I've been in a similar position in that a post came up in my department and I went for it even though I knew I didn't have much of a chance (didn't get it but that's a different story). But I think my reasoning is, it can't do any harm to make some more enquiries about it - at the least it shows you're keen and signals that you want to contribute more to the department. Could it be that your sup isn't involved in the post, and maybe doesn't know much about it? It might be that he just hasn't paid it much attention and therefore didn't think to mention it to you. But anyway, yes just email him!!

Thanks both - good advice. I've said to the student I'll meet her for a coffee and chat so that's fine. And I will contact him but speak with my supervisor first to see what he knows about it. I think because I haven't been in the dept much over the last few months due to fieldwork, I'm feeling out of it in general, and possibly this made me feel that my work is a bit invisible, and not really accounted for. Also maybe feeling a teeny bit jealous that he seems to be offering his students quite a lot of support whereas my supervisors are very hands-off. But I'll get over it and be proactive! Hopefully he'll be happy for me to be involved - it would be nice to be part of something bigger.

Hello! I'm writing for a bit of advice about something. Recently I got an email from a new PhD student in our department who is doing pretty much the same topic as me. We've got a new high-flying academic in our department who is an expert in the general area I'm doing my research in. This student is one of his new supervisees. I have met him before and he knows about my work as he attended a presentation I gave (he even said he couldn't comment much because he didn't know enough about the topic!). I guess my first question is: does anyone think it's unusual for a new student to be looking at the exact same topic as me, in the same dept? The second thing is, I looked at his profile and noticed that he is planning to start a research group in my area, based around the work of his PhD students, which he will be disseminating. I felt a bit put out if I'm honest that my supervisors hadn't told me about this, and I haven't been asked to be involved in any way, given that before I was the only PhD student in the department doing work in this area. I'm not sure if I'm just being a bit sensitive about the whole thing. So my second question is, should I contact this academic and ask if I can be involved in the new research group in some way, or would this seem a bit forward? Any advice gratefully received!

I use software called f4 which is free to download and good (http://www.audiotranskription.de/english/f4.htm). I also bought a cheap pedal for about £15 which definitely helps. However, with that amount of interviews I would get some transcribed professionally if you can - I'm getting most of mine done this way and I don't have half the interviews you do! I've been using this company - www.transcript-services.co.uk - she is good and I think pretty cheap too.

Hi Puddleduck! I do quite a lot of teaching so can empathise! Would agree with bewildered - its about instilling a culture where preparation is expected - this can take a bit of time tho - what I did was to spend some time at the start of the seminar, randomly picking people and asking them to say something about what they had read that week - after a while social pressure usually means people start to come prepared. Also agree lots of short actvities - maybe ask them to prepare and do quick fire presentations on different aspects of the topic or on different questions, give lots of flipcharts etc and encourage to be creative...Or get them to prepare for two sides of a debate on a question to do with the topic...Or the use of a case study as a discussion focus can work - again depends on your area...It might sound a bit group worky (I teach social policy and social work) but I also found doing a ground rules exercise in the first seminar can help - if the group comes up with their own rules its easier for them to stick to them, so e.g. being prepared and willing to contribute. I found sometimes I had to accept as well that some groups had a better dynamic than others and that at the end of the day the seminar is a forum where it is up to them to make the most of it - found this made me feel a bit less stressed and anxious. Good luck with it!

I looked into this for exactly the same reasons a few months ago, though I'm not exactly in the same boat as you, as I'm on a teaching studentship funded by my university. However, in doing some research I found that the ESRC gave 6 months maternity pay at stipend level as an extension to the award - and did a quick check for you - http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/pgr/scholarships/bbsrc - under the maternity/paternity/adoption leave section near the bottom - if your baby is due during your award period you would be entitled to this.

Caterpillar - how was the meeting with the Social Care REC? That was the REC I was going to apply to. PhDViva - re protocol - a friend of mine showed me her protocol for the REC and it was about 9 pages (3500 words). She said not to put in something too lengthy as it would annoy them having to wade through big documents.

Don't know if this will help but I've always thought about epistemology as being our preference as researchers for how we know the world. e.g. positivist - reality is something that is out there and can be objectively pinned down or constructivism - reality is something that is constructed and is contigent on our subjective experiences, perceptions, cultures etc.

Basically - it's a study on how community mental health services have implemented certain controversial aspects of the 2007 Mental Health Act. I come from a social policy/work background and am particularly interested in seeing how national policy is being translated into practice on the ground in teams - so I'll be taking an ethnographic approach...I think because I'm not from a health/medical background its taken me a while to get to grips with how things work in the NHS! Although am getting there slowly...I might be coming up your way as I'm targeting trusts in the north for access

Mine is in a sensitive area too (mental health) - I'd be really interested to hear how you get on! Good luck with it :-) (and the thread sounds like a good idea too)

Hi Just wanted to say it's such a relief to hear people who are doing NHS REC stuff and finding it tedious too! I'm putting together my docs for REC at the moment and finding it so hard to pinpoint exactly what they want! I'm doing Qual too, hopefully starting in early Spring if access/REC/R&D stuff goes to plan...Noctu it sounds like you're doing pretty well considering you're already putting in your REC application - I wouldn't worry about having a bit of down-time - every single person I've spoken to about IRAS has said how relieved they were to get it behind them - reckon you deserve it!

Hi both -thanks so much for your replies! KB - you're right - it is a bit overwhelming at the moment but I'm trying to figure it all out slowly and carefully! I did go on a NHS training day for the REC process a couple of weeks ago, which was really useful, and am hopefully going to attend a local REC meeting to see what its like. I've contacted the Research Governance Manager of my local Trust and he's given me some useful advice too, and said he would look for potential contacts for me. I will be doing research with both staff and patients, and have been looking at the passport process too. I think my main issue is one that you discuss KB - contacts! I guess I've been a bit silly really in choosing a topic in an area which I haven't worked before, but it was more of an intellectual interest than coming from practice experience. Unfortunately neither of my supervisors know much about the NHS or have contacts in my subject area either. I have tried contacting a Professor in our Health Sciences Dept who researchers regularly in the NHS but got no joy there. I think you're right KB, I could really do with talking to someone at uni who knows the ins and outs of it so I'll have to keep trying. Thanks again!

Hi all

This is a pretty specific thread, but hoping someone can help :-). Basically, I am planning on doing my fieldwork in Community Mental Health Teams. I want to research the implementation of a particular policy and will be taking an ethnographic approach. I'm hoping to start my research early next year. The issue I have is that I have no previous practice expereince of working in mental health and consequently have very little in the way of contacts. One of my supervisors used to work in mental health, but in a forensic team and not in my geographical area. I've slowly been working out the complex vagaries of the NHS ethics system and how to get R&D approval, but am still trying to figure out who to contact and how to contact them in regards to gaining access to specific fieldwork sites. So...the question I have is, does anyone have any experience of doing research in the NHS (particularly in mental health) and how did you go about gaining permission for access?

Thanks!
SocPol

I found Doing Qualitative Research by David Silverman pretty helpful, as is Social Research Methods by Alan Bryman, if you want a quite basic but solid all-rounder

Think Larry David has it - I guess its saying that when you read an interview and try and understand what someone means, you also apply your own understanding of what they are talking about...so when analysing interviews, you need to recognise that the process is naturally an interplay between your understanding and the understanding of the interviewee - hope this makes sense! And yes I think it's pretty badly worded too so don't worry about it :-)