Tag Archives: Centre for Health Psychology

Dr Amy Burton: Training Health Professionals in Pain Management

Posted on by
Reply

AB Pain Management PictureIn January 2015 Dr Amy Burton (Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology) delivered a training session for pain management professionals in the Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) Pain Team. The session covered an introduction to culturally competent communication and practical tools to help health care professionals to communicate more effectively with patients from different cultures.

One activity encouraged the attendees to practice the ‘teach-back’ technique involving delivering small chunks of information to the patient and then checking understanding before moving on to additional information. The health care professionals practiced through role play by explaining an everyday concept to a partner – practice examples included: the offside rule, how to bake a cake, and how to ride a motorbike!

The training was well received:

“One of the biggest clinical challenges facing the BCHC pain team is the provision of care to culturally diverse patients. The training delivered by Dr Amy Burton has helped to increase open-mindedness and cultural awareness, as well as enabling the Pain Team to develop its ability to communicate more meaningfully with people from minority backgrounds” (Dr Laura Chipchase, Specialist Health Psychologist in Pain)

The training was informed by Dr Burton’s recent review paper entitled “pain management programmes for non-English-speaking black and minority ethnic groups with long-term or chronic pain” published in Musculoskeletal Care. The health care professionals are now planning to incorporate techniques from the training within their pain management programmes illustrating the direct link between research conducted in the Centre for Health Psychology at Staffordshire University and real world health care practice.

Rebecca Rushton, MSc in Health Psychology student, reports from the MHPN Conference.

Posted on by
Reply
Becky Rushton

Becky Rushton

Becky Rushton, a current MSc student at Staffordshire University’s Centre for Health Psychology, reports on presenting her Dissertation research at the recent Midlands Health Psychology Network Conference held in February 2015.

Presenting a poster at the Midlands Health Psychology Network Conference provided me with the opportunity to discuss the research I am currently conducting for my MSc dissertation under the supervision of Dr Sarah Dean (Title: “Adding Personality to the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Predict Cervical Screening Intentions”). [A copy of Becky’s poster can be downloaded at the bottom of this post]

In the forty five minute session I was able to disseminate my research and gain valuable feedback and views on the topic area from other individuals attending the conference. I was also able to view other research posters gaining an insight into a range of areas in Health Psychology research such as pain communication and acquired brain injury, as well as differing research methodologies.

From the poster presentation I have been able to develop skills of producing and presenting a research poster, both of which are new experiences to me. Although daunting at first, presenting a poster at the MHPN conference was a great experience which I would not hesitate to repeat.

The conference provided those in attendance with knowledge of recent research, a platform to share and discuss research either by an oral or poster presentation and an opportunity for a question and answer session on applying for a PhD in Health Psychology – all in one day! The conference was an interesting and inspiring experience which I would thoroughly recommend attending!

Interested in health psychology? Further information about Staffordshire University’s MSc in Health Psychology can be found here.

R Rushton MHPN Poster (March 15)

Becky’s Poster from the MHPN Conference

Midlands Health Psychology Conference: Staffordshire Staff & Students well represented!

Posted on by

Several members of staff plus past and present students from our Health Psychology MSc and Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology attended the Midlands Health Psychology Network (MHPN) Conference at the University of Derby in February 2015.March 15 MHPN ConferenceDr Amy Burton, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at Staffordshire University, reports on a successful conference for our Health Psychology students and staff.

Dr Amy Burton

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.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Healthy Mind and Healthy Body – Understanding, Supporting, and Improving” and gave delegates the opportunity to learn about recent developments in E-Health research from key note Dr Neil Coulson and body image scanning research from key note Professor Sarah Grogan.

In addition, several past and present Staffordshire University students delivered poster and oral presentations on their research:

  • Professional Doctorate students Louise Clancy and Lisa Cowap presented findings from a research project led by Dr Amy Burton investigating facilitators and barriers to physical activity in older people with sight loss;
  • Current MSc student Becky Rushton presented a poster on her project supervised by Dr Sarah Dean investigating adding personality to the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explain cervical screening behaviours;
  • And past MSc student Catherine Burgess gave an oral presentation on her project supervised by Dr Sarah Dean exploring quality of life in people with Lupus.

All of the conference sessions were well attended and the day was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the quality of the Health Psychology research currently being conducted at Staffordshire University.

For more information about Health Psychology at Staffordshire please visit the following webpages: