A comprehensive introduction that provides essential information and advice on study skills, research and careers for students of Health Studies. Ideal pre-course reading, it covers the core components of the course, reflective activities and stacks of useful resources to makes readers explore further and reflect on their learning.

Have you ever wanted to know an effective and ethical way to: Design a study? Recruit participants? Report findings? And improve the quality and output of your research? The Research Companion focuses on the practical skills needed to complete research in the social or health sciences and development. It covers the behind-the-scenes essentials you need to run an effective and ethical piece of research and offers clear, honest advice to help avoid typical problems and improve standards and outcomes. It addresses each stage of the research process from thinking of a research idea, through to managing, monitoring, completing and reporting your project, and working effectively and safely with participants and colleagues. As well as covering theoretical issues in research, the book is full of links to other resources and contains practical tips and stories from researchers at all levels. This new edition is fully updated to reflect shifts in funding structures, open access, and online developments and has a link to a blog and friendly online community for readers to connect with diverse researchers all sharing experiences and offering practical advice. The Research Companion brings hard-earned lessons from the real world to offer invaluable guidance to all students of the social and health sciences, from those just beginning their first research project, to experienced researchers and practitioners. It will be instrumental in raising readers’ competence levels and making their research more accurate, ethical, and productive.

A COMPANION TO HEALTH AND MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY A Companion to Health and Medical Geography provides an essential starting point for anyone interested in studying the role of geography and of geographers, both past and present, in promoting an understanding of issues relating to health and illness. Whilst thoroughly mapping out the territory covered by the sub-discipline and examining changes in focus and terminology, this book offers a discussion of the major themes from differing methodological and theoretical perspectives. Questions of class, ethnicity, gender, age, and sexuality are covered throughout the text and case studies within chapters draw upon scholarship from around the globe in order to illuminate key points. Organized to promote dialogue and encourage health and medical geographers to rethink sub-disciplinary boundaries, this Companion provides a unique account of the history of the field and its future potential and possibilities.

Divided into two main sections, the Companion looks at "Reflections" - offers current thinking and definitions within health humanities, and "Applications" comprises a wide selection of a range of arts and humanities modalities from comedy and writing to dancing, yoga and horticulture.

Social science research has traditionally focused on the historical study of research methods, frequently overlooking the practical skills needed to undertake a project. This book recognizes this need for instruction in the practice of research and offers advice to help avoid typical problems and improve the standards.

In this landmark Companion, expert contributors from around the world map out the field of the critical medical humanities. This is the first volume to introduce comprehensively the ways in which interdisciplinary thinking across the humanities and social sciences might contribute to, critique and develop medical understanding of the human individually and collectively. The thirty-six newly commissioned chapters range widely within and across disciplinary fields, always alert to the intersections between medicine, as broadly defined, and critical thinking. Each chapter offers suggestions for further reading on the issues raised, and each section concludes with an Afterword, written by a leading critic, outlining future possibilities for cutting-edge work in this area. Topics covered in this volume include: the affective body, biomedicine, blindness, breath, disability, early modern medical practice, fatness, the genome, language, madness, narrative, race, systems biology, performance, the postcolonial, public health, touch, twins, voice and wonder. Together the chapters generate a body of new knowledge and make a decisive intervention into how health, medicine and clinical care might address questions of individual, subjective and embodied experience.

The rapid and sweeping changes in the economy, technology, work practices and family structures mean that organizational health psychology has never been so essential for understanding stress in the workplace. This timely Research Companion is essential reading to advance the understanding of healthy behaviors within working environments and to identify problems which can be the cause of illness. Containing both theoretical and empirical contributions written by distinguished academics working in Europe, North America and Australia, the book covers leading edge topics ranging from current theories of stress, stress management, and stress in specific occupational groups, such as doctors and teachers, to the relationship of stress with well-being. It provides systematic approaches towards practical actions and stress interventions in working environments and a solid theoretical framework for future research. It will be an essential companion to research on psychology and medicine as well as stress.

Administrators in medical, nursing and health science programs are witnessing a substantial increase in the number of students with disabilities entering their programs. Concurrently, the benefits of diversity in healthcare are becoming increasingly apparent and important. A commitment to disability inclusion for qualified students should be a high-level goal of nursing, medical, and other health science programs. To support this goal, leaders in these areas must develop robust programs and an understanding of the needs of qualified students with disabilities in the health sciences and accompanying best practices for inclusion. This book of case studies is the perfect companion to Meeks' and Neal-Boylan's recently-published book Disability as Diversity. It contains ten cases related to medicine and nursing but with significant relevance to other health professions. Each case is preceded by an introduction with instructions on how to use it. The cases are followed by discussion questions and perspectives from the student, faculty and disability resource professional viewpoints. The cases are then deconstructed with reference to the book Disability as Diversity, relevant citations from the literature and case law. Developed by some of the most notable researchers and clinicians in the field this case book serves as truly invaluable resource for deans, program directors, faculty and student affairs personnel. Offices can use these cases as a platform for critical discussion and training about disability processes, policies and decision-making regarding accommodations and inclusion.

This collection examines the diverse, and often conflicted, political status of health in the USA from World War II to Covid-19. It moves beyond biomedical conceptions by using the lenses of class, poverty, race, gender, sexuality and locality to study the concepts, policies and lived realities of U.S. healthcare and medicine.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Black Sociology provides the most up to date exploration and analysis of research focused on Blacks in America. Beginning with an examination of the project of Black Sociology, it offers studies of recent events, including the ‘Stand Your Ground’ killing of Trayvon Martin, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on emerging adults, and efforts to change voting requirements that overwhelmingly affect Blacks, whilst engaging with questions of sexuality and family life, incarceration, health, educational outcomes and racial wage disparities. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’s charge of engaging in objective research that has a positive impact on society, and organised around the themes of Social Inequities, Blacks and Education, Blacks and Health and Future Directions, this timely volume brings together the latest interdisciplinary research to offer a broad overview of the issues currently faced by Blacks in United States. A timely, significant research guide that informs readers on the social, economic and physical condition of Blacks in America, and proposes directions for important future research. The Ashgate Research Companion will appeal to policy makers and scholars of Africana Studies, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology and Politics, with interests in questions of race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social inequalities, health and education.