Where are you now? Sarah Masefield

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Maria Parks
Sarah Masefield blog photo

YSJ OT graduate Sarah Masefield

 

 

In the second of our series on Where are you now? Sarah Masefield tells us about her research career since training to be an OT at YSJ.

 

 

 

What is your connection with the Occupational Therapy Programme at York St John University (YSJ)?

I graduated from  YSJ in 2011. From 2012-2016 I worked as the patient involvement and engagement officer for the European Lung Foundation. I have just started a fully funded PhD at the University of York, looking at routinely collected health data and mental health in mothers who have a child born with a disability.

Tell us about your current role.

For the last 5 years I worked for the European Lung Foundation based in Sheffield. I took the role on as a one-year maternity cover appointment and was then made permanent. It was an amazing job, where my role was to involve people with respiratory conditions in the scientific and education activities of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), and communicate the scientific and educational activities of the ERS to patients and the public. This meant travelling to conferences and meetings across Europe to talk to doctors about how they could better involve people living with the condition that they were, for example, writing new clinical practice guidelines on. This has developed into becoming a researcher in my own right, with a number of papers and abstracts to my name.

What was your favourite aspect of the OT Programme at YSJ?

I hugely enjoyed my time at YSJ, especially my third year international OT placement in Uganda.This video summarise my experiences  during my international OT placement:

My dissertation module was another memorable aspect of the Programme. Having the opportunity to work on a primary research project of my own was where I discovered my passion for research which has informed my career pathway .

I am certain that OTs have the perfect transferable skills and experience for working in the ever growing area of patient and public involvement (PPI). If you are interested
in finding out more about this as an area of practice, take a look at the factsheet that  my colleagues and I developed European Lung Foundation Patient and Public Involvement

Here are some more examples of my publications.

This article is about how patients can be involved in medical society activities: “Patients Included” in the European Respiratory Society International Congress

Here’s a paper on some of my research: Recommendations to improve smoking cessation outcomes from people with lung conditions who smoke

 

 

Posted in Research, Student Perspectives, Where are you now? | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Welcome back to all 2nd and 3rd year OT students……….

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Maria Parks

AWWelcome back to all of our returning Occupational Therapy students. I hope that you all had an enjoyable and relaxing summer, and are ready to get back into your programme of study. You will notice over the next few weeks that a few staff and administrative changes have occurred over the summer; however it is hoped that these will have minimal impact on your studies. We have included some innovative learning opportunities for you at Level 2 and Level 3, and I hope that you find these stimulating. By building on your experiences at Level 1, your knowledge and skills will continue to expand during this academic year, and we look forward to supporting you in this process. As always we welcome your feedback, so please make contact with your student reps, and your academic tutors, so that we can ensure your receive the best possible learning experience.

Enjoy the year,

With best wishes

Dr. Ally Wadey

Director of Occupational Therapy | a.wadey@yorksj.ac.uk | 01904 876406 Twitter:@YSJOT

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Welcome to our new OT students starting in September 2016

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Maria Parks

AWTo the new cohort of Occupational Therapy students here at York St John University, a warm Yorkshire Welcome!

We are excited that you are here and look forward to working with you to assist your development in becoming qualified Occupational Therapists. Over the three levels of study your knowledge and skills will be expanded, you will be challenged and you will at times, find the module content challenging. This is part of the process of becoming competent, confident and effective practitioners of occupational therapy. We are here to support your development, and look forward to observing the personal and professional growth that you will achieve.

Enjoy Welcome Week, and make sure that you get chance to explore the campus and some of the delights of York.

With best wishes
Ally

Dr. Ally Wadey, Director of Occupational Therapy | a.wadey@yorksj.ac.uk | 01904 876406

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

COTEC-ENOTHE Conference: Obesity, Bariatric Care & Community Engagement Within the Curriculum

Posted on July 8, 2016 by josh.makuch

The first joint congress for Council of Occupational Therapists for European Countries (COTEC) and European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE) was held at the National University of Ireland in Galway, from 15th -19th June 2016. 

Senior lecturer in OT at YSJ, Fiona Howlett, tells us what experience she gained from attending and presenting at the conference…

ClFZi2jWEAIAAlq

I attended the conference to present the following:

Paper

Fiona Howlett, Hannah Spring, Lauren Benge, Carol Carney, Joanna Molony, Gavin Moses, Sophie Cockell, Abbey Elston, Alice Fortune, Sarah Graham, Becky Jones, Bethany Orr, Emma Tarpey, Alice Taylor (2016) Obesity and bariatric care: embedded research into the undergraduate occupational therapy curriculum

Session link

Abstract link

Workshop

Fiona Howlett and Caroline Wolverson, (2016) Community engagement within the curriculum

Session link

Abstract link

What did you hope to gain from attending the conference?

  • Opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from Universities across Europe.
  • Opportunities to showcase work from our students as co-researchers (SCoRe) projects.
  • Inspirational ideas and research to incorporate into the curriculum.

CljirVjWAAAwkHB

Main points of reflection?

  • Inspiring, motivating and a wonderful opportunity to work with Occupational Therapists throughout Europe.

Do you have a highlight from the conference?

I attended an informative session by Patric Duletzki and Hannah Pagel on their work on how Occupational Therapists in Germany can contribute to working with people who are refugees. This is a developing area of practice for occupational therapists in this country and indeed is an area of research for our next SCoRe Project.

Link to the paper

Link to the abstract

Conference Agenda

Find further highlights of the conference here: https://storify.com/kerrysorby/cotec

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

COTEC-ENOTHE Conference: CONNECTING: Education/Practice/Research and Policy

Posted on June 30, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

With conference season in full swing, Kerry Sorby reflects on Team YSJOT’s time at COTEC-ENOTHE 2016 last week! Have a read…

The first joint congress for Council of Occupational Therapists for European Countries (COTEC) and European Network of Occupational Therapy in Higher Education (ENOTHE) was held at the National University of Ireland in Galway, from 15th -19th June 2016. It was a congress attended by occupational therapists working in clinical practice, management, education and research. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for delegates to showcase examples of good practice, network and also learn from others from across Europe.

A team of 9 YSJ staff and students attended and presented at the conference.

Staff: Dr. Alison Laver Fawcett, Caroline Wolverson, Fiona Howlett, Karen Wilson, Kerry Sorby and Maria Parks.

Graduates: Eden Marrison and Lorna Rand.

Student: David Jamieson, UK and COT student representative.

Students enjoying Conference! From left: Lorna, Eden, and David.

Students enjoying Conference! From left: Lorna, Eden, and David.

Staff and students presented/co-presented 13 presentations:

5 posters, 4 papers and 4 workshops. A number of our presentations involved disseminating work from our programme Students as Co-Researcher projects:

http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/pdf/SCoRe%20poster%20SIPPS%20project.pdf

And the University’s Students as Researchers Scheme:

http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/add/add/learning-and-teaching/student-engagement/students-as-researchers-scheme.aspx

IMG_2064

During the conference the team were sharing their experiences by using the conference hashtag: #COTEC_ENOTHE 16.

Here are some of the highlights: https://storify.com/kerrysorby/cotec

Posted in Events and Conferences | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

End of Year Evaluations: The Student Voice, Part Two

Posted on June 15, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

In today’s post, Kerry Sorby reflects on the Year 3 review day during which students to evaluate and celebrate their time at YSJ…

Students are considered to be active members of a learning cohort here at YSJ. We welcome feedback on what worked well for students and areas that could be enhanced in the future. We strive as a programme team to provide an exceptional learning experience for all our students.

student pic 1

Class of 2013

At the end of year evaluation and celebration, students were encouraged to share their experiences with staff and review their personal and professional journey over the past 3 years. You can follow what we got up to on our Storify:

https://storify.com/kerrysorby/final-day-ysjot#publicize

Reflective Tools

Feedback was gathered through a range of forums: text wall, Moodle questionnaire and a memory tree. We also used a hashtag #y3review to collect Twitter responses.

CkB4XP2WYAAhwcD

Online Text Wall: Level 3 students were asked to use 3 words to summarise their experience of the occupational therapy programme.

memory tree

Memory tree

Memory Tree: These are the key themes illustrated on the tree: fun, challenging, emotional, inspiring, friendship, belonging, pride and changing people’s lives through occupation.

student pic 2

The Cohort of 2013 celebrating their achievements.

From all of us at YSJ OT, congratulations to all graduating students and good luck for the future!

Posted in End of Year Evaluations, Student Perspectives | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Introducing the OT Social Media Team!

Posted on June 1, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

In today’s post Maria Parks tells us about the exciting Occupational Therapy Social Media Project…

IMG_1968

In September 2015, I successfully applied for funding from the University’s Academic Development Directorate’s ‘Students as Partners in Curriculum Design’ scheme, which has funded two undergraduate students to help us develop the social media platforms.

Who are the Project Team?

Maria Parks – Project Supervisor

Kerry Sorby – Project Team member

Josh Makuch – Marketing Management student (Social Media Expert)

Jess Olsen-Wells- English Literature student (Project Management and Editing Expert)

Why the need for this project?

Prior to this project, the Programme’s digital presence was via the University’s webpages and individual academic Twitter accounts. It was felt that we needed a more effective digital presence and should embrace the use of social media to be able to communicate with a wider internal and external audience and disseminate to the wider world, and share all the wonderful things we get up to here on the OT programme at YSJU. So really we want to use social media as our communication and marketing campaign.

