The author shares publishing knowledge with doctoral students near the Arctic Circle.
An award-winning writer of many words, the author is gratified to learn he has won an award for just a few.
HULL, United Kingdom—I recently returned home after the first of three visits to Finland this year. I was there slightly longer than expected as my tight connection at Helsinki airport did not connect. My incoming flight was late, and the lady at the transfer desk kept telling me, “It does not look good.” I kept asking, “How much worse can it be?” In the end, I did not make the flight and had to spend the night in the airport hotel and take a very early flight home. I travel strictly with cabin luggage and calculate my laundry needs carefully, but any more information will be too much for my readers.
I was in Oulu in the north of Finland for the first time. The city is within sight of the Arctic Circle. The days were quite long and there were copious amounts of snow, most of it piled 10 feet high by the road or at the end of parking lots. Like all countries that expect large amounts of snow on a predictable basis, Finland works normally despite the snow, and the Finns just take it in stride. With sheets of ice on the sidewalks, walking was dangerous. I ran three miles one morning in -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit), but a nosebleed and red raw skin on my face convinced me, thereafter, to run in the afternoons.
My work was at the Nursing Science Department of the University of Oulu where, for three days, I taught doctoral students on systematic reviewing and writing for publication. I am used to teaching in Finland. Finns, being a polite and reserved people, are initially quiet. Once they have “weighed you up,” the questions start coming, and by the end of the week my sessions had turned from monologue to dialogue. My next visits are in quick succession—next month to Tampere (for the first time) and later to Turku.
I visit my own University of Hull from time to time. In fact, over Easter, while most colleagues were sunning themselves on the Mediterranean, I was teaching quantitative methods at the University of Hull Easter School, which is designed for doctoral students not based at Hull. I never cease to be amazed at the calibre of our doctoral students. When I ran into some problems while demonstrating aspects of a statistical package, a computer science student showed me how to do it. From that point on, I took a back seat and the class ran itself.
So far this year, I have published 10 refereed articles. I am especially pleased with two articles published in collaboration with my former doctoral student Mansour Al-Yami. As general director of academic affairs and training at Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health, Al-Yami is third in line to the kingdom’s minister of health in Riyadh. He is a remarkable man who combines a high-pressure job with academic work and impeccably good manners. He remains a good friend—my “godson,” as he describes himself—and I look forward to seeing him in October when I next visit the kingdom.
I have another piece in The Conversation this week where I outline reasons nursing students in the UK should not be paid bursaries by the National Health Service. I have already drawn fire on this issue, and my popularity rating with the Royal College of Nursing and the nursing student body will not increase. But I am not alone in this view.
Finally, and for the first time in this blog, I refer to my increasing interest in haiku poetry. I have composed haiku regularly for the past two years and, last year, began getting published. To date, I have three poems published in the Journal of the British Haiku Society, with more accepted by them and another journal. But my surprise at coming in among the top 32 with an honorable mention in an international haiku competition of more than 700 entries is one of the best surprises I have had in years. The editor of RNL permitting, I may inflict a few on you. I start with my honorable mention. Most are more cheerful than this one.
silent shredder
graveyard
of all my thoughts
RNL
Roger Watson, PhD, RN, FRCP Edin, FRCN, FAAN, professor of nursing at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and a frequent visitor to Australia and China, where he has visiting positions, is editor-in-chief of JAN and editor of Nursing Open. Click here to access Blogger-resident entries posted before 2017 in Watson’s former blog “Hanging smart.”
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