Thank you so much, Fm! Much appreciated. :)

Is anybody able to get Sandelowski et al?

Does anybody have access to these two papers? It would be a great help!

Jordan, G.R. & Murphy, P.A. (2009) Risk Assessment and Risk Distortion: Finding the Balance. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health 54(3):191-200


Sandelowski, M. et al. (1994) The Epistemology of Expectant Parenthood. Western Journal of Nursing Research 16(6):601-622


Thanks. :-)

My BSc and MSc are in an area totally unrelated to my PhD subject. But I've had a long gap between my MSc and PhD and have done some other (related) courses in between, as well as gaining a professional qualification and experience. It would probably be very unusual to go straight from undergrad & masters to a PhD in a different subject, but otherwise I would say it depends on what else you have done! Good luck. :)

I feel for all of you, especially those of you with younger children! Mine are both at school full-time now, which helps. But I still struggle to get enough time to work - there are always so many other things to do! My husband generally works from home one day a week so I get to spend a whole day at uni (which is too far away to just go in for a few hours). This helps because I can really get into it on those days without all the interruptions at home. I generally also get at least half a day on Saturday mornings when my husband takes the kids swimming - having said that, this morning we've got somebody sanding the kitchen worktops, which is not very conducive to working!

I can identify with those of you who say they find it difficult to concentrate even if your husband is 'looking after the children' when at home - that never really worked to well for me/us either. What worked better was if he either took the children out or if I went somewhere else to work.

It certainly can be tough! I would also advise against having a baby while doing a PhD - unless you know you have a good support system in place. Having said that, I'm actually thinking about having another one, but I feel I really can't wait any longer because I'm getting too old. :-( :$

Congratulations! Must be a great feeling. :-)

Another vote for HTC! I only have the Wildfire (Desire is better), but it's brilliant. Supports PDFs, Word documents etc, good for checking email and going online, and lots of very useful apps. Oh, and you can make phone calls. :)

Oops, sorry! :-):p Well done for finishing the methodology section! If you've got a spare couple of hours you could do mine. ;-)

Good morning. :-) Sounds like you're all making good progress! My first (very modest!) aim: spend one tomato on PhD work. :-)

Thanks for starting this thread, Sneaks! It's been very useful for me as I'm also using a mixed methods approach. :-)

As regards pragmatism & mixed methods, have you seen this paper?

Feilzer, M.Y. (2010) 'Doing Mixed Methods Research Pragmatically: Implications for the Rediscovery of Pragmatism as a Research Paradigm.' Journal of Mixed Methods Research 4(1):6-16

Thanks Star-Shaped and Batfink. :-) I did manage to do one tomato on the PhD, and little bit more later on. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's a first step and better than nothing. :-) And tomorrow is another day! :-)

I started a fully funded PhD more than 15 years after finishing my masters (in a totally unrelated area). I had worked in a related area though and taken some relevant OU courses. I came across the advert for the PhD studentship by accident and applied, even though I thought I didn't stand a chance. I think it all depends on your experience, what you have to offer and what potential supervisors are looking for. Have a look around at what's available and maybe a chat with potential supervisors. A course in research methods might be useful, or other relevant courses. Good luck! :)

Good morning! :-)

I've not joined in with thread for a loooong time. In fact, I haven't really done any proper PhD work for a long time. :-( I've had lots of problems with my back (spent a couple of months stuck in bed) and had to take some time out from the PhD. Officially I'm still not back until the beginning of May, but I'm feeling a lot better now and I've lost so much time in the last few months that I'd better get started again now!

I'm beginning to panic a bit, to be honest. :-( I'm almost half-way through the PhD and I've not started the actual research yet. The next step is getting the proposal etc ready for the ethics committee. I've done most of it, but now feel rather stuck. I'm finding it very difficult to get into it again.

So, my (very modest) goal for this morning is to spend one tomato (25 minutes) on the PhD.

Have a look at the masters courses the School of International Development and the University of East Anglia offers. I did my first degree there and thought it was fab (that was quite a while ago though, I'm ancient :$). They offer a wide range of masters courses: http://www.uea.ac.uk/dev/courses#pgtCourses. :-)

As far as I can see you can download it from this website: http://www.ciltuk.org.uk/download/DelivSupShopMore.pdf :-)

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Congratulations! :-) (gift)


(Where do we sent invoices for the beer?)