At last, back in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Turkey—It has been four years since I last visited Istanbul, and this is my third visit. Istanbul is one of my favourite places and lives up to every expectation of noise, chaos, culture, and scenery. Islamic fundamentalism is rising here. Since my last visit, the calls to prayer seem louder, and the number of women wearing headscarves and veils has noticeably increased. The recent military coup failed, largely because the army seemed to misjudge what the people wanted.

The international terminal at Istanbul Atatürk Airport recently underwent some structural alterations thanks to a car bomb, yet Istanbul remains a paragon of religious tolerance with mosques, churches, and synagogues in close proximity to one another. The scenery across the Bosphorus, especially where Europe and Asia almost touch, is wonderful. Of course, this is where modern nursing began. Several years ago, I had the privilege of a hastily arranged private visit to The Florence Nightingale Museum, which includes her rooms at the Turkish First Army Base. It normally takes a year to make an appointment, but I had “contacts.”

Conference

Yours Truly with Neriman Akansel,
associate professor, Ululağ University,
Bursa, Turkey.

I am here to address the 2nd National Management in Nursing conference at Istanbul University. I eschewed a personal translator for the three-day conference—personal translation is very hard work for both the translator and the listener—and spent some time catching up with old friends also attending the conference. My keynote address, “Through the eyes of the editor,” was on the theme of nursing research (click here for podcast).

Yours Truly with, l-r, Xin Wang, Guangzhou Medical University,
Guangzhou, Guangdong Province; Li Qi, Qiqihar Medical
University, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province; Dean Julie Jomeen;
and Yu Chen, Southern Medical University, also in Guangzhou.

That time of year

In blogs passim, I have alluded to the fact that, as we approach the holidays this time of year, I always hope to wind down without being “wound up.” Once again, this did not happen. I was prepared to let pass UK government policies in relation to associate nurses. Others had said plenty But the recent declaration about apprentice-style training for nurses hit the right button, and a lucky meeting with one of the editors of The Conversation persuaded me to contact the health editor and suggest a piece. Within two days, it was published. I am heavily critical of the proposals of our Secretary of State for Health, the RHon. Jeremy Hunt, MP. Fortunately, this was not out when my colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, met Hunt recently in China.

Social life in Istanbul

The lucky, but long-suffering Mrs. Watson accompanied me on this visit. I managed to bribe her to join me by employing a guide to show her the wonderful sights of Istanbul, and she has now seen more of the city than I have. It’s our wedding anniversary while we are here, and I have booked my favourite restaurant in Istanbul: The Armada Terrace Restaurant. The food and the wine are top class and the view over the Bosphorus one of the best in the city. The view takes in two magnificent mosques which, in the evening, are illuminated beautifully. Only after we arrived in Istanbul did I learn from our invitation that the conference dinner is also in the Armada. I hope Mrs. Watson likes it as much as I do.

Back in Hull, it has been time to say goodbye to one Chinese visitor and welcome some new ones, as captured in the picture that accompanies this entry. This is the last entry of 2016, and I do not travel again until February. I hope you have enjoyed reading “Hanging Smart” as much as I have enjoyed writing it this past year. I would like to thank Jim Mattson, editor of Reflections on Nursing Leadership, and the team at STTI who support and administer the blog. Happy holidays to all our readers. See you in 2017!

P.S. After I submitted the above entry, my wife and I woke up on Sunday morning to the news of the Saturday, 10 December bombing in Istanbul. We were well away from the event, but I want to express my sympathy to the people of Istanbul who lost family and friends and to anyone injured in this atrocity. We are safe, and Istanbul carries on as normal, which is the best reaction to terrorism.

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.

To Spain and back, and back to Spain

MADRID, Spain—I reported on my recent visit to Egypt in the last entry, but I didn’t mention my “souvenir,” which became apparent only after my return. Microbiologically, it remains unidentified, but I think I can narrow it down to either Salmonella or E. Coli. Either way, the result was indescribable illness during which time I had to give a major public lecture and travel to Spain. I was debilitated for only 24 hours, but these bugs completely alter your gut fauna such that nothing works properly for days—10 days, to be precise.

Pamplona

Yours Truly with nursing students at Universidad
de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain in 1991.

I gave the Elsie Stephenson Memorial lecture at The University of Edinburgh (click here for podcast) with great trepidation but without incident. I then travelled to Pamplona in the north of Spain to spend a week as a visiting professor at Universidad de Navarra in the Faculty of Nursing, where I gave lectures and met with staff to discuss research projects and publications. I have a great many friends in Pamplona, as described in a previous entry, and the local food is very good. I have been coming here for 25 years, and someone found this picture from my first visit. I had more on top and less round the middle in those days.

I had to decline most invitations to eat until my intestines were finally brought under control by a combination of semistarvation and isotonic drinks. The visit to Spain reminded me how great international travel is—when it works! On the way to Madrid, I had a four-hour delay at London Heathrow and an unexpected and unwanted night in an airport hotel. On return, the flights worked, but my train to Hull from London was delayed by two hours.

Madrid

Yours Truly, 2016.

After two weeks at home, I returned to Spain but, this time, to the outskirts of Madrid to spend two days at the Universidad Europea de Madrid, one of three in Spain. I visited another campus of the same university in 2015, reported in a previous entry. These universities, part of the Laureate International Universities, are run as private universities and commercial companies, a very different model from the one I am used to in the UK where there is only one private university—the University of Buckingham.

My visit was organised around one lecture to staff and students titled “From research results to publication.” It was well attended, but what pleased me most was the intense and thoughtful questions from staff members and students about trends in scientific publication. I also had a long meeting with staff members to discuss publication strategies and to go into more depth on some aspects of the lecture.

The visit was hosted by Ana María Giménez Maroto, PhD, RN, head of nursing, whom I was delighted to meet. I was also very pleased to meet an old friend, Juanjo José Beunza Nuin, DE, MMed, Msc, a former cardiovascular physician who worked in Pamplona but who now divides his time between the Universidad Europea where he runs interprofessional learning and his consultancy company. Many years ago, we climbed together on some of Navarra, Spain’s enormous limestone crags.

This visit introduced me to a wonderful designer hotel, the Petit Palace Art Gallery near Plaza de Colón in the heart of Madrid. I was very amused to find one of those elevators you see in movies. You know, the ones that run up the centre of a spiral staircase with two sets of doors that you operate yourself and—in movies at least—always seem to be associated with suspense and drama. I have no idea what they are called, but I made a video that I uploaded to YouTube. Some people might say I need to get out more often.

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 published.

This could be Rotterdam ...

GENOA, Italy—The well-known British pop band The Beautiful South played a song titled “Rotterdam,” the chorus of which observes, “This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome …” It felt like that for me these past two weeks because, following Slovenia, I have been in Rotterdam and Genoa. Telling you this also allows me to note that, while many readers of “Hanging smart” will know the song, they may not know that The Beautiful South comes from my home town of Hull and evolved from an equally famous band The Housemartins. So, after that trip down musical memory lane …

Rotterdam

I was in Rotterdam last week for the 5th European Nursing Congress. The theme of these meetings is always care of older people, and the congress, held over four days, provided a series of keynotes and parallel sessions on research and practice related to gerontological nursing. The opening ceremony was attended by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. One of the keynote speakers was my good friend and colleague Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, of National Yang Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan. Lin has pioneered the use of the Montessori method and spaced retrieval to help older people with dementia eat. I had the privilege of co-authoring an article reporting the first randomised controlled trial using these methods. Lin also spent six months with me at the University of Sheffield as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor, and her invitation for me to visit her in Taiwan in 2004 led to an unbroken stream of annual visits to Taiwan.

My own contribution to the Rotterdam proceedings was a workshop titled “Four easy steps to publishing your manuscript,” which was well attended. The Journal of Advanced Nursing provided a special issue for the conference abstracts, and it was good to see each of the 1,000 delegates holding a copy of the journal. Six years ago, at the previous congress, the abstracts were published in a special issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing, which I then edited.

