-standing friends in China. Formerly of Shandong
University, she is now at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Click here to listen to podcast.
Guangzhou
I was in Guangzhou in my role as visiting professor
at Southern Medical University. For their international evidence-based nursing
conference, they asked me to talk about getting evidence published in SCI
journals, so I was able to present, essentially, the same keynote.
The weather in Guangzhou was good enough for outdoor running, and I was
there on my birthday (63 years old). Of course, a suitably embarrassing fuss
was made by one of my colleagues—Chen Yu, PhD, RN, of Southern Medical
University—and her students. One feature of China, which all visiting
Westerners need to understand, is the excruciating (for us) level of ceremony,
formality, and fuss that anyone deemed “VIP” is subjected to. I won’t recount
it all, but see picture.
Wuhan
My first duty in Wuhan was to give a speech at
Wuhan Children’s Hospital. As I approached the main door, I could see, from a
long way off, my name in large letters on a red banner above the entrance.
Nurses in uniform lined the steps, and I was applauded into the building. This
is not uncommon and is totally unstoppable. Incidentally, this specialist hospital
has 3,000 beds, and they plan to double its size.
The rest of my visit was spent at Wuhan Polytechnic University, where I
taught mainly Master of Nursing students. I also signed the formal contract for
my time there as a High-End Foreign Expert Visitor, which will require two more
visits, each of at least one-month duration, in 2019 and 2020. I hope I can
persuade Mrs. Watson to accompany me, as a month is a long time.
If the Chinese government is reimbursing you—as it is under the High-End
Foreign Expert arrangement—its anticorruption legislation requires setting up a
bank account to prevent any diversion of funds. Despite my frequent suggestions
to do this upon my arrival, my input went unheeded, so I spent the best part of
two days—my last in Wuhan—visiting four banks. By then, my effort was too late
to be of any use.
I did, however, get the good news that I’ve been appointed an honorary
adjunct professor at Australia’s University Technology Sydney, which I look
forward to visiting over the next three years. Beyond my work, I am happy my
collection of published haiku continues to grow, with most gathered at
the Living Haiku Anthology. People
seemed to like:
church spider
behind the radiator
preying?
—British Haiku Society Anthology 2018, p. 21
21 December 2018
And the year
ends in Spain
A world traveler returns home for the holidays.
A
final visit to Pamplona—sans the bulls—and Roger Watson returns home to
celebrate the festive season with friends and family.
PAMPLONA, Spain—I am writing this at Escuela Enfermería, Universidad de
Navarra—University of Navarra School of Nursing—in Northern Spain just prior to
my departure for the UK. A train journey to Madrid, a flight to London
tomorrow, and I am finished traveling for 2018. I am finished with work for two
weeks. As I write, the drone
situation at London Gatwick seems to be over, not that
it would have affected me flying in to London Heathrow, but it emphasizes how
vulnerable air travel is to such disruptions.
I have been back in Pamplona, Spain, for my final visit this year. The
week has been spent advising doctoral students and colleagues on manuscripts. I
also presented two seminars on developing a publication strategy for successful
writing. I am pleased to see a stream of high-quality manuscripts emerging from
the school, many with my stamp on them. Some come to JAN, the journal I edit, but I also suggest other venues for
publication.
In a previous entry, I explained that Universidad de Navarra is
an Opus Dei institution. It was founded in 1952, and, on the day I arrived,
the first rector of the university—Ismael Sánchez Bella—died. Opus Dei tends to divide
opinion. I have my own views on the organization, but there is no doubting the
remarkable development of a campus that began with Sánchez Bella teaching six
law students in a small building to the present day with 14 faculty and more
than 12,000 students. The university is ranked as the best private university
in Spain, and its hospital is used by the Spanish royal family.
I always have an excellent social program here, and the evenings were
spent barhopping in the old city on the Estafeta. This is the narrow street
down which half a dozen bulls run each morning during the San
Fermin toward the bullring and their ultimate, bloody fate. I have never
witnessed the bulls running, although my oldest daughter has, but I run the Estafeta
at least once when I am here. The street is filled with bars. In any other part
of Spain, they would be called tapas bars, but
here in Pamplona, they are referred to as pinchos (to pick up with a sharp stick). Each of these bars has its own
unique selection of delicious pinchos. In addition to meeting old friends, I
was delighted to spend an evening with newly promoted Professor Mari Carmen Portillo. Portillo used to work here in
Pamplona but has been based in the UK at the University of Southampton for the past four years. She is one of my associate editors
on Nursing Open, although we had met only
briefly in the past.
Back in Hull, our Burdett Trust-funded The STaR
Project is gathering momentum, and we had an away day
to discuss the forthcoming publication of our systematic review and plan the
next stage of data collection. The project is investigating ways to retain
newly qualified nurses in the workforce, and we are beginning to forge links
with similar projects around the UK. The project is just past the halfway
point, and we are beginning to think of potential sources of funding to
continue the work.
Next year, my travel starts early, with a January visit to Singapore and
then on to Sydney, Australia. In the meantime, I have no intentions of leaving
Hull and rarely leave my house over the festive season. My family will gather
over Christmas, so we expect to produce 27 meals over Christmas and Boxing Day.
I have some large books to read, and none of them will be remotely related to
nursing. Whatever you believe and however you celebrate this special time of
year, I wish you all the very best for 2019.
30 January 2019
Singapore,
Sydney, and Brisbane in one week
Somewhere between Sydney and Brisbane, the glamour
of international travel wore off.
