Healthcare student Geri Gee has recently published an article about her research in our student research journal Fields. We caught up with her for a chat about her work and her experiences getting published.

  How would you explain your research to someone new to the subject?

My research was designed to address the needs of healthcare students undergoing an academic degree, in order to practice in their relevant field, such as; nursing/ midwifery. It was evident from a literature review that there was little to no research supporting and identifying the impact of shift work on healthcare students. The literature review highlighted significant implications to shift work, therefore the team I worked with felt it necessary to explore how these implications could affect a healthcare professional so prematurely in their career and how these implications would impact on the future health of individuals and that of the national health service and its retention of healthcare professionals.

Having my work chosen to be published was very exciting. The step by step process required a fair amount of my personal time, in between applying for and commencing new employment. It was an educational process that was supported by the Press, who were very instructive and succinct in their advice. It was a both challenging and rewarding process.

Publishing my article has educated me on the difference between writing an assignment and writing for an academic journal. I feel that the process has encouraged me to consider further study and given me a drive to become involved in clinical research as the impact of the outcomes can be of a significant nature. I believe that my writing skills have improved alongside my skills to review reliability of research, which ensures practice based reading contributes to changing my personal practice, committing to meeting the current needs of the service users.

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