Genoa

After one day at home to remind the family of my existence, I went to Genoa, Italy for a week of activities as a visiting professor (docenti) at the University of Genoa. In Rotterdam, I had met Julita Sansoni, PhD, RN, associate professor at Sapienza University of Rome, and illustrating the cliché “It’s a small world,” she was here in Genoa this week, and we had dinner together.

Loredana Sasso

Excitement is growing in the nursing department here because, next week, Loredana Sasso, MSN, MedSc, RN, will be inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in Washington, D.C. Sasso is the first Italian nurse to be inducted, and I am very proud to be her co-sponsor, along with my colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, (also a docenti in Genoa). I will be there with Mrs. Watson and a delegation of 14 Italians cheering on this great pioneer of Italian nursing. Pictures and news from the academy meeting will feature in my next entry.

Cheers! In Genoa with (l-r) Milko Zanini, Giuseppe Aleo,
and Mark Hayter.

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.

If it's Wednesday, I must be in Spain!

RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—I’ve been mostly confined to Europe recently, but that’s not a complaint. In fact, it has been pleasant to take short flights for a change, and those flights—and two rail journeys—have taken me to Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, Madrid, and Genoa. This has given me a respite from the medium to long hauls that started with Qatar and Saudi Arabia (reported here), followed in quick succession with trips to China, Hong Kong, and Australia, all with return flights to the UK.

Edinburgh

I take every chance I can to visit Edinburgh. My recent trip was to address a conference of doctoral students and staff members on using social media to promote research (click here for podcast). In doing so, I mentioned this blog. In fact, on my travels I meet a great many people who read “Hanging smart.”

The conference was held at Edinburgh Napier University, and I used the opportunity to meet my oldest school friend—of 55 years standing—for dinner. On the way to meet him, a colleague from Pamplona, Spain contacted me to ask what I knew of Nan Shepherd. My friend in Spain is interested in all things Celtic, and he knew I came from the same area of Scotland as Shepherd: Royal Deeside. That morning Shepherd, a writer of novels and poems, was featured in the news as only the second woman—the first being Florence Nightingale—to have her image on a UK bank note and the first woman featured on a Scottish bank note. (Scottish banks have always had their own bank notes.)

“Where’s this going?” I hear you ask. My host and old school friend is the “honorary” grandson of Nan Shepherd, his mother having been brought up by her, and his brother Erlend Clouston (former journalist and hotelier extraordinaire) is Nan Shepherd’s literary executor. Later, on this European journey, I had dinner with my Celtic colleague in Pamplona and was able to recount this extraordinary coincidence.

Belfast and Manchester

My visit to Belfast was to examine the thesis of a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast. I felt very sorry for the student as my flight was delayed two hours, and I doubted I would make it. I took the flight, conducted the examination with both eyes on my watch, and was back at Belfast City Airport approximately 90 minutes after arriving, only to suffer another delay of nearly one hour.

In the meantime, I was speaking on my phone at every opportunity to the Saudi Health Office in London about my visa for the next visit, and they were doubtful if they could get it to me within a week. The problem was, I needed my passport within the week for a visit to Spain. At the last minute, and at great inconvenience to my contact there, the visa was obtained. Sometimes, I wonder if the stress is worth it. The day after my return from Belfast, I was in Manchester to address the Saudi Association in the UK on “Writing your thesis: Chapter by chapter” and “The four rules of writing your thesis” (both available as podcasts).

Spain

About to address nursing alumni
at the University of Navarra.

I was pleased to complete, before leaving the UK again for a few days in Spain, one major piece of work for our associate dean for learning and teaching and also to make significant progress with a research grant proposal. I flew to Madrid to address alumni of the University of Navarra School of Nursing, Pamplona campus, on “'Keeping the science in nursing,” and then I was off by train to Pamplona in the north of Spain, made famous by Ernest Hemingway for its running of the bulls. Although I had been in Spain recently, many years had passed since visiting either Madrid or Pamplona.

With former doctoral students Christina Oroviocoicoechea,
Silvia Corchon, and Ana Carvajal at the University of Navarra.

