Working on the Italian Riviera

HULL, United Kingdom—Last week, I made my third visit to Italy and my second to Genova this year. It is a pleasure to visit that historic and beautifully situated city. The weather was superb and, despite a classic running injury—plantar fasciitis—I managed two 10K runs along the two-mile esplanade called the Corso Italia. I had to make several loops but, because the sea was clear and blue and the sun was shining, this was no hardship.

You do not have to go far to experience a different culture, and this became evident in three incidents in which I was a customer—in two restaurants and a shop.

In the first incident, I took a table, asked the waiter for a beer, and, just as I began to say, “and could I see the menu?” was berated for my ignorance. This was not a bar, he informed me, but a restaurant. If I wanted a beer, I should go next door to the bar. I stood up, shrugged my shoulders, and walked out.

I then tried to buy some gelato and liked the look of the yogurt-flavoured variety. My idea of the perfect ice cream is one with no “bits” in it, or any other kind of adulteration. The vendor—who sensed I was not local—simply looked at me and told the person next to me in the queue that I ought to be trying something more typical of Italy or Sicily, from where he originated. So I pointed to some brightly coloured bitty concoction at the back of the display, which he seemed happy to serve me. I left muttering loudly, “So why do you have the yogurt-flavoured gelato?” And the one I bought was truly terrible. I made a mental note that, within a short time of my arrival, at least one restaurant and one shop were out of bounds in the future.

The final incident involved me buying coffee—which I did not want—after dinner, albeit I was able to have decaf. The coffee was “special,” explained the proprietor. It was made with limoncello, a highly alcoholic lemon drink. The coffee was terrible, too! But the restaurant was very good and an interesting place—a former, and I emphasise “former,” house of ill repute. (I can see the tweet now: Travelling professor visits a brothel.) I’ll say no more than that because, although the establishment’s mission had drifted, the decor remained what I imagine—I emphasise imagine—what one of those places may have looked like.

The University of Genova

I was not in Genova to report on local hostelries but to work for a few days at the University of Genova. I met PhD students to teach and discuss various aspects of research, including writing for publication. This time, I gave three sessions—open access publishing, impact factor, and the process of proceeding from data to published paper. While there, I also spent time with colleagues, advising on their research and publication strategies and looking for areas of common interest with our research at Hull.

One specific area of interest in health promotion is related to avoidance of melanoma, and the vast layers of seminaked bodies on the beaches of Genova suggest they may have a significant melanoma problem in Italy. In Australia, to cite one example, sunbathing, though not eliminated, has become almost a thing of the past. People there are very “sun-safe,” using clothing and protective creams to good effect. Italians have not yet gotten the message. Why we have such an interest in melanoma at Hull, where the sun rarely shines, is a mystery. But we do, and I hope my colleagues can begin to visit Genova and establish some collaboration.

There is one final incident to report, and that was running into a street demonstration while en route from Genova to the airport. The protestors—trade unionists—were blocking the road, and we had to stop. They had also blocked side roads leading to the main road. My anxiety level rose slightly, but we took an impromptu tour of the back streets of Genova, which was fascinating, and we arrived at the airport via a route I had never taken and from a direction I considered impossible. I have no complaints about Genovese taxi drivers, possibly the fastest and most intrepid in the world.

In case anyone wonders if I actually ever work at Hull, I was here the week before I went to Italy, and I am here this week. I am in the process of preparing a new online module in quantitative research methods for our Master’s of Research (MRes) students. MRes is something possibly unique to the UK. It is a genuine master’s degree, which can be taken as an exit point or, after graduation, for the first year of a PhD. Other master’s degrees, if the student graduates, oblige the student to start in the first year of a PhD. This module will be entirely online and asynchronous, a model that works very well, I think, for master’s students.

The rest of the month is taken up with a week in Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, at a Research Excellence Framework subpanel meeting. Then I head to Hong Kong for the 25th International Nursing Research Congress, sponsored by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Of course, you’ll be hearing about my time there. Maybe you’ll even be in my next blog.

