June 2011


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Jannel Philip, a PhD Student from the Faculty of Social Sciences was awarded the David Picou Young Researcher Prize at the 56th Annual Scientific Meeting of The Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC).

Ms. Philip’s paper, “Healthcare Students’ Willingness to Interact with Patients Living with HIV/AIDS(PLHIV): Examining the Influence of Attributions, Prejudicial Evaluation, Perception of Occupational Risk and Emotions,” emphasized the integral role of emotions in forming HIV related attitudes and behaviours of healthcare providers and recommended that emotions such as empathy be considered in efforts to enhance provider-patient interactions.

The CHRC, a health research organization, stages an annual scientific conference which brings together research and minds from the Bahamas to Belize. At this year’s conference in Guyana in April, there were more than 100 presentations, including oral and poster presentations and feature lectures.

The Young Research prize is awarded annually to the researcher whose presentation at the CHRC Scientific meeting is the most outstanding, and who is not known to be an established scientist. According to the CHRC secretariat, the following is taken into account when adjudicating the presentation: Objective or hypothesis is sound; Paper is well written; The results and their interpretation are credible and statistical analyses of the data are valid; The conclusions are important and relevant to Caribbean health problems; The quality of the presentation is high, especially with regard to: delivery, clarity of slides, discussions are pertinent and supported by the results.

The awarding of this prize to social science research signals the acknowledgement and appreciation of the contribution of social science research to health and wellness. It highlights the need for combining the bio-medical and social approaches to address health challenges in the region.