Thanks Ady :)

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Hi guys,
Does anyone have access to the following article?

Continuous quality improvement in care of the dying with the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient.
Gambles. International Journal of Care Pathways. v. 13. no. 2. 20091101. p. 51-56

and

Adapting the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient.
Somerville. European Journal of Palliative Care. v. 12. no. 6. 20051101. p. 239-242

Thank you very much ,-) (up)

Hi dontforget,
Sorry to hear of your stress. I'm afraid I haven't been in a similar situation but wanted to throw some questions into the pot for you to consider...

- you mention you're mid 3rd year, how long have you got left? could you hold out coming out until then?
- writing up (and generally being in 3rd year) is sooo stressful as it is, is it possible that you are looking for possible non-PhD related avenues to try and relieve your stress?
- do you feel that coming out would enable you to successfully manage your stress levels for writing up?
- if you did come out and the sh*t hit the fan (hopefully this wouldn't happen but you never know...) do you feel you have the time and the strength to be able to deal with it AND finish writing up on time as well?

Just some things to think about... personally (and this is only my fairly uninformed opinion, lol) I would wait until post-viva to come out, I wouldn't want anything to jeopardise this crucial period in the PhD if I thought I could manage my stress levels whilst still being 'in the closet' for a few extra months.

Hi Loneranger,
PM me your email address and I can send you it (and a few others along the same lines!) :)
Rachel

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Ooh what's your project about? I have a health psychology background, but am based in the School of Medicine & Health (Durham Uni) so I'm in a predominantly medical environment... although we do have a mental health research group here.

Thank you guys so much for your replies. NHS REC is soooo frustrating. I was hoping to go through the proportionate review route but as my topic is on a sensitive subject (palliative care) they won't let me.
I'm going to be submitting my documents next week, I fully expect them to come back to me and say you've done something wrong!
I'll keep you updated, maybe we should even have a thread for NHS REC submission tips/tricks/woes ?? !
Rachel

Nope, I'm full time... although will start a bit of teaching in the department in Jan. I think I'm just in a bit of a slump at the moment and finding it difficult to see the bigger picture.

Once I get going on a bit of writing it's not too bad but it's getting started that's the problem! Procrastination is far too easy when you mostly work from home (I have a desk in an open plan office at the Uni which is quite noisy as we share it with the department's secretaries as well as 4/5 other students :-/ - so it's even more difficult to work in there)

LOL strange! I'm planning on doing one large study, originally it was meant to be mixed methods (qualitative interviews and observations with a quantitative patient case note review) but we had some issues with the ethical approval for me to review case notes so I submitted a purely qualitative study with a view to applying for the quant part later on when the qual part is pretty much wrapped up.

The NHS REC approval process, I've found, is extremely tedious with many ridiculous nuances and things you don't necessarily know about until you come to submit... I'm quite lucky (? lol) in my Uni that we have quite a few members of staff who also sit on the NHS REC boards so I've been able to pick their brains a fair few times. I'm hoping to submit my documents for the October sitting in my region (NE).

After that I will be happy to never look at another NHS REC application again... don't think that'll happen though!!


On reflection, I've always had the impression of myself that I don't work hard enough... at many things. I didn't do well in my A-Levels (hated college) despite everyone telling me I could do very well. Did fairly well in my undergrad (2:1 with 1st in diss) and MSc (pass with 78% diss) and have managed to get this studentship at a well respected university, and I suppose I'm having the same problem that many students on this forum have from what I've read - feeling inadequate/lazy, and for it to threaten to become a self fulfilling prophecy!

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Hi guys,
I know it's not necessarily good to compare to other PhD students and different projects... but even so I just wanted to know:
I'm 9 months into my PhD and start data collection in January. I've just got over the hurdle of Uni ethical approval for my project and will submit for NHS REC approval in the next couple of weeks.

During this time (i.e. waiting for Uni ethics) I've put together a discussion piece to be submitted for publication and am currently trying to get the motivation to start writing my Methodology & Methods section of my thesis. I've already got about 6000 words on my first chapter from the first 6 months of the PhD and getting into the literature.

Is this 'normal'? I mean... what did you have done after 9 months? I'm procrastinating pretty hard recently after a few weeks of nose to the grindstone to get my research protocol etc watertight and feeling pretty guilty right now!

Rachel

ETA: Just re-read this and it basically sounds like a 'please validate me' post.. which I guess it is, LOL, sorry about that :$ but any and all feedback gratefully received...

Just to add to this, one good piece of advice I was given when starting my lecturing was that if I was asked a question I didn't know, to simply reply along the lines of "I don't know the answer to that, I'd be interested to find out, would you look into it for next week's session?"

I only had to use it once (on a particularly awkward mature student) and it definitely worked!

Thank you (up) Trying to find a picture of a similar dress but I'm having no luck LOL :-)

Thanks everyone, just to let you know I went in a wool (thin sort of wool) sleeved dress, opaque tights and heels. Everyone else was in 'work wear' e.g. black trousers/nice skirt and smart top/shirt. Saw one lady in jeans and she did stick out a bit.

Just wondering, does anyone 'suit up' when attending conferences (as an observer, not presenting)?
I'm going to my first one tomorrow and don't want to look out of place - equally I don't want to be uncomfortable in a suit!

Thinking of smart casual...

Thanks,
Rachel

You are a legend... a true legend :p(up)(up) Thank you ;-)

Hi guys
Back again with another article request :D

This time it's..
Measurement of Quality of Care and Quality of Life at the End of Life
in
The Gerontologist (2002) 42 (suppl 3): 71-80.

Would be most grateful indeed, thanks guys :)