Interdisciplinary collaboration
With the support of the Vice-Chancellor's Fund, we bridge disciplines and unite researchers from various fields to confront and solve complex issues. These collaborative efforts not only advance academic knowledge but also provide significant benefits to the student body and the broader society.
Creative Wellbeing for Student Nurses Toolkit
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Creative expression
The Creative Wellbeing for Student Nurses Toolkit aimed to explore and represent the unique experiences, emotions, and challenges faced by Paramedic Sciences and Nursing students at the University of Stirling through creative expression via a toolkit.
Preliminary workshops were held to provide an opportunity to test ideas and activities to include in the Self-led Creative Wellbeing pack. The pack was successfully developed into a toolkit, which has been distributed to student nurses via Wellbeing Services at the University of Stirling as well as to student doctors, alumni, and staff across NHS Forth Valley sites as part of an initiative to encourage the use of creativity to promote wellbeing for healthcare professionals.
The Undergraduate Mile a Day
Inspired by the Daily Mile, a Scottish Government-backed initiative aimed at integrating physical activity into the school day, The Undergraduate Mile a Day (TUMAD) project utilised these experiences to promote health and understand physiological and psychological responses to exercise. It also addressed challenges and potential solutions to barriers in health behaviour change. TUMAD envisioned facilitating learning among the cohort about health, wellbeing, and behaviour change, with role modelling and social support being identified as other key strategies.
All BSc Nursing students benefited from this project, which aimed to roll out across the three years of the programme, ultimately benefiting 300 students annually. The institution mapped out several walks/runs around the Centre for Health Science for all students when on campus and suggested others across their NHS partner area.
Stirling Crucible for PhD students in the Faculty of Natural Sciences
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Developing essential skills
The Stirling Crucible project enabled PhD students from the Faculty of Natural Sciences to participate in the Natural Sciences PhD Crucible, a 2-day event aimed at broadening networks, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, cultivating creative thinking, and enhancing communication skills.
Through various labs and activities, students engaged in collaborative projects, learned to engage with non-academic stakeholders, and pitched project proposals for seed funding. The event provided a platform for students to develop essential skills and deepen their understanding of research's societal impact.
Based on the positive and constructive feedback from participants and facilitators, plans were made to roll out this programme university-wide to incorporate more disciplines, such as those from Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences. The next steps involved getting in touch with IAS to discuss how to further develop the PhD Crucible.