Thanks to Carlotta Griseri (@CarlottaGriseri) and Alessia Nicotera (@AlessiaNicoter2) for submitting this report:
We are two Italian SLTs recently graduated at the University of Turin. We carried out the experience of the ERASMUS Traineeship over a two-month period at UCLan’s Allied Health Research unit.
The aim of this internship has been to learn the main processes in a research study and to gain direct experience of tasks like the data analysis and the production of final reports for submission and publication.
Particularly, we’ve developed activities such as:
- Analysis and interpretation of data
- Learning about research design
- Producing reports of the “Methods” sections
- Discussing and sharing ideas with our mentor and other trainees and professionals
- Cooperation with other members of the research unit in order to understand how a research team works
- Development and submission of an abstract for Public Health England Cancer Services, Data and Outcomes Conference 2018
During our traineeship we had also the opportunity to meet Chris Curtis, founding member of the nationwide charity association – The Swallows Head & Neck Cancer Support Group.
Chris has collaborated with Dr Hazel Roddam to research how dry mouth impacts on the quality of life for head and neck cancer patients. We will present part of the results of this international survey in a poster at the cancer conference in Manchester in June.
Moreover, thanks to Chris Curtis and his association we had the opportunity to participate in a Macmillan event ‘Living with and beyond cancer’, which took place in Preston on 24th January.
We’re glad to have made this research internship, because it helped us to grow professionally and personally.
We’ll carry on the cooperation with Dr Hazel Roddam and we hope to use the acquired knowledge about research in order to start some research studies in Italy as well.
We would suggest this experience to anyone who has interest in research.