HULL, United Kingdom—It has been six years since my
last visit to Singapore, and one thing you can be sure of in Singapore is that
nothing changes. Admittedly, the terminal at which I arrived at Changi
Airport—Terminal 4—was new, but its structure so resembled the terminal I
previously used that I did not realize it was new until someone told me. I
think this permanency is a deliberate feature of the island. The roads are
lined with finely manicured trees and verges, there is a sense of order, and
everyone smiles.
I was here to attend the 22nd East Asian
Forum of Nursing Scholars (EAFONS), where I was to
present a session on publishing in Science Citation Index Journals. The
conference was fully subscribed with 800 delegates, and I was pleased to see
more than 100 people at my session. It was good to renew long-time
acquaintances from the region—Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and the
Philippines—and especially good to make new friends, particularly among the
many Japanese doctoral students present. Those who have traveled in the region
are familiar with its business card culture whereby exchange of cards is done
with great politeness and attention to their details. I left with a folder full
of business cards—other people’s—and very few of mine. I am never sure what
happens to all those business cards.
Before moving on to Australia, I had a free day to spend in Singapore,
and I was very happy to see my good Burmese friend, Su Wai
Hlaing, a local nurse and fellow haiku writer. Her work
is now published in the Living Haiku Anthology. Also a
runner, she recently discovered that there are several of my beloved Saturday
morning parkruns in Singapore, so we decided to take part in the one nearest my hotel,
in lovely Bishan
Park. Running in Singapore is always hard work if you
are not acclimatized, and I wasn’t. I managed 24 minutes 30 seconds, which is a
minute longer than my recent times at home, but paid for it with an hour of
profuse perspiration and dehydration. That was my last run in more than a week.
Shortly afterward, I came down with a viral infection and have been suffering
ever since.
Australia
Because I arranged my flights to Australia at the
last minute, I was unable to book a direct flight to Sydney from Singapore.
Hence, I was routed via Hong Kong, arriving in Sydney at 7:30 a.m. And I had a
10:30 workshop to present at the local campus of the University of Tasmania! I
will never make that mistake again. I
struggled through the day and saw nothing of Sydney that evening. The next day,
I gave another workshop and left directly for the airport to fly to Brisbane.
Somewhere in mid-air between these two great cities, the often referred to
“glamour” of international work and long haul flying definitely wore off.
My only reason to be in Brisbane was to catch up with my cousins there,
but my late flight arrangements meant I only had an evening and a day with them
before I was back in the air for the start of a 19-hour journey back to the UK.
My next major bout of travel is to China for a prolonged period in March and
April, and I will be sure to arrange those flights well in advance.
19 March 2019
A farewell tour
of Europe
I don’t mean that it’s my last trip there.
The first part of my “farewell tour”
took me to Slovenia and Italy, where I have reported from in the past.
GENOA, Italy—By farewell tour, I don’t mean that—like aging rockers who
begin a series of such tours—it’s my last trip there. But it may be my last
while the UK is—politically—still part of Europe. With the chaos in Parliament,
anything could happen. There has never been a time in my life when the “mother
of Parliaments” has—despite the seriousness of the issue and how it has divided
communities, friendships, and families—provided us with such entertainment. The
first part of my “farewell tour” took me to Slovenia and Italy, where I have
reported from in the past.
Slovenia
I went to the University
of Maribor to teach a new cohort of doctoral students
and to collaborate on research and writing projects with Gregor
Štiglic, PhD, vice dean for research in the Faculty of
Health Sciences and my colleague in health informatics. I had dinner with Majda
Panjkihar, PhD, RN, FAAN, the first person from Slovenia to
be inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
Maribor is a skiing town where the children are said to be born wearing
skis. After several years of visiting the city, I took the cable car to the top
of the ski slope for the first time and had a wonderful view of Maribor and the
surrounding countryside. Hundreds of skiers were taking advantage of the
opportunity to ski before it becomes too warm to sustain the artificial snow
used this time of year. The city is good for running and has some excellent
places to eat and drink. To get to Maribor, I travel from London to Vienna,
Austria, and then take a 20-minute flight to Graz on the Austrian-Slovenian
border. From there, it’s a 30-minute drive.
Italy
I was in Genoa with Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my colleague at the University
of Hull. This was the first of the three-times-a-year
visits we make to the University of Genoa to collaborate on research and
writing and to help supervise doctoral students. On this visit, we had the
additional pleasure of attending the first induction ceremony of the
university’s recently formed nursing honor society.
We were addressed by Elizabeth Rosser, DPhil, RN, PFHEA, member of the
board of directors of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing
(Sigma), past president of Sigma’s Phi Mu
Chapter in England, and recently retired from
Bournemouth University. In her capacity as Sigma board member, Rosser
spoke about the growth and impact of the honor society with a focus on Europe.
Hayter and I entertained the audience with presentations on leadership in
research and academic publishing. All three of us were gratified to be inducted
as honorary fellows of the Genoa University Nursing Honor Society.
Otherwise
My new hobby is Wikipedia. Some colleagues kindly
created a Wikipedia
page for me. As a result, I have been busy checking pages of
leading nurses across the world, improving them where possible, and trying to
identify information gaps, of which there are quite a few. I have also created
a few pages. For example, I created a page for Hugh McKenna, CBE, PhD, RN, FAAN, a leading light in UK nursing
for many years. I am not alone in trying to create Wikipedia pages for leading
nurses, and I am quite happy to assist if you have questions. My email address
is r.watson@hull.ac.uk.
My other hobby—writing haiku—is going well. I was included in the European Top 100 Haiku Authors of 2018. My page on
the Living Haiku Anthology continues
to grow, and I am now included in the Living Senryu Anthology. Upon
returning to Hull, I will review the hard-copy proof of my first haiku
book, dewdrops. Soon to be published, it is co-authored with
and illustrated by Su Wai Hlaing, MSc, RN, from Burma.