Madrid and the University of Navarra, which was established by the Roman Catholic organisation Opus Dei, hold a special place in my academic career. It was there, in 1991 when I was at the University of Edinburgh, that we had an exchange programme for staff and my international career began. It was there that I first lectured through translators, occupied a desk in a university outside the UK, spent prolonged periods (other than military service) away from my family, and began to see the potential of international work.

I have had great success with four doctoral students from Pamplona who studied with me in the UK, three of whom are now good colleagues (one decreased, sadly), and I have established strong professional and family links. My oldest daughter Hannah came here with me when she was 8 years old. She made two other family-exchange visits and then returned in the final year of her nursing diploma to work in critical care for a month, which led to her securing a job in critical care in the UK. Hannah has remained in critical care and is on the verge of qualifying as an advanced nurse practitioner.

We also have additional family ties here in that another of my colleagues and his wife are godparents to my son Joseph. My visit to Pamplona was to address colleagues on writing and publishing in impact-factor English nursing journals (podcast), in addition to attending a doctoral student examination and holding other meetings with faculty members in the School of Nursing.

Italy

I returned to the University of Genova in Genoa on the Ligurian coast of Italy. One of the hazards here is that, whereas Spanish women greet you with two kisses, right cheek first, in Italy they greet you with two kisses, left cheek first. Get it wrong, and a nasty head butt or a clash of spectacles can easily take place. This visit was to make further progress on some research work, establish a new project, and continue working on publications with doctoral students. I also managed a 10-mile run on my final morning.

Middle East

Passing through the UK, I transferred from London Gatwick to London Heathrow at the weekend and proceeded to Doha in Qatar for lunch with Richard Gray, PhD, RN, of Hamad Medical Corporation before flying on to Riyadh to deliver on Monday two papers at the nursing stream of the Saudi Health 2016 Conference. Tomorrow, I meet with colleagues at King Saud University and then fly home via Doha.

Running

Between trips to Spain and Italy, I spent one day at home and took part in the Beverley 10k race. It was not my best effort and, for the UK, it was hot (20 Celcius, 68 Fahrenheit). I have had difficulty finding the time and the right places to do the sort of fast training you need for races. However, with my youngest son injured at the moment, at least I was the fastest Watson at 51:05. My ambition to beat 45 minutes will have to wait for another race.

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.

Italy, Qatar, and back to the UK

EN ROUTE TO MANCHESTER—After a 4 a.m. start, I’m having breakfast in the luxurious Al Mourjan Business Lounge in Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. I’m also reflecting on yet another month spent largely away from home as I watch my diary fill up with travel well beyond the middle of the year.

My flight to Doha was aboard the fabulous Boeing Dreamliner plane, and the picture shown below, which I took en route from Manchester, England to Doha, shows its unique wing shape against an extraordinarily blue sky. As I write this, I am about to return to Manchester from Doha, aboard Qatar Airways Flight QR46. 

Italy

Wing tip of the
Boeing Dreamliner

Earlier this month, I spent a week in Genoa, Italy at the University of Genoa, which I visit regularly. The weather in Italy was beginning to warm up, which was a change from a cold and dull UK. On this occasion, Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my Hull colleague, was there, making his second visit. Since we both edit the Journal of Advanced Nursing, we often share our experience of writing for publication with colleagues and students. It’s a good double act, as we complement each other methodologically across the quantitative-qualitative spectrum.

One of my tasks on this visit was to inaugurate a series of international lectures for final-year nursing students, and I was asked to talk about writing for publication. I am really not sure how relevant this is to all of them, but I emphasised the bad things we academics get up to by way of cheating with regard to publications: plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, falsification, creation of bogus webpages and publications, and subversion of the peer-review system. Frankly, they loved it.

Qatar

Spotted on Professor
Gray's noticeboard

My return to the UK today follows a few days of visiting the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Doha. This visit was built around several lectures, workshops, and tutorials on writing for publication, and I was there at the invitation of Richard Gray, PHD, RN. Gray is an editor of the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, also from the Wiley stable. 

Hamad Medical Corporation is, primarily, a private company that provides medical care on an impressive scale to the population of Qatar. It is not an educational or research institution but has a very active education department led by Annie Topping, PhD, RN, one of my long-time friends in nursing. I may have mentioned this in a previous entry, but I was a student nurse on the ward that Topping managed at St. James Hospital in London when I did my ward management assessment. We go back a long way.

