Wellbeing Project Focus Group 2 June 2015 XXXX (Transcriber: XXXX) I’ve started recording now and this is just to confirm you’ve all had your participant information sheets. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Well done, some people have understood more about recording devices than others, nodding is not going to cut it anymore people! So we are going to be recording you. Anything that you say, obviously is going to be anonymous, so please don’t worry about that. There isn’t a right or wrong at all, we are just going to be talking about, we’ve got six questions to do with health and I can see with having a conversation with you already that you are pretty chatty types, so feel free to say whatever you want to. If you do have any questions afterwards or there’s anything that’s concerning you, please I’ll be here for 5 minutes and I know that Sabrina will as well if you want to talk to us about anything you’re not sure of. Is that okay? Yeah. So you’re okay with six questions generally about health, I won’t say free fall because I don’t want to encourage you, but just to ask you a little bit first, starting off with an easy sort of question, can I ask you what you think it means to be healthy? To exercise. To exercise, yeah. The right BMI, so maybe like your BMI can tell you whether you’re overweight or not. So body mass index looking at weight yeah. What else means to be healthy? Just to feel good in yourself and to not like have any chronic health complications and that sort of stuff, like I think regardless of your BMI, I don’t really believe all of that completely, it’s more inward and how you feel in yourself and you’re not going to be finding yourself in any hospital bed any time soon. So you sort of think of it in terms of more like an absence of illness, like a very broad definition? Yeah. Okay can I ask just as an aside to that, are students supposed to be healthy? Yeah I think everyone is supposed to be healthy. Yes. Okay well think about what it means to be a student or your average image of your student is? Stress. (Laughing). So we’re at exam time, yeah. Alcohol. Alcohol yeah. Junk food. Junk food, sure. Yeah. Mm really unhealthy. And a lot of sitting, not moving around. Netflix! (Laughing). Yeah. Weight gain. Okay so we’ve got kind of a different answer now haven’t we? We’ve talked about what it means to be healthy and you’ve all given me quite pat answers, these are the sort of things we’d expect and then when I say well you’re students what is student’s health like, all of a sudden I’m getting some slightly different tones going on there. So just thinking again in the broadest sense, what does it mean to be healthy to you, at this stage of your life? Being able to do what you want to do without any symptoms, without any harm related illnesses stopping you from doing what you want to do. Yeah. ?? That is wellbeing. So it’s wellbeing. Yeah both having um, not having any physical health issues and then being like kind of distressed in your mind, I’m thinking from the point of a student, because as students we have a lot of work load. First of all it stresses you in your mind and then before it goes down into your body. So if you can have a wellbeing of the mind and physically then you’re healthy. Although it’s healthy to like cry and be angry at times as well, it’s not just plain sailing, like you can’t just be happy all the time. Yeah that’s true. Yeah that idea of being happy in yourself that’s good. So sort of broadening it out a bit, we’ve talked a bit about health, do you think Middlesex students are healthy? No more healthy than other students, but no more unhealthy than other students. So what makes you say that? Well I probably would say that they’re maybe, because they still live the same life as other students, they still go out and drink and do drugs and all this kind of stuff, so I suppose you can’t really say whether they’re healthier or unhealthier than other university students. I think it’s 50:50, some are healthy and some are unhealthy. But at the same time I’d say like from Middlesex is quite multicultural, whereas if you go to Uni’s up north, there’s not so much culture and I think with different cultures come like, some countries are healthier than others. So maybe you could say that it’s more healthy. And there’s a lot of older students here as well, especially compared to like other Uni’s as you said like, even with like drinking and drug taking all that, I don’t think there’s as much of that culture here because you’re in London, so it’s like you can kind of go out and explore, whereas I think smaller cities where it’s very like university populated, I think there will be a lot more unhealthy like behaviours going on there, because we can kind of access other things and that. I think in every community there is always unhealthy, midway and proper healthy, conscientious people. So you’ll have like one or two who are really to the gym and all that and you’ll have others who just KFC and that’s normal. I like that there are two options, gym and KFC and Netflix in the middle! (Laughs). You have others who watch what they eat and others who can’t be bothered. Mm. Okay. So do you think the demographics make a difference then because some people have said the fact that you’ve got BME’s, so I assume you’ve got cultures who don’t drink, you’ve got cultures who smoke or don’t smoke and you’ve got people who eat differently, you’ve got people who exercise differently, are you saying the older students are making you more healthy or less