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11 Sep 2006 16:45:45
Two postgraduate students at the University of Bedfordshire have been nationally recognised for making a real difference to health practice during their studies.
Sean Chinnathumby and Evanson Sambala were both national runners-up for the Royal Society of Health’s Paddy Donaldson Award.
The Paddy Donaldson Award recognises the work of postgraduate students’ dissertations that make a real contribution to health practice.
Sean was in the UK student category for his work on how to get people to take part in clinical cancer trials. Evanson was in the overseas category for his work on how to use community education to prevent malnutrition in his home country, Malawi.
The MSc students were runners-up and received Certificates of Merit at the Oval Conference Centre in London last Monday from Sir Liam Donaldson, the current Chief Medical Officer.
Professor Gurch Randhawa, Director of the Institute for Health Research at the University, said: “This is an absolutely fantastic achievement for both students to have their work nationally recognised as good practice.
“Sean and Evanson represent the great spectrum of public health. At one end we have someone trying to get food into children’s mouths in a developing country, at the other, the modern dilemma in a first-world country, of finding people to take part in clinical trials.”
Sean worked in clinical trial recruitment and his dissertation looked at how to get people to take part in cancer trials. It asked why people refuse to take part and showed how to develop a process to improve current practice.
He explained: “I had to look at the reasons for patients saying no, such as shock when cancer is diagnosed, and address them.”
Sean is now a lecturer in health care practice at Buckinghamshire University College but researchers at the University of Bedfordshire are using his valuable findings to improve clinical trial recruitment.
Evanson is completing his dissertation for his MSc in Public Health. His goal is to make a contribution to his native Malawi, a developing country where malnutrition is rife and around 50 per cent of children under five are underfed.
Evanson’s work explored how educating people in the community, including parents and carers in rural villages, can help to contribute to a public health policy.
He said: “If we start to get it right in the rural villages, children’s health and welfare can be improved. We have to get people to think about agricultural development, what they are going to grow, and how they are going to grow it. It is about empowering them to think and educating them about hygiene, sanitation, and child growth.”
Evanson is now considering studying for a PhD in Public Health at the University of Bedfordshire.
Latest news» 2006» Sep» National recognition for two students making a difference to health practice