In addition to the work, which starts at 7 a.m. in Qatar, I visited The Pearl, a housing complex mainly occupied by expatriates. The HMC owns two blocks there for its employees. Over a barbecue and speaking with friends, I gained more insight into expatriate lifestyle in Qatar, which, I imagine, is similar across the Middle East.

In a country that is nomadic in origin but now extremely urbanised, the expatriates are the nomads. Few spend a long time here, but most have spent a long time away from their native countries in expatriate communities. Similar communities can be found in Hong Kong and Singapore. Although expatriate life offers great rewards, it also requires great sacrifices, and I am not sure if it is a life I would have liked to lead. On the final day, I gave a lecture titled “Tips on successful publishing,” which you can listen to in this podcast.

Next month, the Middle East beckons again. I note that my 50-page passport has only one page left. and it is only four years old. My priority on returning to the UK is to obtain a new passport, or I will not be going anywhere.

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.

From Utrecht to Tainan and back home again

EN ROUTE TO LONDON—January has been one of the busiest months I remember for a long time. After visiting the Middle East, I was in the Netherlands, and now, after a week in Taiwan, am returning to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong aboard Cathay Pacific’s Flight CX253.

Utrecht

My time in the Netherlands was spent in Utrecht, where I gave a keynote address to the European Academy of Nursing Sciences (EANS) Winter Summit. I was originally invited last year when the conference was in Athens, but other travel obviated that. So I was really pleased to be able to accept this time, especially since Julie Taylor, PhD, RN, FEANS, chair of the summit’s Science Committee and professor of child protection at the University of Birmingham in the UK, is a long-time and very good friend.

My keynote (listen here) was on using social media to promote academic publications. I met many other old friends and colleagues in Utrecht and continue to be impressed by the quality of research carried out by some of the up-and-coming nursing academics in Europe. I am not a political Europhile, but I am very glad we have these trans-European organisations. David Richards, PhD, RN, FEANS, president of EANS and professor of mental health services research at the University of Exeter, UK, gave a very thoughtful and provocative summary of current events in Europe.

In discussing mass migration from the Middle East, he addressed the dilemma of responding with compassion to stateless people while having zero tolerance for the despicable attitudes some male migrants display toward women in the countries that have welcomed them. Moving to academic nursing journals, Richards claimed that a great deal of what is published in them is flawed, not the best introduction I could have had for my keynote address. Nevertheless, he and I have exchanged a great deal of good-natured banter across the years, and a little more never hurts.

The Republic of China

The election of a woman—Tsai Ing-wen—as president of Taiwan put this small island country on the international stage in the week prior to my arrival. I have to choose my words carefully here because describing Taiwan as a nation will upset my mainland Chinese colleagues, and anything suggesting Taiwan is less than independent will upset my Taiwanese Green Party colleagues.

This week, I was in the south of Taiwan in Tainan, the former capital and heartland of the Green Party, where everyone was delighted by the recent election result. I was a guest of the Asian Congress in Nursing Education held at National Cheng Kung University, Tainan. I was there to give a keynote address and was “on the bill” with the legendary Afaf Meleis, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, USA.

Yours Truly at ACiNE conference.

My keynote (listen here) was on use of nursing informatics in education, and I showed a picture of all eight of my children and pointed to my oldest daughter Hannah Watson, RN, BSc, who, on that very day, was celebrating 10 years as a registered nurse. In fact, on the day she passed her finals, I was also in Taiwan. A critical care specialist, she is just completing her advanced nurse practitioner programme at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

This was a very special visit to Taiwan as it was the first time my wife had accompanied me. I cannot list all the people in Tainan and Taipei who were so wonderful looking after her, but special mention must go to Tzu-Pei Yeh, RN, who recently completed her PhD under my direction. She attended to our every need. We ate large quantities of Chinese food, listened to karaoke, and copiously toasted everyone with wine at a formal banquet. At least Mrs. Watson got some insight into my sufferings!