healthy? Can you just tell me a little bit about what you’re thinking about demographics? I’d say the older students make you more healthy because a lot of them have families and stuff like that. I think we make them less healthy because we get them to go to the pub and stuff. There’s some nodding going on there, which will remain anonymous. I think the demographics play a part in it because it depends some cultures are healthier than others so … I wouldn’t say some cultures are healthier than others. Just the way they prepare their food, the way they, eat, their way of thinking, their way of interpreting health is totally different. But then something that one culture might think, it might be healthy in one culture and unhealthy in another, there might be something healthy in that culture that is not in the other, so it’s … Go on. There is a lot of diversity within one culture, like for example where I’m from there are lot of really healthy food cooked in a really healthy way but then we eat raw meat, a lot of raw meat, which is very bad as well. So I don’t know if culture plays that much of a thing as being healthy. Going back to the other question you asked us about the age, who is more healthier, I think it’s the older students, the mature students who are more healthier than the younger generation. But … sorry. Hold that thought! It appears to me that there is an unconscious effort, no there’s a conscious effort on the part of mature students you know like to make the younger generation aware that there is a need to be healthy. But at the same time because they are younger people, it is easy for them to pop out and you know get meals, to pop out to get meals, so it’s kind of like pretty difficult now, because it’s like we are now beginning to copy them. We also want to pop out and get meals, because sometimes if you stay like beyond say 5 O’clock on campus and you run out of maybe your lunch that came from home, you are kind of tempted to go out and get fast food. So you want to do what they are doing, you want to also pop out and get fast food. So it’s like the older generations are more healthier. And in addition to that the facilities on campus is there to make us want to live like a healthy life, because we’ve got like a gym. Then we’ve got facilities like lawn tennis, swimming, jogging sessions, so it is like ways to kind of make us healthy, but it appears that it’s the older, not the older, the more mature students who are part of all these facilities. That is the way I see it. I have a slight different view from that because I think the information age has changed a lot of things, especially around perceptions of students. I think even five years ago you could say students in their 20’s probably don’t know a thing about cooking, ready meals in a Microwave or pasta like that and you could say the older generation probably developed cooking skills for instance. But now I think it’s different now because everyone has got access to the internet, everyone is online all the time, you could easily look up a recipe any time you want, regards of what age you are. And I think, especially some people in your generation they have built up really bad habits over time, so they might think they’re eating healthier, but in reality they are probably not. That is what I was going to say about five minutes ago. I understand what you’re saying, but I also think at the moment it’s quite trendy to be into all these sort of health foods and all that, which is very much, it seems to be a lot in the younger people. So, only recently I think it’s come out, but then there’s that as well going on at the moment, where people are choosing to not drink at the weekend because they’re too busy like with their gym and their healthy eating and eating lean and that sort of stuff that I think it’s changed. Okay. I think there is a balance now because the younger people want to look very good, like models and all that and they know they have to eat healthy and all that and probably the older group they want to look younger! (Laughs). Oh there’s some hostile eye contact, I don’t know if that’s going to be picked up on the tape! They are trying to, as you get older you know you have to take care yourself so I think there is ? limit. Yeah. But what I’ve noticed is that like our generation, like the younger generation they do tend to turn to like coffee a lot and like energy drinks, whereas like Catherine, I’ve worked with Catherine on the ward and she is like, she is quite healthy and like good, but I’ve seen a lot of other people, like older people sorry, they don’t eat processed food, they prefer to eat maybe more organic food and stuff like that. I think that has influenced the younger generation to try and be more organic but we still turn to energy drinks every now and then. It’s interesting because you’re sort of talking about everyone influencing everyone else. Mm. I think like in terms of like, obviously the students like health students are slightly different from students, like when you are doing shift work and stuff like that, you don’t really have time to be healthy. So you talk a lot about it, but do you do it? Yeah I think like we advocate it to patients and stuff but we don’t do it ourselves, like when you do a 12 hour shift, you don’t have time to eat a proper meal and you don’t have time to, like whilst you are running around everywhere, you don’t necessarily live a healthy life. Okay so everybody here has time in practice and time in university don’t they? Yep. Do you eat more healthily when