The Open University

Eight things you may not know about OU student nurses

9 May 2018

That’s right – you can train to be a nurse with The Open University! Not many people know that – so we’re trying to spread the word. Here’s some facts about OU student nurses: 1. They are a hardworking bunch They all study and work in healthcare jobs at the same time, and some of […]

Liz forgot her fear of needles to pursue her nursing dream

9 May 2018

Liz Westwood was inspired to become a nurse because of two important influences – her late mother and her work colleagues. For the last eight years, she has worked as a Healthcare Assistant in a community specialist palliative care team (improving the quality of life for those patients nearing the end of life). Now she […]

People person Stefan swapped a life in the skies for saving lives

8 May 2018

As a self-professed “people person”, Stefan Franks feels at home pursuing a career in adult nursing. Having left school with GCSEs and BTECs in travel, Stefan began his career in the travel industry taking off for a five-year career with a major airline. Now he is working as a healthcare assistant at a surgery in […]

Britain's Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - Hugh and Anna Taylor holding vegetables

Is obesity inevitable?

8 May 2018

The numbers of overweight and obese children are rising as they move through primary school. This echoes the increasing number of obese adults in the UK, which has nearly doubled in the last 25 years. But is obesity inevitable as we grow older? OU academic Dr Joan Simons has worked closely with the BBC to […]

Why cancer cells go to sleep

27 April 2018

Cancer has always been thought of as something that grows rapidly and uncontrollably, but this view may be wrong. New evidence suggests that cancer alternatively uses the “accelerator” and the “brake” in order to survive. If you plot the growth of prostate cancer tumour progression over years, you get a graph that looks something like […]

Margaret testing Chris Bavin in the Truth about Obesity

The UK’s obesity epidemic – the challenge

25 April 2018

Obesity cuts life expectancy by up to ten years, and costs the UK £6.1 billion per year to treat. It’s a huge problem – according to the Health Survey for England, obesity levels in England have nearly doubled in the last 25 years and nearly two thirds of adults were overweight or obese in 2015. […]

Female doctors show more empathy, but at a cost to their mental well-being

24 April 2018

Female doctors show more empathy than male doctors. They ask their patients more questions, including questions about emotions and feelings, and they spend more time talking to patients than their male colleagues do. Some have suggested that this might make women better doctors. It may also take a terrible toll on their mental health. Studies […]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall pouring sugar

Britain’s obesity epidemic explored in two new BBC programmes

24 April 2018

According to the Health Survey for England obesity levels in England have nearly doubled in the last 25 years, and nearly two thirds of adults were overweight or obese in 2015. Now, two new BBC series co-produced with the OU set out to explore our national obesity epidemic, and what it means to be obese in Britain today. […]

Why nutritional psychiatry is the future of mental health treatment

2 March 2018

A lack of essential nutrients is known to contribute to the onset of poor mental health in people suffering from anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and ADHD. Nutritional psychiatry is a growing discipline that focuses on the use of food and supplements to provide these essential nutrients as part of an integrated or alternative […]

“Nurses need better support,” says OU Head of Nursing

26 January 2018

Nurses must be given support from NHS managers to learn while they earn as part of a new drive to reverse the debilitating exodus from the profession, according to The Open University’s Head of Nursing. Julie Messenger welcomed a report by the House of Commons Health Select Committee, which endorsed the need for different routes […]

OU News

Category: Health