Tzu-Pei Yeh (right), my former PhD student, clarifies
a point for an attendee of her seminar.

Two nights in Taipei, where the recent election result was not greeted with much enthusiasm, completed the visit. We met Nanly Hsu, PhD, RN, former dean of nursing at Tzu-Chi University in Hualien, on the Pacific coast of Taiwan and Lin-Lian Huang, PhD, RN, FAAN, former dean of nursing at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Former president of the Taiwan Nurses Association, Huang is a candidate to sit on the governing body of the International Council of Nurses (ICN).

Much to my embarrassment, Huang recalled that the UK, through the offices of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), is no longer a member of the ICN. I am a long-standing member and a fellow of the RCN, but I simply cannot agree with us losing our voice on the world stage. There is an All-Party Parliamentary Group in the UK currently working with the RCN to consider nursing’s contribution to global health. My individual response, submitted recently to the group, included the point that the RCN should rejoin the ICN.

A meeting with Li-Chan Lin, PhD, RN, of National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan—my longest-standing Taiwanese colleague—completed our visit. Lin was Leverhulme Visiting Professor when I was working at the University of Sheffield, UK. If I pioneered assessment of feeding difficulty in older people with dementia, it was Lin who took this work to another level by translating my scale into Chinese and using it in the first rigorous intervention trials using Montessori and spaced retrieval methods. She knows my wife and family very well, and we had our annual reunion in “our place,” le ble d'or.

Back in Hull

This coming week, I will be interviewed about nursing education by Jane Dreaper of the BBC; do some “firefighting” over issues that have arisen and for which I am—pro tem—responsible; and conduct an intimate but necessary medical investigative procedure—you don’t want to know the details—before returning to the University of Genoa in Italy for a week. Otherwise, the racing season for us runners has started here, and I need to decide which races to aim for. My ambition remains completing a 10-kilometre race in under 45 minutes.

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.

Back in the sultanate

MUSCAT, Sultanate of Oman—My Christmas holiday was cut short slightly by the need to be in Oman on 2 January. This is my second visit to the sultanate, and I remain impressed by the religious tolerance and relative freedom I observe here, compared with some other parts of the Middle East I have visited. Also, compared with last time, the January weather has been very pleasant, making it possible to walk and even run in the evenings. My last visit here was at the height of their summer when any outside activity is almost unbearable. Virtually all Omanis are Muslim, and minarets and mosques are much in evidence. The call to prayer goes out regularly.

Minaret at Mutrah souk
(market) near Muscat.

Examining at Sultan Qaboos University

I have been here as an external examiner at the Sultan Qaboos University College of Nursing, located at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. The college is a cultural melting pot of nationalities with the staff composed of local Omanis, Jordanians, Filipinos, Ugandans, Indians, and at least one Pakistani. Normally, when I work as an external examiner, the job entails reviewing the processes used to examine students, looking at examination content, and assessing how well standards are being met.

All of that is part of my role here, but external examiners are also expected to participate in conducting final examinations of the students. Two days are spent in the hospital listening to students presenting clinical cases and observing them performing a clinical procedure. One day is spent taking part in the oral examinations. It’s very stressful for the students, exhausting for the examiners, and bears no resemblance to what I am used to back home. I am uncomfortable in the clinical areas, as I feel my presence is an intrusion into patient privacy. However, the role of external examiners is explained and, together with previous examiners, I have been able to persuade the college to minimize the time we spend at bedsides.

Aerial walkway at the university.

When I am overseas and invited to visit clinical areas, I invariably refuse, unless I have some specific function there that is related to teaching or research. Nevertheless, my time here in the hospital, as in my previous visit, was informative. Sickle cell disease is very common in Oman. The problem, as with many Arabic and Muslim populations, is consanguineous marriage. Health education advice and genetic counseling is provided in an effort to eradicate the disease, but preference for cousin marriage—a very strong cultural drive to keep things “in the family”—is hard to stop. Recessive carriers are so common that marrying outside of the family is no guarantee of not having children with sickle cell disease.

