The Health Research Group is an open session for all students and staff at the University of Essex interested in new research about health.

Professor Fiona Nolan, the Florence Nightingale Foundation Chair, will be speaking about a programme of work to investigate Protected Engagement Time - a set aside time for interaction between staff and patients - in acute and older adult mental health inpatient wards, and whether it makes any difference.

Protected Engagement Time (PET) has aimed to place high quality interpersonal relationships between staff and patients at the centre of mental health inpatient ward practice by re-organising ward routines so that, during fixed periods, staff focus solely on patient contact and interaction.

This approach gained momentum since the 1990s and was increasingly used with positive anecdotal feedback. However, to date, there is a very limited body of evidence to support its effectiveness or how it should be implemented in order to achieve the best results.

The findings from two linked studies will be presented here. Both studies were funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit funding stream.

The Health Research Group which originated within ISER runs a ‘cross departmental seminar’ every other month.

The seminar is open to anyone in the University with an interest in Health Research.

Currently we have attendees from Economics, Sociology, Philosophy, Health and Human Sciences, Psychology, Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Philosophy and Art History, Language and Linguistics, REO and Professional Services

The seminar and group serves as a forum for knowledge exchange, to communicate health research interests across the University without commitment to any additional activities.

Our hope is that by bringing together lots of people across the University that do health research, the community will have a better understanding of what everyone is working on to increase cross departmental research and collaboration.