Next up on Connecting Continents, three visits
to China—in March, April, and May.
23 April 2019
Ten flights,
seven cities, and three weeks in China
The
author learns about medical uses of donkey skins, visits a factory that makes
clinical thermometers—liquid and digital—and visits the hometown of Confucius.
LUZHOU, Sichuan Province, China—As indicated in my previous post, I have been in China—twice—in recent weeks. When
not flying, I’ve traveled by high-speed train and have been lucky to visit new places.
Hangzhou and Dong’e
Hangzhou was the first place I ever visited in
China—more than a decade ago. It was great to be back to visit the same
institution—the eponymous Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, affiliated
with Zhejiang
Medical University. (Click here to learn about Sir Run Run Shaw.) Established in the last century
by American Seventh Day Adventists, the hospital has a regular stream of
visitors from the United States. I was there to give a lecture on writing for
publication.
After only one night in Hangzhou, I was aboard the train to Jinan in
Shandong Province, a city I have visited often. Upon arriving, I was taken by
car to Dong’e, a relatively small city, where I spent two nights
and gave another lecture on writing for publication at a conference held at
Dong’e Hospital. Ambitious for the hospital to rise in national ratings,
administrators intend to accomplish that by attracting more international
visitors and increasing its presence in high-quality publications.
Dong’e is the home of “e jiao”—pronounced ooh-jo—a traditional
Chinese medicine extracted from donkey skins. According to
information at the factory I visited, e jiao cures almost every ailment and
maintains youth. My nursing colleagues testified to this, too. It often
concerns me in China that the same person may advocate evidence-based practice
on one hand while expressing faith in purported remedies that haven’t been
subjected to rigorous testing. Nevertheless, e jiao is a major industry in
Dong’e and the fate of many thousands of donkeys annually.
Another significant town industry is manufacture of clinical
thermometers, and I visited the factory’s museum. They manufacture both liquid
and digital thermometers. I was astonished to see that they still make liquid
thermometers. Apparently, some of the more remote and poorer areas of the world
still use them. The factory originally made mercury thermometers but with
increasing concerns about the toxicity of mercury and its abolition from most
parts of the world, they developed a nontoxic alloy as a substitute, which was
used widely until the advent of digital thermometers. I could go on about
thermometers for much longer. The guide at the factory did!
The highlight of my time in Shandong Province was a visit to Qufu (pronounced shoo-fo), the birthplace of Confucius (known in China as Kongzi). I had long wanted to make this visit
and had booked it for the one free day I had. I bought a small wooden carving
of Confucius to present to our Confucius
Institute at the University
of Hull. I returned to Hangzhou to give a lecture on
research in advanced and specialist nursing practice at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Medical University before returning via Hong Kong to the UK.
Beijing, Changyuang, Kunming, and Luzhou
After a week at home, I returned to China, this
time for two weeks. I spent a week in Beijing under the auspices of the Journal of
Chinese Nursing Management. Together
with local colleagues, I was invited to provide four days of seminars to
clinical nurses on writing for publication. More than 100 nurses from across China
attended. This was my longest stay in Beijing. In the evenings, with the help
of one of the editors, I explored more of the city and especially enjoyed
visiting the city’s historic hutongs—narrow lanes or alleys between rows of
single-story, four-sided courtyards known as siheyuan.
On the weekend, I visited Zhongzei Institute of Nursing Information to
hear about their development of a workload measurement instrument and adoption
of a nursing classification system known as the Clinical Care Classification, or CCC, system.
The institute has developed a very large database and was seeking guidance on a
publication strategy.
I next traveled by train to Changyuan in Henan Province. There I visited Henan Hongliv Hospital, where
the CCC system is in use. After observing nurses using the system on the wards,
I was given a “tour” of the data they were gathering. I was impressed and look
forward to seeing some powerful articles generated that are based on that data,
especially as the system rolls out across China.
After two nights in Changyuan, I flew to Kunming in Yunnan Province for one night, where I gave a lecture at
the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University. I had been told Kunming is beautiful—and it is. It’s green, the
climate is constant all year—warm and dry—and there is no pollution. Everything
went well except for getting completely lost for 30 minutes after my morning
run. I showed my hotel card to several police officers to no avail until two locals,
one with a map app on his phone, helped find my hotel.
The final days of my visit were spent in Luzhou, Sichuan Province,
where, as a visiting professor at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwestern Medical University, I have reported from several times. I attended their annual conference
and caught up with local colleagues.
I missed Easter with my family and all of my “Easter
duties” as there is no Vatican-recognized Catholic church
in China. I’ll be glad to get home and prepare for my next visit to China next
month.
29 May 2019
And back to
China
The author makes his first visit to Yangzhou,
China, and closes a circle he started in Genoa, Italy.
In my previous entry, I reported on two visits I made to China in rapid
succession. I said I would be back soon, and here I am. On this trip, I
visited, for the first time, the beautiful and historic city of Yangzhou, where Marco Polo once worked as an administrator. As readers of this blog are
aware, I regularly visit Genoa in northern Italy, where Marco Polo—Venetian by
birth—was based for many years, much of that time in prison. So, visiting
Yangzhou closed a circle for me.
En route, I visited with Mark
Hayter, PhD, FAAN, fellow editor of Journal of
Advanced Nursing, and my colleague at the University of Hull, where
he is associate dean of research. Through the
generosity of our hosts in Yangzhou and an incredible bargain offered by
British Airways, we flew first class from London to Shanghai. This allowed us
to use the coveted Concorde Room, where we rubbed shoulders with Orlando
Bloom. One of my daughters asked if there was
opportunity for a selfie with Bloom, and I said, “No, he didn’t ask!”
