Offering free cupcakes to recruit people to take part in a survey may not be a conventional research method but for optometry student Hanifa Begum it solved a problem.
Hanifa is a final-year student at Aston University and one of the first undergraduates in the UK to take part in a new initiative from the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Institute. As part of its Success Through Education Programme (Step), the institute is offering two students a year the chance to conduct an educational project around contact lenses and/or anterior eye.
Students towards the end of their penultimate year of study are invited to choose to conduct a survey and/or literature review from a list of topics. Each university is then invited to put forward one applicant for the selection committee to consider.
Two successful applicants each receive £1,500 to fund their project. Once the study is completed, the students have the chance to present their findings at an educational meeting and/or in print.
Opening doors
‘I first heard about the scheme at the end of my second year,’ says Begum. ‘I was interested in doing some research into contact lenses, and chose to take part because I wanted to do something on iris-enhancing lenses.
‘I assumed there were lots of people at other universities wanting to take part. But then I received an email from Johnson & Johnson in June to say I’d been successful. It was a bit of shock!’
Having completed her Step project, Begum describes the experience as ‘amazing’. ‘I’m interested in doing a PhD in future and it was an opportunity to get a taster of what that would be like.
‘My project was a survey so I had to recruit the subjects, which initially was quite hard. I was aiming for a sample of 30-40 people. But I ended up surveying 142 consumers aged 16-30 and 113 eye care practitioners. At one point I was offering a free cupcake for every survey completed.
‘For the consumer side, I tried to get equal numbers of males and females. In fact one of my main findings is that there is an interest among men in trying iris-enhancing lenses, which I found was largely because of the lenses’ natural look.’
How has completing the educational project changed her career plans? ‘My interest in research has definitely increased as a result,’ she says. ‘If I do a doctorate I might look towards contact lenses. And the cosmetic lens side has really opened doors for me.
‘Doing the Step project has definitely changed my attitude to contact lens fitting too – in future I’m thinking about fitting more types of lenses.’ And Begum has this advice for anyone considering taking part this year: ‘Take the opportunity. Even if you don’t want to do a PhD, it’s an eye opener.’
Curious about chemistry
Chemistry rarely tops the list of favourite subjects for optometry students but Ben Ayliffe, a final-year undergraduate at the University of Manchester, has used his enthusiasm for the subject to good effect. For his Step educational project, Ayliffe chose a literature review of the relative merits of hydrogels and silicone hydrogel (SiH) materials.
‘I’ve always liked chemistry and was initially drawn to the topic out of curiosity. I wasn’t sure I’d have the time for a project because of pre-reg interviews and summer placements but I thought it looked interesting, would look good on my CV and would be a great way to meet people.
‘I finished writing up my project in November and have since been down to the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Institute to do two formal presentations on the findings, including one to university lecturers. It was good experience. It’s really nice to know they’re interested in what a student has to say.’
Conducting the project has changed Ayliffe’s perceptions as well as providing valuable experience in research. ‘At first, people I spoke to said SiHs were so much better than hydrogels but it was soon apparent these lenses hadn’t lived up to expectations. For daily wear, comfort isn’t really affected by oxygen transmissibility. It’s made me appreciate that fitting SiHs as standard is not the way to go. You have to pick your lens for your patient.’
Ayliffe is already planning to study for a master’s degree during his pre-reg placements in independent and hospital practice but says his attitude to research has changed as a result of the project. ‘I’ve always been interested in learning but wasn’t 100% sold on going down the research route. The project has made me realise it’s not quite as daunting as I thought.’
Ayliffe’s supervisor at Manchester, Professor Philip Morgan, says educational projects have had benefits for the university too. ‘The scheme gives optometry students the opportunity to spend a summer undertaking research and they have the chance to see if this will be a career direction which they would enjoy.
‘There is a continuing need for postgraduate students in the profession because they will become our future academics and researchers. The scheme provides an excellent first stepping stone in this process.’