you’re in practice or when you’re at university? Uni. Uni. Practice. Practice. When I was in practice, this is a one off because I was in an eating disorder, so I used to eat like a little bit more healthy, so I would have my three meals or two meals during the day and then someday I would have a third one. So in a sense I used to eat more healthy in a balanced way, but when I’m doing different shifts that goes out of the window, so you are changing then, adjusting your eating ways with the shift pattern you are working. So it’s difficult to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle when you’re in placement, you know. Okay. Let’s come back to Uni then, does Middlesex support you to have a healthy lifestyle? Yes. I don’t think so. Yes they do because um, I think so and this is my reason, every year there is something, a programme called Healthy Week and sometimes in the year to when we have the new starters, is that the right thing to call it? Yes. That’s the Fresher’s who come in. There’s always a demonstration by chefs you know on how to cook meals, but there is also emphasis on cooking healthy meals. And then back to the other programme, it’s called the Healthy Week, so in that one week there’s a programme about what’s a healthy meal, how to cook healthy meals, how to go out and get healthy meals at cheap prices. So those two times of the year I would consider that it’s a good health promotion and then just like I said before there’s gym facilities and there are some free … I know you have to pay for the gym quite a lot, but there are some free facilities, I think one is called ‘give it a go’ session where you don’t have to necessarily have maybe playing skills in any kind of sport, you just go in and then you play in a game that you want. If you look around the campus now we have now got table tennis tables all around the place. So those are ways to promote you know healthy lifestyle because it’s not only just eating, it’s also what you do in terms of actions, yeah. I think the facilities are there, but they come at a higher cost than what you’d expect, because there’s a gym but it’s expensive to get into so … And there’s a lot of ? to the gym. And it’s not like, it’s not a practical thing when you are on placement and having a membership in the gym. So I think there should be more promotion on education and healthy eating lifestyles whatever, instead of just, there are facilities there, but it’s kind of like healthy food bar, but it comes at a cost and students are not that, they don’t have that kind of money to afford to eat in the campus. So what we have is we have the take-aways down the road, so that is what suits our pocket. Yes. Then to counteract that problem you’re talking about that is why we have those two programmes in the year, you know to educate students on how to cook healthy and how to assess … You cannot tell me that two programs in a year could still in your head. (Laughs). They are not aimed at the other student, they are just aimed at Fresher’s and they are promotional as well. No but it doesn’t say Fresher’s, even though you of course have Fresher’s, it doesn’t say Fresher’s, it’s open to everyone. Okay less even say going to Fresher’s, there’s the other programme which is open to everyone and it’s every year, do you understand and then you were saying that the gym is too expensive. So some people might not want to go to the gym, but there are other free facilities like I said, it’s called ‘give it a go’, you don’t have to pay and then we have table tennis tables all around campus. You just go in and get the instruments and … Yes. So you were saying something? I was just going to say that like with students I feel like if something is not constantly in our face, we’re not actually going to actually go out of our way to pay attention to it. So these two groups of things that try to motivate us to be healthy, like I’ve never heard of them and this is like my second year in Uni. So and we are surrounded by take-aways and stuff, so where we are actually like our actual location isn’t really that good. I guess it’s good that we don’t have McDonald’s, but you just go down to Hendon Central you’ve got KFC. Are you guys sponsored by KFC! (Laughs). … even getting a coffee here is expensive. Yes the facilities are there, but they have to be tailored to suit the students as well. Okay. Go on. I agree I think the facilities here for eating supports an adrenalin rush to keep you going with the stressful pace of Uni. There’s loads of coffee on tap, there’s loads of chocolates and sweets on tap. The healthy meals, the salads and that are the most expensive thing here. A chocolate bar in Uni is cheaper than going to the shop because they’ve got all these two for one deals etc., so I think the food and the facilities here actually support the rush for you to have the ability to get on with your assignments. I know it’s a bit of a blasé way of saying it, but I think it’s like basically an injection of insulin. And I don’t think there’s really a range of healthy things here. Like they suit some people but not everyone and like for example they have healthy food, but they don’t have a variety of healthy food, they don’t have like a variety of sports like facilities. And the salads are very posh, you know very strange, posh salads. They are delicious though. They are, they are very posh, it’s like going into Marks & Spencer’s you know to get all these posh salads when you just want a normal salad and they’re really expensive so … They don’t suit the student