News from the Centre for Health and Clinical Research (CHCR)

Centre newsletter (July 2023) is now available

Read the latest issue of the CHCR newsletter (PDF) to find out more about the activities and updates from our research themes.

Funding success

Dr Behnaz Schofield has been awarded a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) grant for “What are the barriers to health promotion advice delivered by staff working in urgent care and Emergency Departments? The promotED study”. This project will explore the barriers to health promotion advice delivered by staff working in urgent care and emergency departments and is due to start later this year. Read more about the promotED project.

Hospital or Not? event, 1 November 2022

In November 2022, Dr Helen Nicholson held a ‘Hospital or Not?’ event exploring how to decide when hospital would benefit patients aged 65 years or over. The event was fully booked and attended by a fantastic mix of over 60 stakeholders including paramedics, geriatricians and members of the public. Attendees enjoyed some fabulous interactive discussion sessions and a delicious lunch in between presentations about frailty, minor head injury and major trauma.

Speakers included: Professor Jay Banerjee, Professor of Emergency Care (University of Leicester), who spoke about frailty and patient-centred outcome measures; Dr Philip Braude, Consultant Geriatrician (North Bristol NHS Trust), who talked about his Frailty in Trauma Reporting (FiTR) studies and the potential for age discrimination in trauma care; Dr Helen Nicholson, Senior Research Fellow for REACH (UWE Bristol), talking about her work on minor head injury in older people; Emma Page from the North Bristol Care Home Interface Project discussing how they are working to reduce avoidable admissions from care homes.

REACH Annual Showcase, October 2022

The Emergency Care theme are part of the Research in Emergency care Avon Collaborative Hub (REACH), which is co-directed by UWE Bristol and the University of Bristol. In October, we hosted REACH’s second annual showcase online, with over 60 clinicians, researchers, commissioners and patient and public contributors attending. The theme was ‘Engagement and Impact’, and the aim was to share our work and learn from guest speakers from other leading academic units in Emergency Care. Presentations from our team focused on stakeholder engagement, Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), and event management; showing what went well and what could be improved. Facilitated discussion was then held on how we could improve our engagement and impact. Where possible, suggestions made at the event will be incorporated into our work. See further information about the event including a video. The event coincided with the release of REACH’s first Annual Report.

CHCR Annual Doctoral Showcase, 3 March 2021

The Centre for Health and Clinical Research support a vibrant doctoral research culture with postgraduate students actively engaging in a range of activities linked to each theme. These short presentations provide some examples of our student projects at various stages of development.

• Understanding nurse-led care in early rheumatoid arthritis: Interview study with rheumatology nurse specialists by Anne-Marie Tetsche Sweeney
• Patient activation: 10 things you need to know by Beth Jones
• View on incontinence care in care homes: an exploration (VOICE) by Jenny Wheeldon
• What are the experiences and healthcare needs of cancer survivors with chronic post cancer treatment pain (CPCTP) and does current service provision meet their needs? by Julie Armoogum
• Person-centred care using eHealth technology in children’s palliative care – what works, for whom, and under what circumstances, and why by Nicky Harris
• Development of an intervention to reduce distress caused by brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer by Pauline Humphrey
• Qualitative research exploring the experience of young men living with inflammatory arthritis, recruited from NHS Trusts in Bristol, London and Sheffield plus online methods by Ruben McNeil Walsh
• Patient & therapeutic radiographer experiences of comfort and solutions during radiotherapy: a qualitative study by Simon Goldsworthy

CHCR annual conference 2020 - poster competition

As part of the CHCR annual conference, we run a poster competition with a prize for the best student poster and best non-student poster. Following the cancellation of our annual conference in April this year, we invited all six abstract submissions that had been shortlisted for the prize to submit a three-minute presentation; and the overall winners were subsequently selected from these. We are now delighted to share the six shortlisted, and winning, entries below:

• Funding investment to support primary care services implemented in or alongside the Emergency Department: A qualitative analysis by Dr Heather Brant
• Feasibility of a randomised controlled trial of Lycra Sleeve for glenohumeral subluxation (GHS) in people with stroke by Dr Praveen Kumar
• Developing a self management intervention to manage symptomatic Joint Hypermobility: An analysis informed by Behaviour Change Theory by Dr Sarah Bennett (Best student poster winner)
• Children's perception of road risks on their routes to school: A qualitative study by Preeti Gautam
• Paramedic perceptions of bleeding in trauma and the use of tranexamic acid by Dr Helen Nicholson (Best non-student poster winner)
• What are the holistic experiences of adults living long-term with the consequences of cancer and its treatment? A qualitative evidence synthesis by Kathy Rogers 

GPs in Emergency Departments (GPED) Stakeholder Conference, December 2019

Hosted by the Cardiff-based Research Team, GPED is a collaboration between research teams at UWE Bristol, Newcastle University, University of York and University of Bristol. An excellent and well-attended GPED stakeholder conference took place in Bristol on 3 December. Delegates from UWE Bristol, Newcastle, Bristol and Swansea, were in attendance with strong support from patient, public, clinical and managerial colleagues from emergency departments, general practice and commissioning organisations.

Professor Sarah Hewlett awarded an OBE

Sarah Hewlett, Emerita Professor, was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2019 birthday honours list for 'services to people with arthritis and to nursing research'. Sarah led a very successful rheumatology research group at UWE Bristol providing development opportunities for staff, students and clinicians, as well as gaining an international reputation in the area of fatigue and rheumatoid arthritis. The award of an OBE reflects her outstanding contributions.

CHCR Showcase Conference, 5 April 2019

The Centre held a showcase conference on 5 April in the Exhibition and Conference Centre, UWE Bristol; attended by over 85 people including staff, students and external stakeholders. Following a welcome from Professor Martin Boddy (Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, UWE Bristol), we heard from our first keynote lecturer: John Macleod (Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Primary Care, Bristol Medical School). John provided an interesting overview of his research as well as regional developments in relation to the proposed NIHR Applied Research Collaboration.

In the following session, we heard about projects representing each of the six CHCR themes. The long lunch break provided an excellent opportunity for networking and poster viewing. The post-lunch keynote lecture from Krysia Dziedzic, Arthritis Research UK Professor of Musculoskeletal Therapies (Keele University) drew everyone together again. We heard about her outstanding research that has had clear impact on clinical practice and we look forward to continuing to work with Krysia as a newly appointed Visiting Professor.

The final session of the seminar was dedicated to further research projects from each theme. Staff representing the School of Health and Social Wellbeing swept the board with both overall (Dr Alison Llewellyn) and student (Sharon Grieve) poster prizes as well as top tweeter (Dr Sally Dowling). The following representative quote from the feedback forms indicates the success of the event: "Excellent keynote lectures and productive networking opportunities. Theme showcases also extremely interesting and informative range of projects."