From the 7th of November to the 10th of November we had a writing week in Irvine, California at the University Anna Strömberg is now visiting professor.
A lot of people from Linköping University joined the writing week: Anna Strömberg, Tiny Jaarsma, Kristofer Årestedt, Johan Israelsson, Lisa Hjelmfors, Maria Liljeroos, Ulla Walfridsson, Christina Andreae & Leonie Klompstra. But also researchers from University of California Irvine (Lorraine Evangelista, Maryson Cacciata, Jenny Peterson & Janett Hildebrand) and one researcher from Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Beth Fahlberg joined.
Most of us came the weekend before, so we could overcome our jetlag, but also to see something of California. Anna arranged beach hopping Huntington Beach and a whale and dolphin boat trip (Newport Beach) on the Saturday. Unfortunately we didn’t see whales, but we have seen approximately 200 dolphins, which was amazing.
After the dolphin watching we went for a beach walk at Scenic view Crystal Cove/Laguna Beach. It was really misty, but this made the walk mysterious and beautiful.
On Sunday we went on Shopping in San Diego in a BIG shopping mall called Outlet shopping Carlsbad, San Diego/La Jolla. First a short stopover to view the wonderful ocean!
From Monday it was working time at the University of California, Irvine. In the morning it was time for setting our writing goals for the week. In the afternoon, we all had elevator pitch presentation with our research interests and the goals we all had. In the afternoon we went to UCI Health (the university hospital), where Lorraine Evangelista gave a presentation about her work.
On Tuesday we started to work on our individual goals and in the afternoon Anna Strömberg gave a presentation about tips in dyadic research. There was a great discussion afterwards on how to include dyads in future studies.
On Wednesday we started with our individual writing and in the afternoon Kristofer Årestedt gave a presentation on instrument development and testing. The analyses shown were new for many of us and showed how important it is to test (new) instruments included in your own studies.
On the last day of the wring, we again started with individual writing and afterwards we had a presentation from Tiny Jaarsma on Theories in Nursing research. A good discussion followed in when to have your framework ready and how to include existing theories in research.
On Thursday evening we were invited by Lorraine Evangelista for an all American dinner show, with pirated and princesses.
It was amazing to meet so many new people and getting inspired in writing and conducting research!
Christina Andreae & Leonie Klompstra
Linköping 2016-11-30