Dr Amy Burton (Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology & Course Director MSc in Health Psychology) blogs about a recent conference trip with staff and students from the Centre for Health Psychology at Staffordshire University.
Staff and students recently attended and presented at the Midlands Health Psychology Network Conference. The event, held at Coventry University on the 2nd March 2017, was attended by over 20 current staff and MSc, Professional Doctorate and PhD students from Staffordshire University.
Poster contributions included: MSc Student Laura Campbell, who presented her Masters research investigating causal attributions towards people with familial Hypercholesterolaemia; Professional Doctorate student Dayyanah Sumodhee on her exploration of healthy eating in people attempting to quit smoking; and PhD students Sonia Begum, Sian Calvert and Claudia Lega. Staffordshire University also contributed to oral presentations with Professional Doctorate Student Meghan Linscott delivering a well-received talk on the benefits of applying Health Psychology to urban planning.
Meghan Linscott, Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology Student
Meghan enjoyed the opportunity to deliver her first presentation at a local friendly conference: “For me, the conference was an excellent opportunity to deliver an oral presentation for the first time. Whilst I am pleased with how it went, I feel confident that my performance will be much better the next time I present at a conference, so this was a very valuable experience for me. For a relatively small conference, I am so pleased it attracts an audience from undergraduate students right through to the influential health psychology figures. I like how varied the talks were and I thought the talks about health psychology and public health were particularly insightful for the whole audience.”
A trip to the conference was built in to the MSc Health Psychology teaching programme to ensure all current students had the opportunity to attend. MSc student Riana Mansfield really enjoyed the experience: “I found the conference was a fantastic opportunity to find out about real-life applications of health psychology in various fields, in some areas which I hadn’t considered before, such as audiology. I enjoyed hearing about the many different career paths health psychology can open the door to and it gave me food for thought on my potential next steps following my degree. Thank you for the opportunity to attend the conference and to network with professionals and fellow students from different areas sharing the same interest in Health Psychology!”
#HomeOfHealthPsychology on Tour
MSc student Sam Ridyard also valued the opportunity to learn about future possibilities for Health Psychology careers; “I really enjoyed attending the conference. It was a good opportunity to see what others in our field are involved with and to communicate with others in Health Psychology, and I have come away with a number of ideas about post-MSc avenues to take”. While MSc student Lucy Field valued the opportunity to network with other Health Psychologists and trainees: “The MHPN was a fantastic conference and we were very lucky to attend as part of our MSc course. It was great to listen to current researchers and connect with health psychologists”.
Once again, as MSc Course Director I was impressed by our Health Psychology students. They all presented extremely well and made sure they took every opportunity to network and discuss their research with others at the conference. I look forward to attending again next year.
The Midlands Health Psychology Network
The MHPN hold a one day conference in February every year which is attended by around 100 members from across the Midlands and is a forum for health psychologists to share clinical and research experiences, information, knowledge and training. Existing members include MSc students, doctorate students, chartered health psychologists based at local NHS sites and regional universities, third sector employees, senior and early career academics, health practitioners and pharmacists. To learn more about the MHPN please visit their website: www.mhpn.co.uk
Staffordshire University – The Home of Health Psychology
Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology is a 
centre of excellence for teaching and research in Health Psychology, and is home to Staffordshire’s BPS Accredited Stage 1 MSc in Health Psychology and Stage 2 Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology. The Centre for Health Psychology is part of the Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research.
Keep updated with the latest Health Psychology news from Staffordshire University via following us on @StaffsPsych and via the #HealthPsychStaffs hashtag.
For further information about Health Psychology courses and research at Staffordshire University please visit the following webpages: