While waiting for a decision on my application for an NIHR Fellowship - Blog 2

 



This is a follow-up to the last blog describing my application process for the NIHR fellowship.

As I await the outcome of my application, I am reminded of the intense activity that led to this point.

My application was submitted in July, and I am eagerly anticipating the news of whether I have been shortlisted for an interview in November. A decision is expected by December. This is all in preparation for the potential start of the fellowship in May 2025.

I am keen to do something productive during this time, partly because the topic interests me, and I see the need. However, I am limited in what I can do before I get funding. I do not want to waste this time, though. I want to be proactive and use this time to prepare myself—with the knowledge that if I am not successful, at least I have developed elements that can be used elsewhere.

I realise there will also be several planning and communication elements I can start before May 2025. If I get an interview, I will do more of this and contact my supervisors and contacts.

This preparation and development time, I have split into different categories.

Academic/Research

I am continuing to peer review articles for publication, and I am in the process of undertaking a systematic review in an operating theatre context with a couple of colleagues—this is good preparation and learning about determining the risk of bias.
I have joined a journal club and am actively trying to increase my reading of books, especially those related to psychology. 

Organisational/Motivation

I think I’m relatively organised—I like to make lists to plan and manage tasks and use whiteboards. However, I know I will be accessing a lot of information, and I have needed to think about how to store/ record and access this. This includes articles as well as reference material, etc. I wanted to see what applications help me and how to use technology further.

Bibliography 

Previously, I had never used bibliographic software and made do with building lists in Word and folders in Dropbox. I am now using Zotero to organise my bibliography into folders and with a plug-in in Word to insert appropriate styled references. I’m exploring the best way to add notes to files and whether I do this in Zotero or Notion (see below)

Rayyan

To support the systematic review, I have looked at the various software apps available to support these. I am considering using Rayyan to import my bibliography/search results to allow several of us to work through selecting articles.

Notion

I am starting to explore how to use Notion to store/categorise information in databases and follow a process to manage all this information by setting up Notion as a Second Brian. I have been working through various YouTube videos from Thomas Frank and Tiago Forte and just got a copy of his book, Building a Second Brain. This work is very developmental and experimental, but the hope is that it will support data capture, storage, accessibility, motivation, and planning.

Clinical

I have booked a trauma course and am undertaking some extra e-learning and courses relevant to the clinical placements.

Mind and body

Finally, I am increasing my exercise; this time gives me time to think or walk while listening to a podcast. I always feel more productive after doing something active.
Whilst undertaking the proposal, hobbies have also been put on the back burner, so I’m also using this time to re-immerse myself in astrophotography (when the clouds allow) 

                                  NGC 6888 -The Crescent Nebula from my garden in Salford

Comments

  1. Sumeet Chopra21 October 2025 at 07:54

    Thanks for sharing this information! The points you made are very thoughtful and offer a lot of value. I appreciate the effort you put into explaining everything so clearly. Excited to explore more posts on your blog

    Mysore Ooty Coorg Tour Package
    Mysore Ooty Kodaikanal Tour Package
    Ooty Kodaikanal Tour Package
    Mysore Ooty Package Tour
    Bangalore Mysore Ooty Tour Package

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applying for an NIHR Doctoral Fellowship as an ODP - Blog 1

Image
    Introduction Recently, I applied for an NIHR Doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (DCAF). This blog looks at what that is, the process, and what I learnt. The hope is that it may highlight this route for those considering research careers and support those undertaking the application. I have, for a while, undertaken elements of research, published articles and book chapters – but other than supporting dissertations for my master's qualifications, this has been quite ad-hoc and informal. I had several times started to look at how I could pursue further study at PhD level to increase my knowledge and application of research but ended up going around in circles – especially as I was ideally after a way that would also cover my wage and hence pay my mortgage, etc. At work, I found myself increasingly drawn to patient safety activity, and I kept stumbling upon situations that sparked my curiosity and hinted at potential research opportunities. The th...
Read more

Patient Safety, Simulation and Human Factors …Part II …the applications of simulation

Image
Out of all my blogs the one that seems to have stimulated most interest was the one I wrote on how simulation should be seen as part of patient safety activity ( click here for that blog )  rather than the typical thought that it is just a form of training and often just resuscitation training at that. Spurred on following some Twitter (@NWSEN) and face to face interactions I wanted to write a blog which built on this work and in particularly looking at the art of the possible and how simulation can, and in fact is, being used to support some of the emerging patient safety concepts.  Remember we are describing simulation as a spectrum of activity ( blog on this is here ) with a variety of underpinning educational theories aligned to the learning outcomes, these learning outcomes can be ones for the individual, team or organisation. Additionally simulation should be a quality assured education event that can be delivered in a variety of ways including with real peo...
Read more

In-situ simulation: The Holy Grail or just another distraction?

Image
Over the last fifteen years there has been a shift from only delivering simulation sessions in a designated simulation area to more simulation being delivered in clinical areas in so called in-situ simulations. Clearly in-situ simulation offers the ability to increase simulation capacity and become more inclusive, but sometimes it is claimed to be the optimal place to deliver simulation - it may offer lots of benefits but it isn’t without some degree of risk. Benefits - the ability to simulate in the participants clinical area, with their clinical equipment and their team has clear benefits and we know that all to often staff sent for simulation in a dedicated area, will be cherry picked and will not be representative of the skill mix in the real environment. Also, as it is the real working area, it also enables detection of those ergonomic issues (or latent issues) i.e. when people coming from different areas can’t find the location, equipment isn’t available etc. Worklo...
Read more