budget as well. So if you are encouraging students to be healthy, I think the main thing here with the students is the budget. If it’s out of your budget you are going to choose a cheaper option and that’s what I think most students do. Go down the road and you can prove that, you see how many of them will go to the chip shop for £1.00 chicken wings and chips and all these pizza offers, because that is within the budget range. So do you eat at the Students Union at all when it’s open? Yeah. Sometimes. Occasional. I buy chicken wings and go there! It’s just as cheap to go like to the pub like so sometimes it’s not really that good like here. Okay. So we’ve just touched a little bit on healthy diet, we’ve spoken a little bit about fitness, can I ask you a little bit about smoking on campus. Have you seen smoking shelters around, what do you think, should we be smoke free, happy with smoke, what do you think? We shouldn’t be smoke free, people should have the choice to smoke or not and I think smoking’s good! (Laughs). It’s just like literally, I think it’s a good stress relief, so I think everyone in Uni smokes at one point because they get so stressed and they turn to everything and I think smoking is something they turn to. Okay what do you rest think? I think smoking, they have designated areas for smoking, I don’t have a problem with it, but what I have a problem with is people smoking where they’re not supposed to be smoking, then we have to inhale the smoke, which I dislike, that is the only problem I have with it. But I don’t have any issues with smokers smoking where they’re supposed to be smoking. So the issue I have is people smoking in front of doors when you’re coming in and stuff like that, that’s one thing I dislike. Yeah I agree with that. Yeah. I’m an occasional smoker I will admit and on a visit to the GP, we did these smoking things, do you smoke etc., etc., and I told him how much I smoked and he said well that’s quite minimal. He said well I can talk to you about smoking cessation he said but he asked me the reasons why I thought I smoked and I said well it’s just occasional to kind of relieve my stress etc., and he said to me although I should be advocating you not smoking etc., sometimes if it’s at a level where it’s better for you to have that reliever rather than putting yourself through more stress, which is the worse of the two evils. He said well, if you feel that it’s for that reason just to relieve stress and it’s not like a constant thing and you’re puffing away etc., it’s just for specific occasions that it might be more healthy for you to continue the way you are rather than putting yourself through more stress than what you’re going through and trying to stop. Yes. Some nodding there. I’m staying out of this. What I would say is it brings us on to stress a little bit then, is that something that affects you guys a lot? Yeah. Definitely. No. It depends on the time of year like if you’ve got assignments on placement then yeah you’re going to be more stressed than you are when you’ve got no assignments. Dissertation week was stressful, the most stressful week ever, but other than that it’s fine. I just feel like with Year 2 mental health nursing, they’ve crammed all of our assignments and everything in the last two months of nursing and the last two months of the year and that’s stressed me out so much. You’ll have that in Year 3 as well, it’s worse! Yeah exactly, I don’t understand that. We have the whole year and like to do work like they haven’t evened it out properly and that has actually caused me to be more unhealthy because now I’m always at the library, getting really easy meals to eat, to keep me going and yeah I think … Is there support at Middlesex for mental health, to support your emotional wellbeing? Yeah. I think there is, we have information about support you can access, but I’ve never accessed it because I think I can manage my stress. It’s there if you need it though. There is counselling but I think there’s a waiting list. It’s not very long. Is it not? No. I think it’s down to the individual tutor that you have. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you’ve got a good tutor, then yes. I find that really helps because when I’m speaking to my personal development tutor, like there was a period where wasn’t answering me back and stuff through email or text messages and, I sound like a stalker now, but yeah that stressed me out even more. But like the first chance I got to speak to her that really, really released my stress, like relieved me sorry. So I think that is a good point actually, having a good PDT. Yeah I think so it makes a massive difference. Yeah, with stress, I don’t know about eating healthy! Yeah. Or even emails, if your tutor can email you back and even if they haven’t give you the answer, a response saying I don’t know is better than no response. Yeah, definitely. And also I think we all handle stress differently, some are better than others at coping with stress. Even some of my own colleagues in my own court, I’ve seen a lot of anxiety around deadlines and assignments and placement issues and stuff like that whereas others are totally calm. I think it’s normal to be stressed at that time of year though so yeah. The stress is expected. Pressure or stress? Yes too much stress and pressure is… It’s pressure and stress. It depends some people can work good under stress I guess, but I still think that stress will make you eat unhealthy because you are under a lot of stress so you are not going to be thinking oh