While in China, we were guests of Yangzhou University School of Nursing. The University of Hull has an arrangement with
Yangzhou whereby we teach diploma nurses and bring them to bachelor level, so
there is regular traffic of Hull nursing educators to Yangzhou. Soon, the
school’s first undergraduate students will visit Hull. We also hope to recruit
students for our doctoral program.
On this trip, however, we are here to address their first international
conference on geriatric nursing. Care of older people is a priority of the
Chinese government, and geriatric nursing care is expanding. The conference was
truly international with U.K., U.S., Australian, Japanese, Korean, and Hong
Kong colleagues in attendance, in addition to delegates from 15 of China’s 23
provinces. One of the international attendees was Wendy Moyle, PhD, RN, of
Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, a forthcoming inductee into
the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
The visit was very short, and the little time we had for sightseeing
after the conference was a washout with torrential rain. However, one
afternoon, I was able to visit Yangzhou Museum and the adjacent China Block Printing Museum.
Yangzhou Museum contains contemporary work—mainly ink drawings—and the
100-meter Epic Scroll of China’s Grand
Canal, located near Yangzhou. The scroll is a wonderful
historical and social account—I think; an English translation wasn’t
provided—of the development and life of the canal. One of the security guards
disappeared momentarily and came back with a beautifully illustrated and
expensive-looking souvenir book, which he gave to me.
The block printing exhibition was very good. It traced the industry from
its origins up to the development of the Gutenberg
Press, which effectively ended the woodblock printing
industry. As I toured the exhibition, where they showed equivalents of
typesetters, proofreaders, and printers, I reflected that, as a writer and
editor, I am part of a remarkable industry, albeit far removed historically
from what I was observing. I wondered what woodblock printers would make of the
internet.
Haiku news
I continue to publish haiku. Recently, together
with Su Wai Hlaing, a Burmese friend and nurse in Singapore, we published a
book of haiku titled dewdrops. Many of Hlaing’s haiku relate to her clinical
work. Here’s a perfect example of her
sense of humor and powers of observation that was recently published in Pulse.
Next up
By coincidence and maintaining the Marco Polo
Italy-China connection, my next international trip, planned for June, takes me
to Genoa, Italy.
18 June 2019
Mass protests
amid the smell of onions and garlic
Hong Kong not business as usual these days.
Roger Watson has visited Hong Kong more
than a hundred times, and he wasn’t sure if he would have anything new to
report on this trip. He was wrong.
HONG KONG SAR, China—I have been to Hong Kong often and, usually, don’t
have much to report, so was concerned the same would be true on this visit. How
wrong I was! This time, from my hotel room I could see throngs of protesters
surrounding the Legislative Council building—LegCo—as Hong Kong residents demonstrated against the
proposed extradition
bill. (Organizers say nearly 2
million have taken part in the mass protests, which
I’m sure you’ve noticed on the news.) As I emerged from the MTR (Hong Kong’s underground train system), I detected a pungent
odor—onions and garlic—that took me back more than 25 years. Initially, I wasn’t
sure if I was smelling what I thought I was, but CNN reports later confirmed it
was tear gas.
When I did my military service, we used tear gas to test the integrity
of our respirators and perform self-protection drills against nuclear,
biological, and chemical weapons. Rubber
bullets have also been fired to disperse the Hong
Kong demonstrators. Rubber bullets sound innocuous, but these hard, plastic
cylinders—also called baton rounds—can inflict serious damage. So, history has
been made in Hong Kong.
In all the pro-democracy protests that have taken place here over the
years, including the “Umbrella
Movement,” such force had never been used against its
citizens—until now. With its copious numbers of armed police, row upon row of
police vans, and roadblocks shutting down the island’s main artery, Hong
Kong—for one day—had the feel of a police state. Things calmed down for a time,
but before I left for home, protesters were again gathering in the streets. I
wasn’t in personal danger but was glad to get out.
Will I be back?
It’s the first time in more than 15 years that I
have departed Hong Kong without knowing when I would be back—without
knowing if I would be back. In one way or another, I have
been associated with all of the nursing schools in Hong Kong. I am still an
honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong, but, so far, the position
has not involved any specific duties. I doubt very much that this is goodbye to
Hong Kong for me. I’ve been here in various capacities more than a hundred
times, and I have no complaints.
This visit was my swan song at the University
Grants Council (UGC), where I’ve served on the Research
Grants Council (RGC). Three terms of two years each is the maximum allowed. The
RGC has disbursed around 50 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately US $8
million) to successful General Research Fund applicants. We also disburse funds
to the Early Career Scheme and the Prestigious Fellowships Scheme.
In addition to our funding responsibilities, we also undertake a visit
on behalf of the RGC to local UGC-funded universities. This year, it was Hong Kong
Baptist University (HKBU), where we learned about their
ambitious plans to increase research activity. We also visited various schools
at the university related to our personal areas of interest.
Chinese medicine
I spent most of my time in the School of Chinese Medicine, where they
are making genuine efforts to identify active ingredients, test them, and
produce standardized and reliable medicines. They are also looking for novel
compounds and uses for existing Chinese medicines. I was tempted to ask, if they
could identify and properly test compounds, would these drugs remain Chinese
medicines—if they worked—or would they be moved into what they refer to as
Western medicine. Currently, HKBU doesn’t have a nursing school, but they plan
to develop one. I wonder if they want a visiting professor.