What will the project do?

With the Students as Partners in Curriculum Design grant we are paying our two students Jess and Josh to help us produce this Blog and manage our programme Twitter account.
We also want to use these platforms to encourage our student and staff to use social media for publication opportunities and also to keep in touch with our alumni (staff & graduates). There will also be opportunities for students and staff to gain experience on the editorial board for the blog.

The funding finishes in July 2016, by which time we will have established a lively blog.

How will you disseminate the project?

In June 2016, Maria Parks and Kerry Sorby will be presenting a poster about the project in Galway, Ireland at the COTEC-ENOTE conference.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

End of Year Evaluations: The Student Voice

Posted on May 24, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

In this week’s post, Kerry Sorby summarises the recent Level One and Two Review Days and discusses the importance of student feedback…

“I feel valued for my contributions as a student rather than just one of a number on the programme.  Plans for next year include becoming Peer Support and taking my place on the OT Society Committee as the Health and Safety Officer – what can I say? I just love paper work! Fun, fun, fun!! So glad YSJ picked me and that I picked YSJ!”

(Tess Dias, Level One Student Rep)

Students are considered to be active members of a learning cohort here at YSJ.  We welcome feedback on what worked well for students, as well as areas that could be enhanced in the future. We strive as a programme team to provide an exceptional learning experience for all our students.

man

At the end of every academic year, students are encouraged to share their experiences with staff and review their personal and professional journey over the year. Feedback is gathered through a range of forums: this year we have used Twitter, Moodle and an on-line quiz Socrative, group and individual feedback. We used hashtags #y1review and #y2review on the review days.

 You can follow what happened using our Storify:

https://storify.com/kerrysorby/end-of-year-reviews

We also asked Level One students to use 3 words to summarise their experience of their first year:

Posted in Student Perspectives, YSJ | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Presenting at MLA’16 in Toronto!

Posted on May 19, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

Fresh off the plane, Senior Lecturer Hannah Spring recounts her experiences at MLA’16 this week in Toronto, Canada…

Presenting a workshop on effective survey design methodology in Toronto.

Presenting a workshop on effective survey design methodology in Toronto.

Conference: MLA (Medical Library Association) / Mosaic
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada
When: 13th, 14th, 15th May 2016

What were you presenting?

2hr workshop: Improve your data! How to use surveys effectively in healthcare research, evaluation and audit

2hr workshop: Facilitating your focus group: running effective focus groups in healthcare research, evaluation and audit

What did you hope to gain from attending the conference?

– To build both my and the University’s international profile by teaching workshops / presenting at a large international conference

– This was my first time at MLA and have always wanted to experience it, so attending has been a goal for a while

– Network, meet new people and find guest writers for my Learning and Teaching in Action regular feature of the Health Information and Libraries Journal

What were your main points of reflection from the day?

With some of my workshop attendees.

With some of my workshop attendees.

– I felt my workshops were well received and the micro-exercises I gave at the end were embraced by the attendees and resulted in a lot of discussion.  Everyone learned a lot from each other, including me!

– It was great to use my PhD to illustrate examples of the research methods I was teaching.  I am continually reminded of the extent of my learning experience during my PhD studies and the lasting impact this is having on both my own learning and influencing the learning of others.

– It was very interesting to meet and hear what professionals from other countries are doing and to hear different perspectives.

– I found the message of Dr Ben Goldacre’s keynote address compelling and inspiring. I will investigate his ‘AllTrials’ resource in more detail and will include this in future literature search teaching sessions.

Highlight from the day?

– The highlight was seeing Ben Goldacre give his very entertaining and inspiring keynote address.

Posted in Events and Conferences | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Student Perspectives: Part Two

Posted on May 11, 2016 by JESS OLSEN-WELLS

As part of our Student Perspectives series we spoke to two more of our current students about what it’s like studying at York St John. Hear what Becky and David have to say…

Becky Nicholls

Becky photo

I started the occupational therapy course at York St John University having previously studied literature and languages, so I was unsure how I would cope with a completely different subject matter.  However, my experience so far has been an extremely positive one!  The tutors here are friendly and approachable, which gives students the freedom to explore new ideas and ask questions.  Importantly, each of us is valued for our individual skills and abilities.

The course is demanding and has stretched me to think in new ways that will be invaluable when I qualify.  Some of the best things about the course are the practice placements, when you can put all your learning into practice and help clients with their day-to-day lives.  The first time a client thanked me was the most rewarding thing and confirmed that occupational therapy was the right degree programme for me.

Continue reading →

Posted in Student Perspectives, YSJ | Tagged , | 2 Comments