let me take an hour to cook a healthy meal, you’re just going to be like let me go to the take-away shop. And eat while you’re studying. Yeah exactly. So what about sort of alcohol on campus then in terms of managing stress, socialising? It’s essential. (Laughing). Oh okay. No that’s how I would … I’m not a drinker so it doesn’t affect me whatsoever. What’s interesting though is if you have a Students Union with a bar, it’s kind of implicit in socialising then isn’t it. Yeah. I don’t think like there’s really that many social events that happen here to be honest in the Students Union, you have to go into like central London to have a good social life and drink. I know there is a bar here but I’ve never used that one because I think because of the proximity of where I live I prefer to go to my nearest one. Yeah but yes you tend to drink to relieve stress, well the drinkers, I don’t know what the non-drinkers do to relieve stress. Cigarettes. (Laughing). To be honest I’ve never understood why there has to be a bar on the university campus. Social life. Social life. I mean but why … We live in an age, this is how people socialise yeah. I just can’t understand the concept of having a bar in a learning environment. Yeah but after you finish you go and have a drink and you relax. Why can’t you do that off campus, I don’t know, why … I mean obviously because they’ve got to get more people in this Uni. And it’s cheaper. If they advertise a bar here it looks good. Oh is that why? And plus it’s cheaper to buy alcohol here than it is to go … I think it’s a central … Is it, okay? I like the bar. A very persuasive argument. But I see where you’re coming from, it’s like a learning environment and people might be distracted by the bar and just like stay there the whole day instead of going to lectures. I think it is important to have a bar there for social lives and I think people socialise better when they are under the influence of something! (Laughing). Then when you wake up in the morning and you think did I actually speak to you! (Laughing and joking). I mean my understanding, whenever I walk past, I never see people, I never see students in the bar here, I see them down the road. Yeah the Claddagh. Mm. Yeah. So that kind of feeds into what you’re saying. The atmosphere as well, so probably it’s not a good atmosphere there. I know it is there but I’ve never been there because my course is so awkward. When we are on campus many students are away, so it’s … Yeah like now. And it’s in the day time, we’re here in the day time so why are you guzzling down … It’s like if you live local, like I live local so I see my friends maybe in the evening, so it’s somewhere to go, not that I really go there, but I could go there if I wanted to. Have you gone there? So when you are not at Uni you and your friends come to the Uni bar? Well not toe the Uni bar, we might go there like if I’m here and then go to the pub but … What time does the bar open because when I was there it wasn’t open? Well that’s one of the issues isn’t it that because you guys are health students you are here a lot longer than the other students and a lot of the stuff shuts down on campus. So it’s all shut for summer and it doesn’t open again now until September. So you guys are experiencing a slightly different type of university environment. So it’s interesting to get your views on this. So having talked through a lot of different issues, can we come back to the first question I was asking which does Middlesex support healthy lifestyles because we’ve talked about food, smoking, alcohol? I’d say I’m split on that. Partially. Like is this in comparison to other universities, or just? However you want to answer it. I’ve been to other Uni’s and like their social life and stuff and I just think it’s literally the same, I think it’s up to the students. I think the Uni could do a lot more by advertising healthy eating better, like not just twice a year or whatever, because like I said I think students will not go out of their way to um look for healthy options. They want something to smack them in the face. I think being a student like it’s not affordable to be healthy. Yeah exactly. That’s talking a bit about barriers to being healthy. Yeah. So what barriers are there for you to have a healthy lifestyle at Uni? Cost. Cost. I can’t be bothered to make it. Yeah exactly, time, it’s time consuming. When you are like working 13 hour shifts you don’t really want to come home and stick a jacket potato in the oven and wait an hour. Yeah exactly. So you’ve said cost, you’ve said the fact that you guys are doing a professional course on top of studying. Mm. And like people live alone some of them. I live with my family so my mum cooks, like caters to my needs, but other people who live by themselves, I don’t know it might be like, they might not be able to cook or something, or I don’t know they don’t want to risk it going on because they don’t want to spend even more money. I don’t know there are many implications to that. So any other barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle, when you’re on campus, think about when you come in every day, what stops you from having healthy choices? Other people trying to influence you to get … or something. I think it’s good that we’re a big Uni and we get to actually walk around and so we get to walk to the Forum and stuff. So not everything is all cramped together. But I know like in Wales, in this Uni called Glamorgan, I think they changed it to South Wales, or whatever, but it’s up a