Complex skills are required for new primary health care researchers: a training program responds

Terry, Amanda L.; Stewart, Moira; Ashcroft, Rachelle; Brown, Judith Belle; Burge, Fred; Haggerty, Jeannie; McWilliam, Carol; Meredith, Leslie; Reid, Graham J.; Thomas, Roanne; Wong, Sabrina T.

doi:10.1186/s12909-022-03620-3

BMC Medical Education

Table 1 Seven curriculum components and their educational approaches

From: Complex skills are required for new primary health care researchers: a training program responds

	Education Content- the ‘What’			Education Processes – the ‘How’
Curriculum Components	Research Skills Development^a	Explicit Knowledge^b	Tacit Knowledge^c	Collaborative Co-created Learning^d	Critical Reflection^e	Community of Scholars^f	Educate for Capability^g
1) What is Primary Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
2) Research Methodologies	✓	✓	✓	✓			✓
3) Knowledge Translation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
4a) Interdisciplinary Collaborative Team Development Workshop	✓	✓	✓
4b) Interdisciplinary Collaborative Team Development Discussion	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
5a) Interdisciplinary Grant Proposal Writing Workshop		✓
5b) Interdisciplinary Grant Proposal Writing Discussion	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
6. Policy-Maker Engagement		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
7. Patient Engagement		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

✓ means the Component is addressed using the particular approach
^a Research Skill Development framework is an aid for educators developing a curriculum to take students from low levels of student autonomy (Level 1 = closed inquiry and high degree of structure) to high levels (Level V = open inquiry with self-determined guidelines) [27]. TUTOR-PHC provides opportunities culminating in Component 4b & 5b which provide Level V training
^b Explicit knowledge is: “formal (mathematical equations, scientific papers and train timetables); can be expressed in symbols (codified); and is therefore easy to communicate, transfer and measure” [28]. See also Nutley et al. [29]
^c Tacit Knowledge is “informal (as in ‘knowing the ropes’) and is difficult to codify and transfer between individuals”. It has three inherent properties: “inextricably woven with … experiences and situational contexts; dependent for its meaning on interpretation… by individuals in a particular context; the person… needs to have some prior knowledge and experience… for the new knowledge to make sense” [28]
^d Collaborative Co-creative Learning is a “social process involving the active construction of new knowledge and understandings through group interaction and peer discussion” [28]
^e Critical reflection, advocated by Schon [30] and Mezirow [31] for “workplace learning” on “ill-defined and messy problems” in the real world, permits an opening of “meaning perspectives” allowing more integrative learning i.e., learning to put the new knowledge into the practice of research [33]. See also McWilliam [34]; Taylor & Hamdy [35]
^f Community of Scholars means that TUTOR-PHC is explicit in its goal to create a community of PHC researchers which will be an ongoing resource for all trainee graduates. Components 4b and 5b enhance the community-building
^g Educate for Capability means to provide appropriate learning for complex contexts, i.e., “for its applicability to problems in the work environment… (in the form of) transferable problem-solving strategies” [28, 32]

Back to article page

ISSN: 1472-6920

Contact us

Submission enquiries: bmcmedicaleducation@biomedcentral.com
General enquiries: ORSupport@springernature.com