- What’s happened to my PhD research?
First, the big news – since my last post I am happy to announce that I successfully defended my thesis in my viva examination! I had a very enjoyable examination, aided by superb examiners and a moderator who kept the atmosphere friendly, helpful and conducive to meaningful discussion, rather than making it in anyway seem like an interrogation. My overwhelming thanks must therefore go to Professor Judith Tanner (external examiner), Dr Tina Barnes (internal examiner) and Professor Paul Jennings (viva moderator).
I am now working on my minor modifications, and also working on the feedback from a number of peer reviewed papers stemming from this research. I’ll update on the progress of these outputs here in due course.
- How I marked May 5th
Whilst I was not able to be online for May 5th – the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign – I did write a guest blog for Deb Group, which you can read here. This explores the origins of the WHO 5 Moments, the role of hand hygiene in helping stop the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and the importance of producing meaningful data when measuring hand hygiene compliance if we want to change behaviour.
- My latest research plans
Now that I have (almost!) completed my PhD I am working on plans to further key strands of the research in order to improve practice within Patient safety. The core aspect of my work is Meaningful Data for Behaviour Change, and this involves psychology, human factors and technology. As I have a strong belief that research should have a practical application I will be looking to maintain close links with day-to-day infection prevention activity, and increase the level of involvement of front-line healthcare professionals in research: exploring issues that they identify as important for Patient safety.
- What I’ve been doing outside the hand hygiene bubble
Finally, because it has been an unusual time, I have been offline quite a bit recently – hence the blog/twitter silence. This is in part due to a technical hitch (I’m awaiting a new shiny machine, as currently my old faithful laptop is on the way out to pasture), but mainly due to taking some time out on holiday, AND training for the walkthewalk.org London Moonwalk 2014. You can read all my team, and our motivations here – plus see some rather spectacular training photos…!
exploringhandhygiene 