Writing surgeries and workshops

Writing surgeries

Following the successful introduction of writing surgeries at NET2015 we will be running these again in 2016. We are planning to hold a writing surgery drop-in session each morning after breakfast. This will be an opportunity to discuss your ideas and draft papers with leading journal editors including Professor Roger Watson, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Advanced Nursing and Karen Holland, Editor-in-Chielf, Nurse Education in Practice journal. Details of other editors will be available once they have been confirmed.

Workshops

We are planning a varied selection of commissioned workshops and information about them will be added here as soon as they are confirmed. These workshops will take place between 16.30–17.45 on Wednesday 7 September 2016.

Levels of evidence and healthcare education research – do we make the grade?
Dr Elisabeth Clark (Retired), The Open University, UK

The future development of nursing globally, and the UK contribution
Jane Salvage, Principle Adviser to the Review Board, UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health

Writing for publication workshop
Professor Roger Watson, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Advanced Nursing

This workshop is designed for colleagues undertaking educational research and/or engaging in the scholarship of learning and teaching. It aims to initiate some robust debate about three big issues:
levels of evidence as they apply to healthcare education research;
the definition of scholarship of learning and teaching; and
the contribution of scholarship activities focusing on learning and teaching in universities where the emphasis (and funding) is placed on ‘big R’ empirical research that is returnable in national research assessment exercises and contributes to the organisation’s reputation for academic excellence.

The first part of the workshop will debate the utility to educational research of conventional evidence hierarchies that are widely used to identify the strength of evidence to guide clinical practice. In an outcomes-driven culture there is an increasing drive to demonstrate the effectiveness of healthcare interventions to ensure that available investment is spent wisely. This desire for effectiveness also includes education. Challenges to the measurement of effectiveness are compounded by the desire to generate ‘strong’ evidence – traditionally considered to be derived from well-designed, large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs). However, conducting RCTs in an education setting is complex, fraught with difficulties and may not even measure the things that are important to healthcare educators aiming to enhance the quality of care. This raises the question about the extent to which the practice of education emulates the practice of healthcare services and whether the same criteria should be used to determine what counts as the ‘gold’ standard methodologies for generating evidence to inform professional practice. What might the gold standard for educational research look like?

The second part of the workshop will debate the relative merits and contribution of ‘big R’ educational research and of scholarship focused on learning and teaching to advance pedagogical practice. Is there a real drive to produce research outcomes that can be returned in national research assessment exercises and, if so, are educational researchers placed at a disadvantage in this higher education culture?

Throughout the workshop, participants who are currently engaged, or have recently been engaged, in educational research and/or the scholarship of learning and teaching will be encouraged to contribute their views of where their work sits within evidence hierarchies, current priorities associated with national research assessment frameworks and within their own organisation, and perceptions of the value/contribution of their work.

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The future development of nursing globally is of vital importance. How can nurses in the multidisciplinary team help to achieve universal health coverage, and what support do they need? The United Kingdom, working with many countries and organizations, has traditionally played a key role, but changing times require fresh approaches.

The challenge is immense. There is no shortage of data – recent years have seen numerous reports, commissions and strategies on nursing at national, regional and international levels. Many of them, however, repeat existing knowledge and aspirations, and their recommendations often fail to be implemented.

These major issues are currently being considered in a high-level UK parliamentary review of the future development of nursing globally, due to report in June 2016. This interactive workshop will provide an unusual early opportunity to discuss its findings and how to build on them.

The review is being conducted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health (APPG), a cross-party group of parliamentarians from the House of Commons and House of Lords with an interest in global health http://www.appg-globalhealth.org.uk. Its reports are primarily directed at the UK government and parliamentarians. It builds on the APPG’s 2015 report, The UK’s contribution to health globally.

Growing awareness of global health and workforce challenges makes this review timely, for nurses and all their colleagues in the UK and worldwide.The interactive workshop will outline the review conclusions and seek participants’ views. It will aim to formulate proposals on how the report can be used as a platform for future action, at local, national and global levels.

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Motto: 'Rejection is the beginning of the next submission'.

This workshop will be led by Professor Roger Watson, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN). It will be aimed at encouraging and enabling staff in nursing and related subjects to write and publish in refereed journals.

The workshop will explain the process of publication from submission to publication. It will mainly be concerned with strategies to help you to write, in the first instance, and to write successfully. The importance of following journal guidelines will be emphasised and the crucial importance of letting others review your work will be explained.

Some of the ethical aspects of writing and publishing will be covered including plagiarism, duplicate and redundant publications, ‘salami slicing’ and acknowledgments. The importance of checking with editors if you are in any doubt any of the above aspects of your work will be emphasised.

There will also be the opportunity for questions and discussion.

NET2015 Conference

Professor Roger Watson, Professor of Nursing, University of Hull and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing ran a writing for publication workshop at the NET2015 conference and he has kindly supplied the following links which we hope will be helpful to anyone planning on writing an article.

The publishing process:
https://ebridge.hull.ac.uk/access/content/user/nssrw/Articulate%20presentations/Session%201%20Process%202012/player.html

The four rules of writing:
https://ebridge.hull.ac.uk/access/content/user/nssrw/Articulate%20presentations/Session%202%20Rules%202012/player.html

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