Autobiography, memory and the playwright

The thesis is made up of two plays and a piece of writing that is a reflection and critical sharing of a developmental and critical process of writerly development. The thesis explores the use of memory and autobiography in playwriting and is concerned with the development and enhancement of playwriting through a process experienced and analysed by its author.The work draws upon recent psychological research into memory, particularly the idea that memories can be manipulated. The work of Mazzoni and Geraerts enables links between scientific psychology and narrative fiction and autobiography to be explored. Explorations of memory, narrative and the construction of self feed directly into the first of two plays, That Berlin Moment, in which a group of characters grapple with the implications of lost, false and unwillingly recovered memories.The thesis includes individual and comparative analyses of my own work alongside that of three other dramatists: Anthony Minghella, James Graham and Richard Bean. Much of this work is drawn from a series of interviews with each playwright, which focused on uses of autobiographical material. Ideas about appropriation and adaptation are significant in focusing and developing this material. Informed by this analysis, the second play, Petticoat Lane, represents an attempt to push further with autobiographical writing, developing characters and situations based closely on my own memories, whilst incorporating insights gained from the scientific and theoretical work on memory.The thesis is an articulation of a self-conscious process of writerly development, which suggests an unexpected connection between autobiographical and applied drama playwriting. Rather than setting up an opposition between self, creativity and original imaginary worlds on the one hand, and social utility and empowerment and political concern on the other, this process has opened up new ways of understanding the potential for playwriting to provoke and enable positive change

Evidence for spinal N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor involvement in prolonged chemical nociception in the rat

We used in vivo electrophysiology and a model of more persistent nociceptive inputs to monitor spinal cord neuronal activity in anaesthetised rats to reveal the pharmacology of enhanced pain signalling. The study showed that all responses were blocked by non-selective antagonism of glutamate receptors but a selective and preferential role of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in the prolonged plastic responses was clearly seen. The work lead to many publications, initially preclinical but increasingly from patient studies, showing the importance of the NMDA receptor in central sensitisation within the spinal cord and how this could relate to persistent pain states. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI:50th Anniversary Issue

The ‘Not Knowns’: memory, narrative and applied theatre

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an attempt to articulate and explore the relationship between the science of memory and the applied theatre project, The Not Knowns. The project was a collaboration between theatre practitioners and a psychologist who worked together with a group of young people known, problematically, as the ‘not knowns’ throughout 2014. For applied theatre practitioners, notions of veracity are crucial, if complex, and go far beyond the practice of ‘giving voice’ to marginalised groups and people. Applied Theatre projects which work with participant autobiographies take on the responsibility of articulating the perspective as one of many possible truths, observing conventions which sustain a truth claim, but leaving this open for questioning. In this essay, the project collaborators examine the implications of the notion of memory as adaptable and malleable, as a factor in stasis or change, and as a story that may and must be re-told and re-remembered in an act of self-sustaining performativity

Millennium Mums Report, waves 1-5

This report presents key findings from Enhancing Mothers’ Workforce Engagement in the Preschool Years, an Australian Research Council Linkage project in partnership with the Department of Social Services, commonly referred to as the Millennium Mums (MM) project. The aims of the project were to examine women’s expectations of employment and their experiences of returning to employment following the birth of a baby. More broadly, the project provided an opportunity to investigate a range of related issues including child care, father’s leave taking arrangements, gender divisions of labour within the household and the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. All of these issues are of interest to those concerned with women’s employment transitions and all are intricately bound up with mother’s expectations and experiences of combining employment with the care of a young child or children

The application of antimicrobial stewardship knowledge to nursing practice : A national survey of United Kingdom pre-registration nursing students

© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/AIM: To assess student nurses understanding and skills in the application of antimicrobial stewardship knowledge to practice. DESIGN: Quantitative. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey. RESULTS: Five hundred and twenty three student nurses responded across 23 UK universities. Although students felt prepared in competencies in infection prevention and control, patient-centred care and interprofessional collaborative practice, they felt less prepared in competencies in which microbiological knowledge, prescribing and its effect on antimicrobial stewardship is required. Problem-based learning, activities in the clinical setting and face-to-face teaching were identified as the preferred modes of education delivery. Those who had shared antimicrobial stewardship teaching with students from other professions reported the benefits to include a broader understanding of antimicrobial stewardship, an understanding of the roles of others in antimicrobial stewardship and improved interprofessional working. CONCLUSION: There are gaps in student nurses' knowledge of the basic sciences associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which nurses are involved, and a need to strengthen knowledge in pre-registration nurse education programmes pertaining to antimicrobial management, specifically microbiology and antimicrobial regimes and effects on antimicrobial stewardship. Infection prevention and control, patient-centred care and interprofessional collaborative practice are areas of antimicrobial stewardship in which student nurses feel prepared. Interprofessional education would help nurses and other members of the antimicrobial stewardship team clarify the role nurses can play in antimicrobial stewardship and therefore maximize their contribution to antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial management. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION: There is a need to strengthen knowledge from the basic sciences, specifically pertaining to antimicrobial management, in pre-registration nurse education programmes. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution. IMPACT: What Problem Did the Study Address? Nurses must protect health through understanding and applying antimicrobial stewardship knowledge and skills (Nursing and Midwifery Council 2018); however, there is no research available that has investigated nurses understanding and skills of the basic sciences associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which they are involved. What Were the Main Findings? There are gaps in student nurses' knowledge of the basic sciences (specifically microbiology and prescribing) associated with the antimicrobial stewardship activities in which nurses are involved. Problem-based learning, and activities in the clinical setting, were reported as useful teaching methods, whereas online learning, was seen as less useful. Where and on Whom Will the Research Have an Impact? Pre-registration nurse education programmes. REPORTING METHOD: The relevant reporting method has been adhered to, that is, STROBE.Peer reviewe

How does mindfulness modulate self-regulation in pre-adolescent children? : An integrative neurocognitive review

Pre-adolescence is a key developmental period in which complex intrinsic volitional methods of self-regulation are acquired as a result of rapid maturation within the brain networks underlying the self-regulatory processes of attention control and emotion regulation. Fostering adaptive self-regulation skills during this stage of development has strong implications for physical health, emotional and socio-economic outcomes during adulthood. There is a growing interest in mindfulness-based programmes for pre-adolescents with initial findings suggesting self-regulation improvements, however, neurodevelopmental studies on mindfulness with pre-adolescents are scarce. This analytical review outlines an integrative neuro-developmental approach, which combines self-report and behavioural assessments with event related brain potentials (ERPs) to provide a systemic multilevel understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms of mindfulness in pre-adolescence. We specifically focus on the N2, error related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), P3a, P3b and late positive potential (LPP) ERP components as indexes of mindfulness related modulations in non-volitional bottom-up self-regulatory processes (salience detection, stimulus driven orienting and mind wandering) and volitional top-down self-regulatory processes (endogenous orienting and executive attention)

Anthony Minghella: Autobiographical memory and the creation of an adapted screenplay

The following article uses as its source material interviews with the director and screenwriter Anthony Minghella which I carried out between 2003 and 2006. Minghella approached the adaptation of a novel in a particular way and I would contend he adapted autobiographical memories in the same way he adapted novels. In this article I will consider how Minghella drew on his memories both of the texts he adapted and his autobiographical memories in order to create screenplays

CBA

Trialled in schools with young people, CBA is a play that asks the really urgent questions of today. It seems so private, just you and the screen. You click ‘send’. Then the whole world crashes through. Keisha has a secret, Georgia has a security problem and Tom is afraid to speak out. When should you tell someone’s secret? How can jokes go so wrong? Fast paced and thought-provoking , CBA examines growing up in a digital world