Last week of research month this week. Yesterday, managed to get to tail end of Dr. Nick Kimber's presentation on 'skeletal muscle fat metabolism in humans'. The recommendation for avoiding obesity and diabetes is, it is better to be 'slightly fat and fit then thin and sick'. Standing instead of sitting at desks all days helps to accumulate more activity into one's lifestyle.
Then the 'great debate' on 'science is more creative than art' took place to a packed room. Dr. Michael Edmonds, Miranda Satherwaite and Dr. Jerry Sherman argued for the affirmative and the artists - Dr. Dorothee Pauli, Bruce Russell and Henry Sutherland argued that art is more creative. Due to the ability of the arts department to gather student and staff supporters, the arts motion won.
Today, a range of presentations from the Nursing Department. First up, Nicky Davis on 'perspectives of loneliness: an analysis of narratives of elderly widowed people'. Nicky provided background, rationale and motivation for the project which formed basis for undertaken Masters in Gerontology - to find out what is already known about loneliness and aging. Present PhD work digs deeper as loneliness is subjective and often discounted by supporters and professionals. Focus is on telling the story of widows / widowers of how loneliness is described, if experiences of loneliness change over time and what strategies used to manage negative features of loneliness. Selected 40 participants to match gaps in literature - urban/rural, gender differences and older than 75. Interviews carried out based around 7 prompt questions. For participants, loneliness was perceived to be based on individual / contextualised experiences and connected to expectations of aging. Cultural, ontological influences relevant and recommendation for need to understand the individualised nature of perceptions of loneliness when developing meaningful interventions.
Raewyn Tudor follows with 'role of craft in post-earthquake recovery: implications for social work practice'. Presents a shared project with Ada Campbell, Jane Maidment and Karen whittaker. The earthquakes provided a context to explore resilience and emergence of craft movement as a intervention to enhance community resilience. many interventions are government or NGO led and important for communities to identify ways to minimise psychological effects following trauma of natural disaster. Craft can be utilised as a metaphor for growth, recovery and discovery not only for individuals but wider society. Themes included crafting for recovery and healing; making social connections; a sense of vision for the city; and significance of the role of crafting.
Next, Glynnis Brooks presents on 'navigating uncertainty: how knowing influences doing'. - base on her work towards her PhD on 'how do social work practitioners make sense of and respond to elder abuse?'. Tries to unpack what 'old' is and what 'abuse' means. Elder abuse literature and knowledge of practice literature have commonalities with social work being complex; elder abuse requires acceptance and ability to navigate uncertainty which requires critical thinking and reflective practice. Individuals filter various explicit and tacit knowledge througseh their own lens and important for individuals to identify lenses before change occurs. There were differences in how 'old' was understood with only a few taking a flexible approach to understanding age - young old at 85 or old old with 60 plus. Similar to how to assess abuse - what is it and responses. Therefore, there seems to be bias to caregivers and family dynamics / circumstances with voice of elderly taken less into account.
Last up for the day and for this year's research month, Dr. Isabel Jamieson on 'supporting first year in practice for graduate registered nurses using the dedicated education unit model' from work with Deborah Sims, Michelle Casey, Katie Wilkinson and Racheal Osborne. Provided background of the Canterbury dedicated educational unit (CDEU) a novel concept for undergraduate nurse training. Revolves around students working with academic liaison nurses (ALNs) and clinical liaison nurses (CLN). This study concentrates on finding out how to better support new nurse graduates enrolled on to the national Nurse entry to Practice (NETP) programme based around a perceptorship model. However, one on one perceptorship model difficult to support, hence move to CDEU model. Bring in a liaison nurse (NLN) to support new staff member with various teams with a focus on recruitment and retention. Found new model to be effective. Support seen to be important along with aspects of direction /delegation and recruitment / retention. Support included peer, organisational, NLN, work teams and support for the CDEU team.
So ends a month for CPIT researchers to share their work. As always, a range of interesting topics with most having high applicability and relevance to the industries CPIT provides vocational education for.
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