Packing 'em out in Finland

KOUPIO, Finland—A family wedding (our son Thomas), two visits to Ireland, and one to Finland have taken place since my last entry. The wedding photographs are well aired on family Facebook pages, but I thought it would do no harm to share one here. My talented sister-in-law made the wedding dress.

From left to right: Charles, Joseph, William, Yours Truly, Thomas,
Sally, Deborah, Hannah, Lucia, Amelia, and Rebecca—all Watsons!

Ireland

The visits to Ireland, made in close succession, were for the purpose of participating on an interview panel for a senior academic position at University College Cork (UCC) and to attend an examinations board at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).

I worked in Ireland for six months—from 1998 to 1999—but when the “Celtic Tiger,” the rapid economic expansion that took place in Ireland between 1995 and 2000, inflated house prices and kept my family stuck in Scotland, I had to retreat back to the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, I have maintained regular contact with the Republic and make several visits annually.

Cork is a beautiful place, and I was very grateful to the UCC for two nights—my second stay—in the five-star, family-run Hayfield Manor. In Dublin, I have said goodbye several times to the RCSI at examination boards, but I keep being asked back and have no complaints. It was a pleasure to introduce a good colleague, Parveen Ali, PhD, RN, lecturer in nursing at the University of Sheffield, to Dublin and to have dinner with Catherine McCabe, PhD RN, assistant professor in nursing at Trinity College Dublin, with whom I have worked in Bahrain.

Finland

After a weekend at home, I flew to Helsinki and on to Koupio to spend a few days at the University of Eastern Finland. My host here has been Mari Kangasniemi, PhD, RN, with whom I had breakfast in Rome a few years ago at a conference. I am always pleasantly surprised how these unplanned encounters lead to future collaboration.

I gave two classes here, one to assembled masses of doctoral and master’s students in health on how to attract a reader’s attention in a manuscript. (To listen to this lecture as a podcast, click here.) I am rarely able to say that I packed out a lecture theatre, but I did this time. People were sitting on the floor and out in the corridor, and I was asked some excellent and challenging questions at the end.

The point I made about attracting readers’ attention in manuscripts is to realise who the initial readership is—first, the editor-in-chief and then the other editors and reviewers. If you do not take these people into account, your ultimate intended readership will never see your work. My second class, which was more sedate, was a dialogue with the doctoral students in nursing.

Future plans

After I return to the UK, I have no further travel planned for this month. Next month, I go to Australia and possibly Hong Kong and, if plans work out, Saudi Arabia in November. I look forward to teaching my online module in quantitative methods at the end of this month and getting reviews back on the manuscripts I’ve submitted in recent months.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

The cabbie test

HULL, United Kingdom—Wherever I go, cabbies (a UK expression for taxi or cab drivers) are never backwards at coming forwards with their views, whether in London, Dublin, Washington, D.C., or my hometown of Hull. Race, religion, or politics—no subject is off the agenda, and they tend not to care what your views are; only giving you theirs. I have twice had vociferous views on nursing expressed to me, always with frank disgust at the thought of nurses going to university.

Many years ago—1999 to be precise—I was the first professor of nursing in Ireland and part of a government committee charged with the task of establishing nursing degrees in that country. While en route from the Dublin airport to my apartment, the taxi driver asked what I did. I told him, and he “let fly” with a stream of invective about the move of Irish nursing education into universities. I thanked him for his views and took a mental note never again to tell a taxi driver what I did, exactly.

However, this week, on my way home from the railway station, lulled by a false sense of security, I told a taxi driver my occupation—and promptly regretted it. He had, at one time, worked as a nursing auxiliary, and his view was that everything nursing stood for had been lost with the move of “nurse training” into universities. My mind drifted to gratitude for that “loss.” I, too, used to be a nursing auxiliary, and I recall patients tied to chairs; tea, sugar, and milk being served in the same pot; medicines being forced on patients; and stealing from clinical areas on an industrial scale. But I kept quiet; I just wanted to get home to bed.

I have decided to inaugurate a new test—the “cabbie test.” Cabbies seem to be a barometer for the extremes of public opinion, and the opinion expressed by my drivers is not uncommon amongst the UK public. I rarely meet anyone who is glad about nurses being educated in universities, and I reckon that, even if public opinion were changed, we could not be sure it was permanent until a taxi driver asked what I did and then expressed support for university-educated nurses. When that day comes, if ever, I’ll know that a major milestone for the image of nursing has been achieved.

Running and climbing

I mentioned in my last entry that, for months, I had not broken 22 minutes in the local Saturday-morning 5 kilometre race. Well, last weekend I achieved a time of 21 minutes and 2 seconds, beating my daughter, who is an army physical-training instructor. Competitive or what! I now have 21 minutes in my sights, and, since Christmas 2013, have put the first 1,000 miles on my GPS watch.

My oldest daughter is a rock climber, and she borrowed some equipment from me this weekend to do some real climbing. During these cold, wet months, we mainly climb indoors, but my daughter—a cardiothoracic intensive-care nurse—is clearly getting outdoors. I’m keen to follow. A day on the rocks, with its unique combination of pain and terror, is one of the best forms of meditation available. It will take my mind off cabbies.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Inane matters

CORK, Ireland—A short break from this blog has given me time to do the first full entry on the brand-new Journal of Advanced Nursing blog, which has had more than 400 views since June. I also publish our newsletter for the Faculty of Health and Social Care at Hull as a blog, and my own blogs have been updated. I was pleased to see that my “Four things about ... (a simple approach to anatomy and physiology)” has had more than 84,000 views. Forgive the blatant plug!

Since my last entry, I have been: 1) enjoying some extreme weather in the United Kingdom (30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, is considered extreme in the U.K.), 2) working hard on a research-grant proposal, 3) rock climbing, and 4) running—poorly—in a set of league races. My work as editor-in-chief continues, and it has brought me to Cork, Ireland for the annual meeting of the International Academy of Nursing Editors, a group that suffers from the acronym INANE.

This is my first time at INANE, and I was asked to chair an early morning “Town Hall” meeting on hot topics in editing. We covered several topics, including open-access publishing, succession planning for editorial positions, and the training that those new to editing might require. INANE is a truly international organisation, and this meeting, hosted by the Department of Nursing and Midwifery at University College Cork, attracted more than 100 people—mostly, but not exclusively, editors from 16 countries.

This is the first of three weeks of travel. After returning to the U.K. from Ireland, I will spend a week in Taiwan and the following week in Australia, which is where my first contribution to Reflections on Nursing Leadership magazine, the progenitor to my “Hanging smart” blog, was written. Naturally, I intend to send my reflections on these visits.

I rarely visit Taiwan without some hilarious incident, usually at my expense. For example, a few years ago I sent some clothes to the local laundry, which phoned my Taiwanese colleague, whose cell phone is always on speaker, to enquire if I wanted my underpants (“shorts” in the United States) pressed. The secretaries in the open-plan office were unable, despite considerable effort, to suppress their laughter. When the exchange was translated to me, I laughed, too—eventually. I will be surprised if there is nothing to report next week.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.