Health Professional Education

There is an abundance of published research in health professional education. Graduating health professionals so that they move into settings where they can influence patient outcomes means that health professional education is high stakes and it is important to both do the right thing and do things right. For example, students, and ultimately the health professions will benefit from: engaging and effective curriculum; high quality support and pastoral care; rigorous and defensible assessment processes; and authentic clinical and community-based encounters. Current research into health professional education at the School of Medicine is focused on a community engagement, programmatic assessment, standard setting, peer review of educational practice, interprofessional learning, and communication in clinical practice. As with all research, these priorities may well transform into other research agendas building on the knowledge gained through the adoption of pragmatic and fit for purpose research approaches. All research projects undertaken in health professional education at the School of Medicine Fremantle are underpinned by ethical approval obtained through the University of Notre Dame Australia HREC.

Featured Projects

Programmatic assessment

A four year project investigating how the School of Medicine Fremantle is changing by adopting key principles underpinning programmatic assessment: greater visibility in assessment across domains of medicine, emphasis on student-centred feedback through a comprehensive mentoring process and continuous assessment through the creation of multiple data points.

The research has primarily applied, pragmatic aims. It seeks to generate understandings that might help inform the School of Medicine Fremantle if, and how, programmatic assessment could be implemented. However, it will also develop and share new knowledge about the application and change processes involved in shifting a large organisation from primarily examination-based assessments to a model based on a continuum of stakes with many data points underpinning progression decisions.

To date, a new learning portfolio has been implemented in the pre-clinical years of the MD program comprising of xx data points (year 1) and xx data points (year 2). A mentoring program has been also been implemented and continuous assessments have been built into the School’s Assessment Policy. Feedback from students and staff on the impact of these changes is immanent.

Community Engagement Placement

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Emotional Intelligence

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Peer Review of Educational Practice

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Broome Learning on Country

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Standard Setting

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Interprofessional Learning

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Communication in Clinical Practice

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Featured publications

The cart before the horse? Exploring the potential of ePortfolios in a Western Australian medical school.

Bate, F. Macnish, J. & Skinner, C

International Journal of ePortfolio, 2016

HDR Student Supervision

Elspeth Shipton

PhD

Thesis: An examination of pain education, knowledge and attitudes of medical students in Australia and New Zealand

Overview: The research aims to: describe how medical schools in Australia and New Zealand currently teach pain management to medical students; identify final year medical students’ attitudes, knowledge and skills in pain management; and explore stakeholders attitudes and perceptions regarding a comprehensive pain curriculum for medical students.

Jillian Thomson

Xxx

Thesis: Registered Nurses’ experience of medication administration errors: human factors

Overview: The aim of this exploratory qualitative research project is to understand nurses’ experience of Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medication administration errors and to investigate the extent to which they can identify contributing factors to the administration error.

Nitasha Narayan

Xxx

Thesis: Perceptions of the effectiveness of e-learning by nurses of different  levels on developing clinical skills and clinical knowledge

Overview: The study aims to explore Registered Nurses’, Enrolled Nurses’, Staff Development Nurses’ and Nurse Unit Managers’ perspectives on e-learning training packages, for developing clinical skills and clinical knowledge at a private hospital in Perth, Western Australia.

Contact

Dr Frank Bate

Frank.bate@nd.edu.au