Corrienne and Nursing Studies get a visitor from Denmark
Having returned from 2 weeks annual leave I found an email in my inbox from Susanne Kean asking if I was available on Thursday 16th July to meet with her, Sheila Rodgers and a visitor from Denmark. I had previously been informed that Janet Jensen (MHSc, RN), a PhD student from the University of Copenhagen would be visiting Scotland in July.
Janet is in her final year of PhD study and as part of her PhD is required to spend time with another University. Janet is based in the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Dundee with Janice Rattray for 4 weeks.
We met in Sheila’s office in the Department of Nursing Studies where we each discussed our research interests. Janet told us about her project, a randomised controlled trial comparing usual care with an individualised follow-up program consisting of patient photographs and three follow-up consultations to improve psychological recovery after critical illness. Janet’s study is a mixed methods study and has been implemented in 10 intensive care units across Denmark. It was fascinating to hear about Janet’s work and how she managed to set up and run her research across so many sites.
I spoke about my own PhD work, a qualitative study on the perspectives and experiences of patients, family members and nurses with critical care diaries. Interestingly, Janet’s main PhD supervisor has been involved in diary research and Janet’s work is influenced and informed by the previous work from diaries. Therefore although Janet’s work does not focus on diaries we had an interesting discussion around the use of diaries for patients and family members in intensive care.
The discussion continued, moving between research interests and ideas to comparisons between Denmark and Scotland. Did you know that in Denmark the PhD thesis is made up of a series of publications and the defence (or viva) is a public event?!
We went for lunch in the meadows and on our way back to the department took the opportunity, while the sun was still shining, to take a few photographs.
It was an enjoyable afternoon and inspiring to meet another nurse who is developing her research career in the area of critical care and recovery.
I have been fortunate to meet Janet again over the past week as she has visited members of the Edinburgh Interdisciplinary Critical Care Research Group at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. We have exchanged details and plan to stay in contact. You never know I might even visit her in Denmark next year when I have completed my PhD!
Corrienne McCulloch
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