Apart from work, I met with many longtime friends in Hong Kong and on
the RGC panel. The saddest part of these visits was bidding farewell to fellow
panelists, who are some of the most prestigious people in their fields, and
to Cindy Fan, PhD, vice provost for international studies and
global engagement at UCLA, who has chaired my subpanel with good humor and
efficiency.
Despite coming to Hong Kong for so many years, I am always pleased to
find something new to visit. A fellow panelist enthused about the Nan Lian
Garden, which is maintained by a Buddhist nunnery. It
really is beautiful with bougainvillea in bloom, fabulous water features, and
typical Chinese buildings. The nunnery is out of bounds, and the main hall was
closed for refurbishment, but the atmosphere was conducive to writing haiku, so
I wrote a sequence based on some of the things I saw there.
Creating and editing Wikipedia pages
In a previous entry, I mentioned my interest in creating Wikipedia
pages for nurse leaders and identified a page I had made for Hugh McKenna. I
have also generated pages for Parveen Azam Ali, Brendan George McCormack, Majda Pajnkihar, Loredana Sasso, and David Robert Thompson. Some of these require
improvement, and anyone is welcome to edit or add material. The compete list of
my Wikipedia activities can be found here, including
many other pages I edit that also feature nurse leaders.
Next, in rapid succession, come two visits to Genoa, Italy. The first is
a short visit to speak at a conference and the second to perform my role as
visiting professor at the University of Genoa. The long-suffering and often
neglected Mrs. Watson will accompany me on the first trip and says she is
looking forward to it. I thought she was coming because she wanted to be with
me but it’s because of the terrible weather we are experiencing in the UK. I
know my place.
24 June 2019
Back to Italy
Roger Watson makes the second of two
visits this year to Genoa, Italy. He also learned recently that he has been
honored with an invitation that very few nurses receive.
GENOA, Italy—In the space of four weeks, I’ve made two—that’s due (DOO-eh) in Italian—trips to Genoa. The first
was to address a conference at the University of Genoa and the second to help
satisfy my contractual obligation to make three annual visits as a visiting
professor at the same university. This was the second.
The conference in June, the first Italian conference on fundamentals of
care, stemmed from work at the University of Genoa School of Nursing toward
completing the Italian
portion of the RN4CAST project. The conference, which
was a great success, attracted nurse leaders from across Italy.
The opening keynote was delivered by Alison
Kitson, PhD, RN, FAAN, vice president and executive dean
of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University in South
Australia. Sigma was represented by Elizabeth Rosser, PhD, RN, past president of Phi
Mu Chapter in England.
I had the privilege of closing the conference with a
presentation—drawing on some of the work of my graduate students—on mealtime
interventions for older people with dementia. One major outcome of the
gathering is that the School of Nursing in Genoa, under the leadership of
Loredana Sasso, MedSc, RN, FAAN, is in the process of establishing an Italian
observatory on fundamental care.
I was lucky to have the company of my wife on that visit, and we made
the best of two free days to explore more of Genoa than I had seen on previous
visits. One highlight was visiting Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, a street
in Genoa’s historic center that is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We
also took a boat trip to the beautiful town of Portofino, holiday resort of the stars, including Madonna and Elton John.
On this second trip to Genoa for this year, I was accompanied, as usual,
by Hull colleague Mark
Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, and—making his first visit—David
Thompson, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor of nursing at Queen’s University Belfast. The previous week, I made an overnight visit to Ulster University in Belfast to deliver some seminars on writing for publication and
research assessment, and I also met David there. In case you think that
visiting positions in Genoa have been sequestered for an old boy’s club, there
are also many female visiting professors, but our visits rarely coincide with
theirs.
Academia Europaea
I was honored and delighted to receive news this
month that I have been invited to become a member of Academia Europaea, The Academy of Europe. I am one of very few nurses to be invited, and
we hope to become a visible presence in the years ahead. Scanning the
membership, I am impressed by the caliber of its members and honorary members,
and I look forward to developing my personal
webpage.
This is my prevacation blog post. I’ve been extremely busy this year
with little time to call my own, so I am really looking forward to two weeks in
the United States in New York and Washington, D.C. My next entry will be from
China.
7 September 2017
Change of
plans
Author spends unexpected gift of time at nursing
conferences.
Because of a change in travel plans,
the author spends part of the unexpected gift of time at the International
Philosophy of Nursing Society Conference and the Nurse Education Tomorrow
Conference.
HULL, United Kingdom—My previous entry ended with the news that I was
going to make my first visit to Karachi, Pakistan, this week, but I’m still at
home. I was going to visit the prestigious Aga Khan University but missed
information contained in one of the emails stating that, to collect my visa, I
was to visit the Pakistani embassy with my letter of invitation. So, I find
myself with a gift of time, and I hope to rearrange Pakistan for next year.
Philosophically speaking
It’s conference season in the UK, and these past
two weeks I have been at conferences. The first was the International
Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) Conference in Worcester to which I was
invited to give the keynote address on my capacity as editor-in-chief of
the Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN). I agreed months ago and, as the date approached,
it was with increasing trepidation that I looked forward to the event. I am not
a philosopher but have crossed swords with at least two prominent IPONS
members. We are all good friends—philosophers have a unique ability to savage
you intellectually and then take you for a beer. As I said several times in my
presentation, in my arguments with philosophers I have always come off worst
but have also always come away wiser.
Drawing upon the utility of philosophy as published in JAN, I titled my speech “Philosophy in nursing: What
have the Romans ever done for us?” To prepare, I read as many philosophy
articles as I could find and came up with a few names of people who had
influenced me and the development of JAN over the
years. I’m not sure it was my best performance; you can judge yourself from
this podcast.
This was my first visit to Worcester. With its large ancient cathedral
and river, along which I ran for a few minutes one morning as the sun was
rising, it was very impressive. My hotel overlooked Worcestershire County
Cricket Club. A game was in progress, but it was hard to tell. For those
outside England—and I mean England, not the UK—cricket is a game resembling
baseball but without any of the fun, excitement, or spectators.
Wowed at Cambridge, again
Next, I visited Churchill College, Cambridge. It
was my annual visit to the Nurse Education Tomorrow Conference, also known as
the NET Conference, and I spent time with people who consulted me about
manuscripts. In addition to networking, I listened to a highly entertaining
keynote speech by Roy Lilley, the UK’s foremost writer and commentator on the National Health
Service and UK government health policy.
I never cease to experience the wow effect at Cambridge. Churchill
College houses the papers of the UK’s two foremost prime ministers, Winston
Churchill and Baroness Margaret Thatcher. The buildings, frankly, are dated, by
which I mean they are not the typical medieval and subsequent-centuries
buildings often associated with Cambridge. Churchill College was built in the
1960s, and the somewhat brutalist architectural approach divides onlookers.
Nevertheless, the college alone is housed on grounds larger than the total area
of my own University of Hull. The periphery is exactly two miles. I know—I ran
it.
Hong Kong, then Beijing
Although I failed to reach Karachi, the same will
not happen next week when I leave for Hong Kong and then travel to Beijing.
Mrs. Watson makes her first return to Hong Kong in eight years and her first to
mainland China. I have a good friend and translator standing by in Beijing to
show her the city while I attend a conference. We have a dinner to attend in
the Great Hall of the People before we return for a few days to Hong Kong. I’ll
tell you more in the next entry.
13 September 2019
Catching up
First, art appreciation.
After a memorable family vacation in
the United States, the author returns to work, traveling to China and
Australia.
SYDNEY, Australia—My wonderful family vacation in the United States
seems a long way back now, but it was memorable. It was my first visit to
Washington, D.C., without being at a conference or other work-related activity,
and it was a privilege to have time to explore the place at leisure.
It was also good to show my youngest son—a history graduate—and his
girlfriend around. They made repeated visits to the White House Visitor Center to buy
gifts and quiz the ever-helpful shop assistants about the history of U.S.
presidents as represented by the annual White House Christmas decorations. If
you have not viewed these displays, you must check them out the next time
you’re in Washington. [Editor’s note: The 45th Biennial Convention of
Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) will be held in
Washington 16-20 November.]
The highlight of my visit was the National Gallery of Art, which I had not previously seen. With the range of paintings on
display, I was in my element. All the “big names” are represented: Picasso,
Mondrian, Modigliani, Pollock, Kandinsky, and more.
We also spent a week in New York during the July heat wave, which
limited activities slightly. It was very nice to have time to introduce my
family to Sean Clarke, PhD, RN, FAAN, executive vice dean for academic affairs at New York
University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Clarke is a long-standing friend I
meet regularly at the annual conference of the American Academy of Nursing. While in New York City, my family did the usual tourist visits, and I
went to the Museum of
Modern Art. For the first time, I saw an original and very
characteristic painting by Georgia
O’Keefe.
China
Back to work. My first work-related visit after returning from vacation
was to Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia. I was there,
courtesy of the local Shanxi Medical Periodical Press, to deliver a keynote for
a training event attended by 150 doctors and nurses from across China. With two
Wiley-related editors—Fiona
Timmins, PhD, RN, editor of Journal of
Nursing Management, and Eileen Lake, PhD, RN, FAAN, editor of Research
in Nursing & Health—I was in good company. Carolyn
Yucha, PhD, RN, FAAN, CNE, editor of Biological Research for Nursing, was also
with us. In addition to the conference, an interesting social program was
arranged for us with visits to museums and other places of interest. I
especially liked Yingze Park, which was very close. The air quality was good,
and I was able to run there twice.
It was nice to get away from UK news and Brexit-related politics for a
while. In fact, it was nice to be away from news altogether, but that meant I
heard nothing about Hong Kong for a few days. News there is heavily censored
with CNN going offline for the duration of anything controversial. Upon landing
in Hong Kong on my return journey, I learned the situation had grown more
tense.
After returning to the UK for less than a week at the start of
September, I attended the Royal College of Nursing International Nursing Research Conference in Sheffield for three days. Along with Alison
Tierney, PhD, RN, FRCN, Hugh
McKenna, CBE, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Parveen
Azam Ali, PhD, RN, I organized a symposium on the theme of
research impact. It was billed as a tribute to the late James P.
Smith, OBE, RN, FRCN, founding editor of Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Australia
At the kind invitation of Michelle Cleary, PhD, RN, at the University of Tasmania (Sydney
campus), I spent three days in that city doing consultancy work with colleagues
on staff development and manuscripts for publication. Although located at a
relatively small outpost of the University of Tasmania’s main
campus, the team has become tight-knit and highly productive under Cleary’s
leadership. I have known her and watched her career develop for more than a
decade as she has held positions at other universities in Australia and
Singapore where I have held visiting positions.
I normally visit family while in Australia, but I’m heading back to the
United Kingdom to an international family reunion of cousins from Australia,
Canada, and the UK. Next reports will be from Europe—Turkey and Italy.
22 October 2019
My last
European trip before Brexit?
I speculate again. Soon, we’ll know.
The author visits Turkey, where he
shares his thoughts on complementary therapies—more specifically, how to
properly publish studies about them.
ULL, United Kingdom—I have speculated in recent entries about the
possibility that a particular visit to Europe could be my last while the UK is
still—politically—part of the Continent. And I speculate again. I am writing
this the day after the UK Parliament met on a Saturday for the first time since
1982, an occasion necessitated by the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland
Islands. At this moment, I know which way the vote has gone at Westminster—the
government lost—but there remains great uncertainty about whether the prime
minister can realize his stated aim of achieving Brexit by the end of the month. Next time I post an entry, we’ll know.
Turkey
Turkey, if not politically part of Europe, is at
least partly in Europe geographically. I was there, at Ege University in Izmir,
to give a keynote at the 2nd International and 4th National Congress on
Complementary and Supportive Care Practices. I didn’t address the topic of
complementary therapies directly. I was asked to speak about how to get studies
in complementary therapies published. Essentially, I said there could be no
compromise on good designs, study registration (must comply with AllTrials guidelines), and publication (must conform to EQUATOR standards). You can listen to this lecture at my
podcast site. My visit was very short, but I enjoyed catching up with some
longtime friends in Izmir, and I passed through the new and very impressive Istanbul New Airport.
Italy
Together with Hull colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, I made my final
visit for the year to the University of Genoa in Italy. We continue to
collaborate on a wide range of projects, including the Italian leg of the RN4CAST project. The 2nd International Conference of
the Genoa University Nursing Honor Society had
been held the week before. The gathering was addressed by Marie-Louise Luiking,
MANP, RN, of the Netherlands, president of Sigma’s Rho Chi at-Large Chapter.
The Genoa University Nursing Honor Society has applied for chapter status and
expects to hear early next year if it has achieved it. I’m very pleased to have
played a part in all this, however small, by putting Genovese colleagues in
contact with Sigma’s Phi Mu Chapter in England, where they were inducted before
taking things forward in Italy.
United States and China
This week I will be in Washington, D.C., again with
Mark Hayter, where we will see colleagues from the UK, Finland, Hong Kong, and
Taiwan inducted as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing. A notable
recipient this year is Brendan
McCormack, PhD, RN, FRCN, a member of Sigma’s International
Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. After many years of encouraging him to consider
applying for the academy fellowship, I am very glad to have co-sponsored him.
Then I go to China for five weeks on a High-End Foreign Expert
Scholarship from the government of Hubei
Province. I must arrive at and leave from Wuhan, capital of
the province, and spend some time at Wuhan Polytechnic University, which
sponsored me. Otherwise, I have visits arranged for other cities across China,
including Yangzhou University, with which the University of Hull has a joint
undergraduate nursing program.
Sadly, I will be on my own for this long visit. Mrs. Watson obtained a
visa for traveling to China with me but then succumbed to acute lower-back
pain. To avoid a series of long-haul flights and transporting luggage between
airplanes and trains, she has decided to remain in the UK. My next entry will
be from China.
18 November 2019
Two weeks in
China and counting
Three to go.
The teacher learns a lesson: There is
no substitute for good planning.
YANGZHOU, China—As I write this blog entry, the UK is, apparently, still
part of Europe! I am very glad to be here in China if only to escape news,
views, and arguments over our forthcoming general election. I will be home in
time to vote, but I can do that without having to listen to too much
sloganeering. Frankly, while the past few years since the Brexit vote have been
a media bonanza, I think many of my compatriots want a prolonged period without
politics.
Hong Kong
You cannot have missed the increasingly dreadful
news from Hong Kong. I only mention it here because faculty at my university
are now banned from going to Hong Kong, and I noticed that my former
university—Sheffield—has urgently recalled all exchange students. I was even
questioned by senior management at my university for transiting through Hong
Kong on my way to China. But the airport is probably one of the safest places
now. All movement to it is being closely monitored to ensure there is no surge
of protesters. I am in daily contact with colleagues in Hong Kong. Some do not
expect to return to work for a long time—all the universities are closed—and
they are struggling to support their students.
Wuhan
I am based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, for nearly
five weeks. Unfortunately, despite arranging a visa for her, my wife is not
with me. She is unable to travel due to acute lower-back pain and is in the
process of having investigations. The basis for my visit is what is grandly
called a High-End Foreign Expert Scholarship. This Chinese government-funded
initiative is administered at the provincial level, so mine was awarded by
Hubei Province. The stipulation is that I spend 30 days in China. Because my
academic visitor visa is for 30 days, I must be out on the final day. Nothing
can go wrong!
My duties, which involve some teaching, are mainly concerned with
meeting Master of Nursing students to discuss manuscripts arising from their
degree projects. I receive a stream of manuscripts in various states of preparation
and a wide range of quality. Nearly all must be substantially rewritten.
I ask each student the same thing, “Have you selected a journal?” The
answer is usually no. The palpable cultural difference between these students
and ours in the UK is compounded by difficulty in searching the internet.
Google and all Google-based platforms, including Google Scholar, are blocked
here. Independent thinking is not part of the curriculum in China, and most
students here are publication mills for their supervisors.
There is also the expectation that I will want to add my name as a
co-author to manuscripts that I edit. Unless I have been involved in advising
on the research project, I turn down the offer. But it provides an opportunity
to give my usual lecture on publication ethics, emphasizing eligibility for
authorship, and referring them to the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (ICMJE) for guidance. I sound critical but, in fact, am
awestruck by their hard work and ability to write even a poor manuscript draft
in a second language.
Yangzhou
I spent a week in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, at
Yangzhou University School of Nursing teaching Master of Nursing students. I
visited Yangzhou earlier this year. Our university teaches a joint
undergraduate program here, so I am only one of a steady stream of University
of Hull faculty members visiting Yangzhou.