A resolution and an anniversary

My new year’s resolution, not the first time I have made this one, is to read more, and I made a good start over Christmas with The Alzheimer Conundrum by Margaret Lock. Lock is a social scientist who, equipped with a thorough knowledge of the literature, investigates theories about Alzheimer’s disease by interviewing some of the key researchers. Essentially, causes of Alzheimer’s disease—as opposed to correlates—remain controversial.

The Journal of Advanced Nursing celebrates 40 years this year—our “JANiversary”—and we will run a series of editorials throughout the year reflecting on the first issue and key papers from the first volume. These will be available to download free from our website for a few weeks. You may wish to read my January editorial which reflects on 40 years of JAN.

After leaving Oman, I return to the UK for 10 days, after which I travel to the Netherlands and then almost directly to Taiwan. My trip to the Far East will be a special one because, for the first time in many years, my wife will accompany me. Because it will be her first visit to Taiwan, it is causing great excitement among my colleagues there, as only a few have met her. On this occasion, I may not be the VIP.

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.

St. Martin's summer in Genoa

GENOA, Italy—Following my return from Australia, October was spent mainly in the UK. Early November finds me back in Genoa, Italy for my final visit of 2015. My visits for next year are planned already. The weather is exceptionally good, and I’m assured this is St. Martin’s summer—a warm spell in early November during the feast of St. Martin before the weather turns cold. I made the best of it with several early-morning runs along the coast.

Mary Seacole Leadership Awards

Soon after returning from Australia, I was in London for the  Royal College of Nursing Mary Seacole Leadership Awards. The event was held at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in London’s Regent’s Park, and it was a bit like revisiting the scene of an accident. The 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise Nursing and Midwifery subpanel meetings oscillated between the Royal College of Surgeons and the RCOG, both in Regent’s Park, and while I enjoyed my time on that panel, the work was hard and prolonged.

Parveen Ali describes her project
at the Mary Seacole Leadership
Awards ceremony in London.

I was invited to the awards ceremony by my very good friend and colleague Parveen Ali, PhD, RN, senior lecturer, University of Sheffield, one of the recipients in 2014. In addition to receiving her award at this event, she also presented her excellent project on the use of multilingual nursing staff as translators in UK hospitals. Her interest in the subject arose when she was working for a telephone triage service—since discontinued—called NHS Direct. A native of Pakistan, she is a fluent Urdu speaker, but when an Urdu speaker called, she was required to transfer them to a translator. Listening to the translators, who were not nurses, she often heard them misunderstand callers. These services cost a great deal, and she wondered why the National Health Service did not utilize the services of bilingual nurses, both for telephone services and in clinical practice. For her project, she reviewed the policies of many NHS Trusts and found much the same policy—with some anomalies—across England. Her study raises some very interesting points.

Genoa

Links between my own University of Hull and the University of Genoa are strengthening. Our previous dean made a visit with me last year, and colleagues from Hull are working, albeit at a distance, with Genovese colleagues on translation and validation of a questionnaire designed to help in health promotion related to melanoma. Mark Hayter, PhD, FAAN, my colleague of many sojourns to the Far East and a Journal of Advanced Nursing editor, visited two weeks before me and, like me, has a programme of visits planned for 2016 and has also established collaborative projects.

My week here has been spent working with colleagues on a range of research and writing projects and teaching research students about writing for publication. The next visit, which will bring Hayter and me here at the same time, is in February 2016.

Pain

My running continues, but climbing of all sorts and gym work have ceased, because of a deltoid muscle-rotator cuff injury. I can’t pour water out of a kettle, shake hands, use a mouse and keyboard, turn over in bed, or scratch my head without extreme pain. Although I am having physiotherapy and taking some very powerful antiinflammatory medication, I’m still in pain.

Next week, I will be Aberdeen, on the north coast of Scotland, the city of my birth, to take part in a review of the nursing and midwifery education provision at Robert Gordon University. I’m hoping that will be the final flight of 2016, but it looks like I may need to go to Saudi Arabia in late November or early December. Next week, I also celebrate my 60th birthday with family and friends at home in Hull, and then I look forward to a long break at Christmas before traveling to Oman the first week of January.

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.

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.