mountain, it’s up on a hill or something so you have to walk all the way up there and like a lot of the students are really, really healthy because they are constantly walking. (Laughing). If you could see the expressions of your colleagues right now! So yeah I think the location. So we’ve covered a lot of things, is there anything about healthy lifestyles that we’ve missed, that we should have spoken about in terms of thinking about it, in a holistic way? Um, I raised the issue of the health promotion that is done twice a year and Aya was saying, she objected and said if something is not constantly in our face we might not be programmed to do it. I think, I want to argue with her, there should be more, more opportunities in the year, you know where the university comes out and advertises healthy eating, regardless of whatever situation we find ourselves in. Secondly is that the food on campus, some of them are quite healthy, but really expensive, just like Peter said, because there is the Eating House, the Students Union, yeah they do cook some healthy meals but there’s no plate that is less than £4.00 and that is quite expensive. So if you come in let’s say every day and you spend £4.00, in a week, if you are coming three times a week, that’s £12.00 a week multiplied by 4 weeks, that’s £48.00, let’s say £50.00 a month because you might end up picking up one or two things. And that’s the quite a lot of money and with £50.00 if you are going to the market, you can buy some healthy stuff for yourself you know. So, sorry … Yes. I don’t think it’s down to Uni though, if you want to be healthy you can be healthy, if you don’t want to be healthy don’t be healthy. Yeah but Uni can encourage it, they could do a lot more to encourage it because people are influenced like us, humans get influenced and I think that there is a lot of, I don’t know …. But there’s like healthy stuff here and unhealthy so you just … Or you can just make a lunch and bring it in if you don’t want to … It’s a bit of effort though isn’t it? Well it takes … Then again you don’t have the time. Yeah but it’s not, it’s like … I have lunch every day like … No but like me sometimes I come with my own lunch to school yeah, sometimes, or most times it’s healthy but I observe that after 5 O’clock you know I’m done with my lunch and I need something else you know like a … You need a bigger lunch! Yes then I decided to come with a bigger lunch and then even with that I still find that after 5 O’clock sometimes when you have to do one or two things, I need that extra, but I can’t get it anywhere. But if you want to, you can go down there and get a chocolate bar or you can run over the road and get an apple, it’s not, not there. I don’t eat chocolates and I really don’t like apples. (Laughing). Banana! It’s down to influence, like literally we are influenced. If we see like a healthy food sign we’re going to, that’s going to trigger something in our mind and we’re going to think oh let me go grab a salad today instead of like I don’t know. If you really want to be healthy you can be. Yeah. But what makes you get to really want to be healthy, you get to that stage by seeing things around you that influence you to get to that stage. You don’t wake one day and think … I walk past salad bars and they don’t make me want a salad. Yeah but okay that’s you. But then I still think maybe you’re influenced by eating unhealthy food, but I do think it’s down to influence, down to, um, we haven’t got anything to influence us to be healthy around the Uni, but if we did then maybe it would be a different story,. I don’t think they really influence like unhealthy food, I don’t even think that they really advertise it at all. Do you see what I mean it’s not something that they’re being like oh you must eat healthy, but there is not something there being like eat unhealthy. If you go into the Forum there are like pizza deals. It’s a matter of choice really. Like she says if you want to be healthy you’re going to be healthy, you’re going to make sure you have time to go to the gym, you’re going to make sure you have time to make food like she does. But we choose not to be. I hear what you guys are saying, but this is a learning environment and surely whilst we are in this environment it should be holistic. So we are dealing with our course and our work that we’ve got to do and constantly the tutor is talking about time management to stop yourselves being stressed etc… Now that’s one side of it, now the other side of it is how our bodily functions are made up because we’re, I’m assuming we’re nurses, so it’s the mental side and it’s the physical side and if we’re in their environment then surely whether you want to get a salad or not that’s entirely up to you, whether you want to get a salad it’s entirely up to you, but the umbrella that we’re under should be able to cater for all of us as a whole, holistically. So I think as well as them advertising things like’ you go to your tutorial if you’re stressed, you phone up your PPT if you’re stressed. The teachers talk about time management how to plan your work, cramming things in at the end of the year for two months, but they have given us the title of the exam months ago, so it’s our decision that we are going to leave it to the end. What about the other part of it which is the physical side, what we eat and what we are surrounded by, so I think it’s very important that as a university that they take care of the physical side and the mental side, whether we choose to take it on board or not. If we