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.

A good week for nursing

HULL, United Kingdom—I have just returned from a week in Genoa (Genova to the locals) in the Ligurian region of Italy, on the country’s northwest coast. Once again, I taught research students at the University of Genova and liaised with collaborators about various research and writing projects. My colleagues there have translated the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia scale into Italian, and I was helping them test its psychometric properties. This provides me with another database on which to run my own beloved method of Mokken scaling. The sample size is small, but the results are promising and point, as does most psychometric work, to the need for a larger sample. We should get a preliminary publication out of this work.

The most important nursing paper in Europe

Linda Aiken

I said it was a good week for nursing, and I was referring to the publication last week of a paper by Aiken et al. titled “Nurse staffing and education and hospital mortality in nine European countries: a retrospective observational study.” (Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing, professor of sociology, and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania, USA, is on the Lancet Commission on UK Nursing, which I will chair, as is another co-author of the paper, Anne Marie Rafferty, PhD, CBE, PhD, FRCN, chair of nursing policy, King’s College London, UK.) The paper, published in The Lancet, is one outcome of the RN4CAST study and, in addition to showing the effect of inadequate staffing levels on failure to rescue patients, shows—clearly—the benefit of degree-level education for nurses.

Alvisa Palese, MNS, BMS, RN, associate professor, Udine University, Italy, and I were among referees of the Aiken et al. paper, and we published a comment in The Lancet alongside it. I am pleased to have played a small part in such a seminal paper, a document many of us hope will have a profound influence on European nursing education and practice. Watch for further correspondence in the pages of The Lancet. My Italian colleagues have already submitted a letter and some “heavyweights” in Canadian, U.K., and Australian nursing are “limbering up.” (They emailed me the morning before I left Genoa.)

It has also been a good week for nursing in Italy. I’m a bit late with this news, but the first six nursing academics have just been given licences for employment as full professors. (I was able to confirm the numbers just this week.) Until now, nursing academics have been promoted only to the level of associate professor. It especially pleases me that Alvisa Palese, my good friend, colleague, and—ironically—research student, is one of the six.

The Italian process for appointing senior academics is national and very rigorous. A committee—the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN)—makes annual judgments on the basis of individual applications. Although I am one of an international panel of assessors for the ASN, I was not involved in this last round. The primary “unit of currency” for promotion is publications, and these must be in refereed journals with an international reputation. Those with impact factors are at the top of the hierarchy.

There is worrying news that the ASN is going to make future recommendations on the basis of an individual’s h-index, and there is a rumour that an h-index of 23 will be the requirement. I have been consulted by Italian nursing academics and organisations about this, because the h-index is something about which I have written. My view on the use of h-indices per se is that caution should be exercised. Moreover, I think an h-index requirement of 23 is ludicrous. Few academics attain that level, and it is especially the case that few nurses have attained it, or will. I’m glad to say I have, but only after a 16-year professorial career.

Next ports of call

Next week, I will be in Belfast to sit on the validation panel of a nursing programme at the University of Ulster, and I have dinner booked with Hugh McKenna, CBE, PhD, FRCN, FAAN, pro vice-chancellor, University of Ulster, UK. Later this month, I go to Basel for a long weekend to discuss issues that face nursing globally with Hester Klopper, PhD, MBA, RN, RM, FANSA, president of the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International, and a select group of colleagues. We’ll be meeting under the umbrella of GAPFON (Global Advisory Panel on the Future of Nursing).

I put more than 20 Genovese miles on my Garmin GPS watch, and I plan to add Northern Ireland and Switzerland for the first time this year. My 19-year-old son just broke 20 minutes for the first time in our local 5-kilometre parkrun race. Pressure to perform in my family is terrific, but what I like most is that none of my children—most of whom are runners and climbers—expect me to do any worse than they do. For your information, my fastest 5 kilometres is 21 minutes 38 seconds, and that was last year when I was a young man of 57. I am now 58 and have not broken 22 minutes this year, but I’m working on it.

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.