I taught for five days and was lulled into a false sense of security
after a great first day with the students. On Days 2 and 3, I simply could not
connect with them and had to abandon my planned lectures. I then suggested
another topic, to which they agreed, and the final two days were a pleasure. It
was a lesson to me—even in the twilight of my teaching career—that there is no
substitute for good planning. There were faults on both sides here; the desired
content and level could have been better conveyed. But I could have asked for
greater clarity about the class. Next time, it will be better.
Nursing Open
Some of you may already have seen the news, as my
excellent editorial colleague Sarah
Oerther has been tweeting about it. My journal Nursing
Open has been accepted for impact measurement
by Science Citation Index. The minimum time to achieve this is three years, and we have done it
in five, which is good. This makes us the first gold open-access, online
nursing journal to be on the list, and in 2020 we will receive our first impact
factor.
I am, as you can imagine, very pleased and proud of my colleagues on the
journal—past and present—who have helped us achieve this. Nursing Open was conceived over coffee with two
Wiley colleagues six years ago in Cork, Ireland, during a meeting of the International Academy of Nursing
Editors (INANE) held in town that year.
Before the end of this year, I will report on my final weeks in China.
That will be my last entry for 2019.
5 December 2019
Flying home
for Christmas
Best wishes for the festive season and forthcoming
year.
Roger Watson returns to the United
Kingdom after five weeks in China.
WUHAN, Hubei Province, China—Since the posting of my last column, I have
remained in China to complete the terms of my scholarship. Activities continued
with lectures to students and local hospitals as well as individual and group
meetings with staff members and students. At Wuhan Union Hospital, where I gave
a lecture two years ago, I met five students—three Syrian, one Iraqi, and one
Tanzanian—who were pursuing their doctoral degrees at the hospital. I have long
predicted that China, instead of being a net importer of educational expertise
in nursing, will soon be an exporter. I think this has started.
The meetings, held without benefit of an interpreter, were mainly to
advise on research projects and draft publications. My Chinese is confined to
the basics: “ni hao,” “ir bing pijiu,” and “xie xie,” translated hello, two
cold beers, and thank you. Despite excellent English reading and writing
skills, the general level of spoken English and comprehension amongst the
students was quite poor, so the meetings were quite long and exhausting.
Ascertaining exactly what was being done and what they wanted to know from me
could be quite frustrating at times. But I remain awestruck by the general
level of industry, willingness to try, and sheer patience that the students
showed as I struggled—sometimes less patiently!
It was a busy week. First, I was invited by the UK consulate-general in
Wuhan to have lunch with their trade and investment officer and consul for
trade and investment. It was good to be briefed at the highest level on what
the UK is trying to achieve in China and to see where my university and nursing
colleagues can contribute. This is not the place to reveal state secrets, but
suffice to say, I’ll be back next year in connection with these meetings and
will report on that in this column.
Second, it was my birthday—64 years old. I celebrated by taking five
students who have been helping me to a Japanese bar where we drank beer and had
Japanese food. The students, who are in their mid-20s and early 30s, were quite
anxious about the whole event. I was astonished to learn that none of them had
ever been to a bar in their lives, which was another cultural insight for me.
However, history was made as I was able to pay for the whole evening. In 14
years of coming to China, I have never been permitted to buy a meal for any
colleagues or students.
Back to Yangzhou
I made a very quick return visit to Yangzhou in my
final week. Amanda Lee, associate dean (international) at the University
of Hull, was visiting, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to
exchange notes on mutual activities in China, discuss progress with our
collaborators in Yangzhou, and for me to brief her on my meetings with the UK
consul. With both of us being involved in international activities, we rarely
meet in Hull. Frankly, this was a welcome distraction and a break from my time
in Wuhan.
Lee also introduced me to the wonders of the Google Translate app, the
most endearing feature of which is that it is free! (Other apps are also
available.) I had been paying for an app that worked poorly, so I cancelled
that and installed the free one. The fun feature of the app is that you can
point it at Chinese characters, and it tells you what they say.
Because I’ve been slightly bored in my last few days here, I have been
going about my hotel and even out in the street pointing my phone at signs. A
whole new world has opened for me along with some curious entertainment for
local street traders. If the angle is wrong or all the letters are not
included, the translation will be off. For example, my room service menu lists
“the first film” as one of the items. With a slight adjustment, it
read—correctly—“chicory.”
Generally, the weather in Wuhan has not been good—initially, not too
cold, but latterly, very cold. When it rains, it comes down in torrents so
heavy you can’t go out. Because the air quality, except for two clear days, has
been poor because of smog, it has not been a pleasure to walk outside for long,
so I explored very little.
I did walk to Wuhan
Museum to see some fascinating artifacts, including
extraordinary jade and porcelain ornaments. However, after a few hours, I was
coughing, and my eyes were stinging. At times like this, I wonder about the
health of the local population and my own health. China is taking steps to
reduce pollution, but winter brings a surge in the levels of smog. My life here
has, essentially, revolved around my hotel room, visits to the nursing school,
and dinner in a friendly noodle bar where I worked my way through the menu
several times.
Haiku
With its array of unusual sights and smells, China
is always a good place for haiku. My efforts are recorded in my haiku blog. Last year, Jim Mattson, editor of Reflections on Nursing
Leadership, drew my attention to Pulse: Voices from the heart of
medicine, which publishes all manner of reflective pieces
on medicine, including a weekly haiku. One of my entries has been accepted and
will be published on 20 December 2019. My submission for next year was
rejected, but I will keep trying.
This has been my longest visit to China. It’s been mostly enjoyable and
productive, but I am glad to be heading back to the UK and my family. Best
wishes for the festive season and forthcoming year.
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