choose to take it on board to leave our assignments at the end at two months, but we did get the titles of the assignment when we started, so that’s down to us, isn’t it, the same as if we choose to have a salad, but it should be there if we want it, at a reasonable price. At a reasonable price, yeah. But I think health should be advertised around Uni and it should be encouraged and if you want to ignore that that is up to you but I think some people would actually benefit from it like I don’t think it won’t help anyone out. I’m sure out of the whole Uni it will help some people out. It’s leading us onto the last question, so well done, a nice bit of following it round. So just to think about all the things we’ve been talking about in terms of all the different dimensions of health, what it means to be a student, what your experience is like as health students, what could the University do to promote healthy lifestyles? Oh simple, make the food cheaper, the healthy food cheaper. Free the gym membership or like very low. Yeah low gym memberships yeah and more advertisement yeah of healthy eating programmes like not twice a year. Free spin class. That would be like a lot of fun, like free group classes I think they are really fun. I think for me they should provide a microwave somewhere, I don’t know where. Microwaves aren’t healthy. If you want to warm your food, like she brings food and she wants to eat some warm food, she can warm it. We don’t have access to that, we don’t have access to hot water. Because I spoke with the Students Union over microwave, I spoke to the Students Union about microwave and I spoke to them about hot water because I read somewhere that water, you can go into any shop and get water free and in the first few months of my Year 1, I used to get free hot water from them and then after sometime they started charging me 20 pence. Then I went back to the Student Union, I was charged 20 pence for water but I don’t know what came out of it. And I went in for microwave because I used to bring my food and it was just like in a plain bowl, so I needed somewhere to warm it and I went to them and they said oh there’s no microwave on campus. So I had to go and buy something that keeps food hot for 9 hours, so that’s what’s been keeping me going. But just like he said having an industrial microwave that can sustain whatever is thrown into it by the student community would be very good. Then again because if you look on campus we have what you call water fountains, you can rehydrate yourself as much as you want, you don’t have to go and buy bottled water from them you know. I was just thinking if we could have something of that similar nature that would give us you know juice, what’s it called? This kind of juice, the natural you know that could you know come out and just go … Not like a fountain. No reduced price. I didn’t even know there were water fountains, where are they? By the ?? They are not very accessible like the fountains. And like barely any water comes out. I think the main thing the Uni can do is probably, is I know it’s business but it’s not always, it’s just out of the student’s reach. Most students would prefer to eat here but you’re forced to go to the take-aways so … Yeah and I’ve read somewhere that students gain so much weight in Uni and I’ve witnessed that on myself, I’ve gained so much weight since I started Uni. You’ve what, you’ve lost? I’ve gained so much weight since I started Uni and that is because of my Uni lifestyle and it’s just because of the choices I’m forced to make. I think two predominant themes have come across through this discussion and one is cost and one is time, it takes too long to make certain things. I think if the Student Union used their website a lot better, more prominent and one example could be there’s a food blog called lovefood.com and every Friday they publish a simple recipe and it takes about 10 minutes to do. It tells you the cost, how much it’s going to be, so you know up front it’s going to be affordable and probably the Student Union could do something like that to demonstrate to students oh this is quite simple to do, it doesn’t cost a lot of money to do it and yeah it’s healthy. Yeah. Are there any other suggestions how Middlesex could help students be more healthy? More focus groups! (Laughing and joking). Give them an hour’s lunch on placements instead of half an hour like the rest of nurses because I’m just not used to that. I never listen to that, I’m gone for an hour. Really? Oh no. So proper breaks. Anything else? I there anything anyone wanted to say and hasn’t had a chance to say it? Maybe Middlesex could liaise with some you know farms, you know there are some local farms, let them bring in some free, cheap stuff for … Chicken eggs. Yeah for student you know. Honestly because we need it. A farm bringing in … No farms bringing their produce in. Oh. Oh organic. I’m not very sure about organic, I don’t really believe in organic but that’s another matter, but what I’m saying is that you know liaise with farms because there are big, big farms out there, you know bring stuff in for students at a very, very reduced rate. Foods, fruits you know like in, I mean I did my last placement in Camden and we had a food market you know I think twice a week and you go there and you get some good food stuff and then you can have the bad one, so it’s just like she said it’s up to you, make a decision you go for the good or you go for the bad. You know bring these things in it will help people to live a healthy life. And