Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) 2019

This year we had three pharmacy undergraduates who successfully completed the research opportunity programme at Reading. We are especially pleased to announce that Pharmacy’s own undergraduate student, Bilal Mohammed was the recipient of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) prize for the Health research theme 2019.

Bilal Mohammed, winner of the health research theme prize

Bilal was named as one of two overall winners awarded the opportunity to present their work at Posters in Parliament in Spring 2020. Bilal’s project was supported by an EPSRC Vacation Bursary awarded by the University of Reading. The project was supervised by Professors Rachel McCrindle and Simon Sherratt (Biomedical Engineering) and Professor Parastou Donyai (Pharmacy) and examined technologies to support medication reuse. Many congratulations to Bilal and the project team.

 

Selen Morelle

Selen Morelle, project entitled “How to best communicate with patients about their medication when they are being discharged from a Mental Health setting”, working with Orla McDonald (Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust).

 

Jamila Koradli

Jamila Koradli, project entitled “Pharmacy outreach project; podcasts, career wheel and happy families career cards”, working with Dr Mark Dallas as the co-investigator.

Resilient Healthcare in the use of IV insulin infusions

Mais Iflaifel, a PhD candidate, participated in the Improving Patient Safety: New Horizons, New Perspectives Conference in Leeds, UK. She presented the results of a study she conducted about how healthcare practitioners imagine they use IV insulin infusions in hospitalized patients.

The results of the study highlighted a key message; that frontline practitioners used the guidelines selectively; and there were some adaptation strategies used by frontline practitioners while using IV insulin infusions. The output of this important study will form the input for the process of understanding Resilient Healthcare in the use of IV insulin infusions.

New Diversity and Inclusion initiative

Graduate Teaching Assistants, Sophie Oduyale and Flavia Ghouri, were recently successful in being awarded funding from the university’s deans for diversity to organise an event to suppport and empower the diverse range of undergraduate students enrolled on the pharmacy course.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the regulatory body for pharmacists, released a report in 2016 highlighting a significant discrepancy in the pre-registration examination pass rate based on ethnicity – passing this exam is essential for registering as a pharmacist in the UK. Figures from the university also suggests a disparity based on race in terms of achieving a first or upper-second classfication. Through this funding, we endeavour to support and develop our students by running a series of events focusing on overcoming issues that might otherwise affect students’ learning and progress.

We plan to run a three-day workshop event, spread across the autumn and spring terms, targeting pharmacy undergraudate students. The objectives are to; create an accessibility to positive Black and Minority Ethnic BAME role models, promote cultural awareness to different styles of learning, encourage students in seeking opportunities beyond university, and an introduction to emotional awareness including its relevance to interviews and learning at university. At the end of each session, the students will have the opportunity to network with each other and the guest speakers to encourage the formation of supportive peer networks.

Please watch the space for further information and announcements.

RSOP presentations at EHPS 2019

Dr. Hollywood’s presentation at EHPS 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Amelia Hollywood, Lecturer in Health Services Research and her PhD student, Flavia Ghouri, attended the 33rd Annual European Health Psychology Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Dr. Hollywood presented a study that she had conducted on the wellbeing of early career academics. The results from this study highlighted that well-being was higher in academics who percieved high job security and control over their work environment. The study concluded that facilitating self-efficacy could lead to fostering a productive environment.

 

Flavia’s presentation at EHPS 2019

Flavia presented a poster of a study where she interveiwed women who had experienced urinary infections in pregnancy. The study showed that women had low self-efficacy in terms of managing their health to prevent infection and were uncertain on how antimicrobial resistance can be tackled by society.

 

‘Behavioural insights to strengthen immunisation programmes’

Flavia, GTA in pharmacy practice, attended the BISS Summer School 2019

The Wellcome Global Monitor is a worldwide study on how people perceive science and health issues. Results from this study has shown that 79% of people believe in the safety of vaccines while in the UK, this figure drops to 75%. Vaccination is a vital health intervention that saves lives by preventing vaccine preventable diseases. It is also a key strategy in tackling antimicrobial resistance, a global health threat, by reducing the need for antibiotics. Flavia, GTA in pharmacy practice, attended a summer school organised by the University of Erfurt and World Health Organisation in August. The summer school focused on behavioural insights on how to strengthen immunisation programmes by following the Tailoring Immunisation Programmes (TIP) approach. Flavia will give a talk at the Pharmacy school seminar on 3rd Oct 19 to share her learning from the summer school by presenting the core elements of the TIP process to design interventions that can improve vaccination uptake.