As key members of clinical teaching teams, medical students and residents play a major role in providing patient care.
Lorelei Lingard
How do the case review discussions with physician supervisors influence the care provided to their patients?
To care for complex patients such as transplant recipients, a wide range of clinicians from different divisions and organizations must collaborate. What skills do clinicians need to effectively collaborate across interdisciplinary boundaries, and how do trainees learn them?
Traditionally used to train routine procedural tasks, simulation has become an increasingly popular educational method in surgical training. But many surgical procedures present complications or surprises. How do we use simulation to train surgeons to skillfully adapt their critical thinking skills to the unexpected?
Medical students feel unprepared to communicate with dying patients. Will training and experience as a hospice volunteer working with peer advisors improve their sense of comfort and their anxiety?
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At the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, these and other questions are the daily work of scientists and clinicians at a new research centre dedicated to advancing the science of education in the health professions.
In fall of 2009, Lorelei Lingard, PhD, joined Schulich as the founding director and lead scientist of the Centre for Education Research & Innovation. Dr. Mark Goldszmidt, a general internist, was appointed as the associate director with an epidemiologist and a rhetorician rounding out the centre’s research team. Recently, a second PhD scientist, Sayra Cristancho, an engineer with interests in surgical simulation, was recruited in partnership with Schulich’s Department of Surgery.
In existence for just over a year, the centre officially opens the doors of its new physical space in the Health Sciences Addition on Dec. 9. Consisting of offices, meeting rooms and open-concept collaboration spaces, the centre’s new location will be a dynamic hub of intellectual activity among scientists from disciplines as diverse as education, engineering and the humanities, in conjunction with clinicians from medicine and the health sciences.
In health care, a strongly held philosophy is scientific evidence should drive care.
“At the centre, we believe that this also holds true for education,” says Lingard. “Our decisions about how to teach and evaluate trainees should be driven by scientific evidence. Gone are the days of initiating curricular change simply because someone thought it might be a good idea.”
According to Lingard, the future of health professional education lies in “systematic study of the environments we expect trainees to practice in, careful articulation of the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to practice effectively in those environments, and informed selection of the training and assessment modalities that will support the development of physicians who are capable of meeting societal needs now and in the future.”
Of course, health care is an ever-changing environment, due to organizational shifts and the endless growth in biomedical knowledge. Reflecting this reality, Lingard says “research at the centre is not restricted to the early years of training, but extends into questions of how to encourage and evaluate continuing education for health care practitioners.”
Many of the questions that need to be answered in order to advance health professions education are interdisciplinary, requiring the collaboration of scientists and clinicians from diverse backgrounds. To support this work, Lingard emphasizes that the centre has already developed strong partnerships with the faculties of Education and of Health Sciences, and is nuturing collaborative connections with a number of other departments including Philosophy, Psychology and Information and Media Studies.
In support of its goals, the centre offers numerous activities throughout the year, including an annual research conference, an ongoing discussion forum for physicians studying in graduate programs in education, and seasonal colloquia on key topics in health professions education research.
The Centre for Education Research & Innovation will host its opening reception 5-7 p.m. Dec. 9. in Health Sciences Addition, Suite 110.
For more information, visit schulich.uwo.ca/ceri.