the last thing I wanted to say is just like really, really encourage the students to eat healthy because obviously we know now that our Uni lifestyle does help you gain weight and it does help you become really unhealthy and stuff so maybe like posters up around the Uni, anything that can encourage students or remind them that they need to be healthy or health is important, anything like that. Or like pictures of someone coming in, in Year 1 to leaving in Year 3! It’s like the drug pictures that they have in school in America. The shaming ones. That’s like the alcohol things but I don’t think they work, they don’t stop me drinking. But I think with healthy eating, with drinking it’s different because people want to drink, it gives them a buzz and stuff, but like … Some people want to eat more healthy … But drinking makes you put on a lot of weight that’s why students put on weight a lot of the time is because they drink, not all the time, but a lot of the time. Instead of eating as well. Do you know one thing that could be, one quite simple quick fix really is for Middlesex to consider the franchises that they actually use in the Uni, because the franchises that they use aren’t really you know, they’re just not advocating anything. Starbucks and Costa. There are franchises out there that you know, I mean alright cost maybe, it might even be the same cost, but they are catering for healthy eating. These franchises really and truly aren’t really promoting a healthy lifestyle at Middlesex University. They are large yes. Costa Coffee, come on now. We go there every day though! They are multi corporations yeah so they are just after profits. There are franchises out there that they could be using. Go for the start-ups, the start-up business. Yeah support local businesses. Local businesses, not multi corporations. They are just after profit you know how much money. Yeah definitely. And do you know if you watch them every Friday they throw a lot of food away. Yeah because nobody could afford the food! (Laughing). It has to go somewhere. But why throw it away when it’s a student community, if you know that … (All talking over each other). If it was sold at a good price I would probably eat there. I hate going down the road because of my time as well but I want to make my digest stretch a little bit you know. I did expect come to Uni and find something radical, this radical you know eating place that is doing all really nice salads that are cost and when I come here and I see Costa and Starbucks I’m thinking what’s that, you know Uni’s are supposed to be innovative and you know into the future and looking at things in a different way, etc… Costa? Let it be run by students. Let it be students own companies you know and tell them we want them to make healthy meals for our students and you will see a big difference. Yeah. I’m telling you because these people are just after profits. Let’s all go vegan, I think that’s good. We are getting a little bit off message now. Was there anything else you wanted to say about health and student lifestyle? I’m going to look round, anyone who wants to speak, speak out? No. You know just like, sorry what’s your name? Me? She can’t tell you it’s a focus group! Oh sorry. Anyone who has mentioned names, it will be taken out. Okay she said about if possible gym fees, free gym fees and I know that’s not possible, but try and bring it down, down, down to the minimum. It should be what it costs and discount. I think it’s only we who use the, have access to the gym. Does the public have access to the gym? I don’t think they do. It’s a Uni gym anyway. People are in there all the time, like certain times it’s well visited. I’ve got like a gym membership and I never have the time to go. You choose not to have the time to go. Exactly. Alright. No, no because again it’s a choice, it’s like your choice. I want to say this sorry, I remember in Year 1 when the sports community came to address us in the lecture theatre they said for nursing students they would bring sports activities to us in placement and that was in Year 1. Really? Yes I do remember that and I know the person who said it you know. Yeah so it’s not really happened, but it’s a very good idea, you know like some people said we do night shift and stuff like that it makes us eat unhealthy which is true and another way to counteract that is to be able to have access to sporting facilities you know from Middlesex University. It’s being able to participate in those sports, we never hear about them apart from that induction we had about them after that I don’t know what’s going on in the sports world here and even if I wanted to, when you’re doing 9 to 5, it’s impossible to take part and being able to travel to …. So bring it to me. No but if you talk to your placements they’ll let you have it off probably. A day off? Not a day off, but have a shift around it, like if you want to do netball or hockey or rugby or whatever …. They don’t. It depends on who you … This kind of information is not sifted through to the students so we know that it is possible … So if we had a better interface then for health students talking to the Students Union about what they need. Yeah. Exactly and letting students know, like she is saying that you can ask time out from placement to participate in those kind of activities, students aren’t really knowing they can do that because we know they’re there, but we know our priority is placement. Well that’s something we can feed that back. A good idea. Okay I’m calling the session. ………….