Facilitating refereed publication by health professionals: research informed software to scaffold the integration of research evidence with practice knowledge

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Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 38: Learning for Life and Work in a Complex World

July, 2015, 528 pages
Published by
T. Thomas, E. Levin, P. Dawson, K. Fraser & R. Hadgraft
ISBN
978-0-908557-96-7
Abstract 

Health professionals strive to base their practice on the best available research evidence while needing to demonstrate best practice to meet accreditation requirements. This requires skills in interpreting and applying research evidence and also the ability to construct written reports describing health care practice.

This paper describes research processes underpinning the design of e-learning software used to support the preparation of refereed publications by health care professionals, postgraduate and undergraduate students. The project, Critiique for Publication (CFP) draws together two existing research programs focusing on mentored refereed publication and online appraisal by embedding mentored publication subject content in a novel e-learning tool. CFP will be used by clinicians and students to facilitate collaborative publication development. CFP promotes learning by doing as clinicians and students are guided through scaffolded report construction based on integrating critically appraised research evidence with professional practice knowledge. The paper will describe how the development of CFP has been informed by survey and interview data examining barriers and facilitators for publication.

Postgraduate and undergraduate students, whose studies provided the potential for the generation of student led publications, were surveyed to identify facilitators and barriers to publication development. In depth interviews were also conducted with respondents who expressed interest in further study participation. These findings were then used to inform further CFP software development.

Keywords: teaching-research-practice nexus, best practice health care, student led publishing