Dr Colin Morrison is a partner in TASC (Scotland) and the lead developer of the national RSHP resource. He has a longstanding interest in children’s human rights, health and wellbeing. He has worked as a teacher, youth worker, play worker and adult educator. His doctoral study explored relationships and sexual health education for children and young people with learning disabilities.
Mind the Gap
In April 2022, QNIS’ Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives programme supported by The National Lottery Community Fund and Cattanach, conducted its second online survey. This survey focused on preconception health, education and care.
It sought to understand what Scottish community nurses and midwives know and do about this often-overlooked area of primary healthcare. This incredible community of healthcare professionals once again took time from their busy schedules to share their knowledge and help us learn from their experience. The questionnaire was designed by QNIS Senior Fellow (Dr Jonathan Sher), HPBL Consultant (Michele Stranger Hunter) and Project Coordinator (Lisa Lyte).
The Survey Facts:
They Spoke, We Listened
In looking internationally for answers 12 years ago, I realised policies and practices in reproductive health and pregnancy are not universal. Instead, they are deeply embedded in cultural and societal norms. That is why a strategy and tool developed in the U.S. cannot simply be franchised and remain effective in Scotland.
My Education Encouraged Self-Discovery
Michelle Dalgarno was nominated by Glasgow Caledonian University for excellence in her Postgraduate community nursing studies. We were delighted to award her the QNIS academic prize and she has written a short blog about her experience. To be awarded this academic award from the QNIS on completion of my PgDip in advancing professional practice has…
Don’t presume women with chronic conditions don’t want babies
Dr Karin Hammarberg is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a Registered Nurse with 20 years’ experience as clinical co-ordinator of IVF programs. Karin’s main research interests are fertility and preconception health promotion; the psychosocial aspects of infertility and infertility treatment; the health and development of children born as a result of assisted conception; and women’s health.
Nothing About Us Without Us
Preconception education, counselling and care – prior to a first or subsequent pregnancy – are the missing links in supporting healthier women, healthier pregnancies and improved birth outcomes. In my first blog for this series, I talked about increased access to affordable, effective contraception and how this was not the ‘magic bullet’ I thought it…
The Best Answers Come From Asking the Right Questions
I came of age just as birth control made it possible to be sexually active without becoming pregnant. Quite by serendipity, this was when I was hired to coordinate an alternative education program for pregnant teens. Six years, and six hundred pregnant teens later, my feelings, experiences and values coalesced into a lifelong commitment to…
Spotlighting a Blind Spot
In March 2022, the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland conducted an online survey about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). This was a Year 1 activity of Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives (HPBL) – a QNIS programme supported by Cattanach and The National Lottery Community Fund. All community nurses and midwives anywhere in Scotland were eligible to participate…
What Invisibility Looks Like
In March 2022, the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland conducted an online survey about Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). This was a Year 1 activity of Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives (HPBL) – a QNIS programme supported by Cattanach and The National Lottery Community Fund. All community nurses and midwives anywhere in Scotland were eligible to participate…
Earth Day 2022: Appreciating nature is an investment in our planet
Back in 2018, I came up with the idea to transform the Action for Children garden in Stornoway as part of my Queen’s Nurse project. The revamped garden was officially opened by NHS Western Isles Chief Executive Gordon Jamieson in August 2019 and has since flourished delighting staff and service users alike. The Queen’s Nurse…
