Health Professional Education

The Centre for Health Professional Education is committed to engaging in a systematic and rigorous program of research that will examine the effectiveness of curricula interventions as well as the impact of health professional education on patient outcomes.

Although health professionals are committed to evidenced based practice, this has for the most part, not translated to a rigorous examination of educational practices and outcomes. While evaluations seeking feedback on students' perspectives of the quality of their educational experiences is regularly sought, a more in depth, rigorous and evidence based approach to health professional education is needed.

Our research centre is interprofessional and based on the premise that effective team work and communication are essential to both clinical practice and educational preparation of health professionals.

OBJECTIVES

  • To work collaboratively in conducting a systematic and rigorous program of educational research.
  • To conduct research that informs, influences and has the potential to improve health care outcomes.
  • To conduct research that informs, influences and improves teaching and learning.
  • To support research higher degree students and early career researchers to achieve excellence in educational research.

Research Themes

  • Clinical reasoning
  • Interprofessional education
  • Cultural compentence
  • Patient safety
  • Preparation for practice
  • The impact and outcomes of educational innovations
  • The student experience (including transition and retention)

METHODOLOGIES

Qualitative and quantitative approaches, mixed methods, evaluation studies, cases studies, phenomenology, critical ethnography, cross sectional surveys, narrative inquiry, discourse analysis, Delphi technique, cost-benefit analysis, longitudinal and experimental designs.