Medical Education Research
Our vision is that teaching should rely on evidenced based education methods supporting students’ learning for development of scientific approach, professional competence and interprofessional team competence.
Research focus
Medical Education Research in Health Care Sciences
The connection between education and research needs to be strengthened in nursing education at all levels. The most important pre-requisites to make this possible are teachers who have educational skills that are strongly linked to their subject areas, and to implement new results from education research and development in our educational commitments. Furthermore, teaching should to a great extent be interdisciplinary, in order to prepare the students for working in complex healthcare environments requiring various skills and team work.
Our vision is that teaching should rely on evidenced based education methods supporting students’ learning for development of scientific approach, professional competence and interprofessional team competence. To support this vision a research project group for medical education research in health care sciences (MER) was established at the Division of Nursing in April 2014.
Medical educational research is an interdisciplinary field based on care sciences and behavioral sciences, particularly pedagogy but also psychology, sociology and social anthropology. Within the field of medical education, learning processes, conditions for learning and professional development within health care are studied. This involves developing knowledge about the conditions, strategies and methods for encouraging, influencing and operating learning processes aiming to positive and appropriate development for students, academics, professional practitioners and patients. Studies within medical education cover individual and system levels, both within academia and within health care. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches are used depending on the nature of research questions. Understanding the conditions for learning within health care is a prerequisite for professional development and efficient utilization of resources contributing to improved quality of human health. Medical education research is needed for improving quality of learning, supervision and practice within health care, particularly in terms of integration between disciplines, theory and practice, patient interaction, cooperation with management, attitudes, ethics and a scientific approach.
The medical education research and development projects at the Division of Nursing comprise a diversity of studies on e.g. student and patient learning, webbased distance learning, interprofessional learning, professional competence, professional development, course development, course evaluation, and students´’ experiences of theoretical and clinical education. As an important part of a vivid education research environment continuous research seminars and journal clubs are offered to faculty teachers on a regular basis.