Lifelong Learning in Health Care Contexts – Terese Stenfors' group

Lifelong Learning in Health Care Contexts (LLiHCC) is engaged in teaching at all educational levels – bachelor, master, doctoral – and lifelong learning both at Karolinska Institutet and elsewhere.

Undergraduate level and Master's level

We are mainly involved in teaching in KI's Medical Programme and at the Scandinavian College of Naprapathic Manual Medicine.

We regularly supervise students in their degree projects or master's theses.

Doctoral level

At the doctoral level we are responsible for a variety of courses offered to PhD students at KI. Topics include: Medical education research, teaching and learning, scientific communication and research methodology. 

We are active in the steering group for the Doctoral Programme in Health Care Science as well as the steering group for the national research school in Health Professions Education 

We have several PhD students in our team and co-supervise students at other departments and universities.

Faculty and professional level

The members of LLiHCC teach in faculty development courses (such as Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) and continuous professional development courses for clinicians.

As learning is one of our favourite concepts in LLiHCC, we not only conduct research on learning, but also help improve education by developing systems for assessment, quality improvement and feedback, as well as through evaluation of new innovative teaching and learning methods.

We are happy to explore new teaching collaborations or supervision opportunities.

We organise seminars and courses for PhD students, and senior researchers in our team supervise PhD students in other groups who often join us in our shared activities. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in Medical Education, please contact us.

Dissertations in LLiHCC

2015-03-20: Striving for autonomy: health sciences teachers' enactment of policy, Linda Barman

2016-01-29: It takes two to tango: an inquiry into healthcare professional education environments, Per Palmgren

2016-10-28: On learning in the clinical environment, Matilda Liljedahl

2017-06-12: What we talk about when we talk about change: a study of change practice and change agency in higher education, Cormac McGrath

2020-03-20: Exploring the impact of virtual patient design : medical students' small group learning around medical error, Luke Woodham

2020-10-23: Entrance to and advancement within the Swedish medical labour market for physicians with a medical degree from outside the European Union, Linda Sturesson Stabel

2021-10-01: From in-situ simulation to beyond : improving paediatric trauma care: Ralph Mackinnon

2021-11-19: Tying the knot between faculty development and educational change in clinical settings, Agnes Elmberger

Current PhD students

Joel Freilich

Karl Rombo

Elias Schriwer

Our research in Lifelong Learning in Health Care Contexts seeks to increase our common understanding of how the complex phenomenon of learning takes place and how it can best be supported at all levels, from the individual student, teacher or patient to the organisation or larger educational context. We coordinate and lead the KI Research Network in Medical Education.

Our topics of interest can be grouped into four main areas based on four different types of agents:

Students

Research in student learning may include the exploration of questions regarding student understanding and experiences; assessment; learning environments; and curriculum development.

Health care professionals

(including clinical teachers) The research field of lifelong learning and continuous professional development for health care professionals may include research regarding teaching and learning methods (simulation, web-based learning, reflection groups), learning in a particular content area (for example patient safety), leadership, and inter-professionalism.

Patients

The research field of patient learning may include research regarding patients’ perceptions, patients’ learning regarding a certain condition or disease, or patient learning via e-tools.

Organisations

(including quality improvement) The field of organisational learning includes research on leadership as well as the impact of different parts of the health care organization on learning from a systems perspective.