Humidity and humility in New York

HULL, United Kingdom—Unusually, I’m at home in the UK. My holiday with Mrs. Watson (Debbie) in New York was one of the highlights of my life. Debbie, an experienced New York visitor, impressed me with her understanding of how the avenues describe latitude on Manhattan and the streets longitude, with Broadway doing its own thing at an obtuse angle. I loved everything we saw and did. I will spare you most of the details, but running in Central Park was a particular highlight that also provides the title for this entry.

On the way to New York, I said yes to everything that British Airways had to offer in first class, most of which came with champagne. Suffice to say I had no problem sleeping the first night. I woke at 6 a.m. and ran to Central Park, ran around it and then ran back to the hotel, a total of nine miles. I would not recommend this as a training regime, but it seemed to work.

Two days later, I tried to repeat this heroic feat—without the champagne—and had to stop after five miles. The humidity and temperature had spiked, and I discovered I was not Superman. It was a long walk back to the hotel followed by a long talk from Debbie, a much more experienced runner than me, about overdoing things. I’m glad to say I rallied for our last morning, got up at 5 a.m., walked to Central Park and completed the six-mile run without incident. I really felt like I was in a movie and expected to see Woody Allen or the cast from Home Alone at any point.

Our holiday started and finished in the Concorde Lounge at London Heathrow Airport, so it was fitting that we paid Concorde a visit in New York at the Intrepid Sea, Air &  Space Museum. Mrs. Watson in foreground.

Journal matters

I am glad to say that authors submitting to Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) and Nursing Open were not all on holiday, nor were my editors and associate editors. More than 50 manuscripts, at the various stages I engaged with them, awaited my attention, so I did not have to wonder what to do first. One of the proofs awaiting correction for JAN was an article by Snowden et al. (2015) on which I am second author. When I am the author of a JAN manuscript, I have no editorial involvement with the manuscript until it is accepted and at the proofing stage. This article reports on a study of the latent structure of emotional intelligence and the discovery of a novel dimension, evident using two entirely different analytical methods.

There was more good news for JAN. I listen to “Today,” the BBC flagship news programme, every morning from 6 a.m. (in bed for at least the first 30 minutes) and was startled at 6:45 a.m. (still in bed) by a mention of “the Journal of Advanced Nursing.” What followed was a report on an excellent article by Weldon et al. (2015) reporting on the effect that music played in operating theatres has on communication between members of the surgical team. The piece was also featured in the subsequent news bulletin. The study shows that music can be detrimental to communication. If you want to hear the coverage, I made it available with a short commentary in a podcast.

Also, I had to resume arbitrating between some authors who dispute ownership of a dataset from which an article was recently published in JAN. I find these disputes often take months to resolve, and I feel sorry for the doctoral student in the middle of this who hasn’t done anything wrong. Clearly, the dispute is at a higher level, but its resolution may well have an impact on the doctoral project.

Life goes on

Along with my wife and two of my sons, we spent a weekend in Scotland clearing my mother’s house. My mother recently moved to a nursing home in Hull and her house is for sale. There were plenty of laughs as we found things long forgotten in the house and reminisced. Some harsh decisions had to be taken about what was being removed and what was going to a local charity shop. However, the hardest thing for me was locking my father’s workshop and studio for the last time ever. The click of the padlock simply choked me and moved me to tears as I recalled the boats built, wood turned, watercolours painted and framed for sale.

My sons took a selection of items but we had to leave many of his beloved tools behind, some of which I recall watching him working with when I was a child; we have no room for them. We managed to find around 50 of his watercolours, and we have stored them. He died five years ago, and we all miss him tremendously. But life, as the cliché goes, goes on, and next week my daughter, who lives in Germany and who I rarely see, returns for two weeks for my son’s wedding. I have no travelling planned until September and look forward to this precious time with them and the rest of my children and grandchildren.

Reference
Snowden, A., Watson, R., Stenhouse, R., & Hale, C. (2015). Emotional intelligence and nurse recruitment: Rasch and confirmatory factor analysis of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire short form. Journal of Advanced Nursing. doi: 10.1111/jan.12746

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.