Modernising Medical Careers - Research Proposal Example

Modernising Medical Careers - A research Proposal Introduction This proposal is to make a research proposal for the purpose of modernising medical careers and building a case for education during the course of their work. This proposal will comprise of the introduction highlighting the context and the rationale for the research work. The objectives will set at sight the aims of this research work proposal, the methodology and the time frame is also indicated. Context and Rationale Better service to the patient depends on the level of knowledge and experience that the doctor has. Continuous education is an ongoing requirement in the country, specifically for doctors. In order to ensure that the right kind of information percolates down to the doctors and information from the new research work is brought out to the field once they are ready, it is necessary that the doctors are continually educated. It is important that the doctors work towards a standard evaluation pattern and a standard is fixed for the doctors with a specific benchmark. Modernising Medical Careers provides for a special training ST1 and 2 programmes that would look at providing the right kind of information for the doctors in the country. After successful completion of the programme people have been appointed to the deanery. These people in turn would provide training to the doctors regularly to ensure that they take on the pressures of the modern living and the family. MMC is aiming to providing fair training to doctors and also to ensure that there is a flexible work force of doctors available at all points in time. The first set of students has gone through the ST1 training programme since August 2006 in the Mersey Deanery. Students will have to go through the special training program which is in line with the MMC's foundation course 1. This program is expected to build upon the knowledge, experience and skill acquired during the undergraduate program and training. Doctors are expected to achieve specific competencies by the year end in order to enable them register for the General Medical Council. Major stress is on working in all the areas of general practice and not specifically on one. In the second year of the program, the doctors are expected to go through training in the assessment and management of the acutely ill patients. This will also encompass the generic professional skills applicable to all areas of medicine. Objectives This study is to understand, evaluate and explore the views of both the educators and the learners about the ST1 training program that has been provided to the doctors. This will also be done with the view to helping the deanery to form opinions and ideas and to provide them with enough data that would help them to improve ST1 training. Methodology The study will be primarily qualitative in nature. The opinion of people who make up the student population in the deanery attending the ST1 and the educating supervisors in the deanery will both be considered in line with the objectives of the study. A questionnaire will be framed to collect the needed information from the students and the educators. This questionnaire will primarily address the extent of training received by the students during the program. In comparison with the original objectives of the program, has this been really achieved during the course of the program It is also looked at whether the program delivered new approaches to the doctors for handling patients and the effect of the same. Similar set of questions are also posed to the educational supervisors who were part of this exercise. Based on the answers to this question and on the direct study conducted through oral interviews, the report on the program is prepared. The study will include all the students who are attending the first year of the foundation course at the Mersey's deanery and all the educational supervisors who are involved in the program. The data is collected and then analysed based on the qualitative techniques that are employed for such data. Based on this analysis, the conclusions are drawn and then presented. Time Line Time line required for this program will be about six months in order to frame the questions and circulate it and collect the questions completed and then to analyse and report the findings. Conclusion Reference Appendix Questionnaire for the Speciality Training Name Batch Date From Institute S No Description Not at all No May Be Yes Very Much 1 Was the tool easy to learn 2 How effective is the tool in your estimation 3 Does it meet the purpose it was planned to, originally 4 Is it helpful in serving its purpose 5 How time consuming is it 6 Do you think the training provided during ST1 was useful 7 How practically oriented is the program 8 What was the support that the program got from practising doctors How do you think the program could be improved Signature Evaluation Techniques 1. There are 8 questions having answers on a 5 point Likert Scale. This has to be used to collect the answers and ascertain the thoughts of the individual participants. 2. The questions are grouped as follows: a. The ease of use of the tool: Questions: 1 and 5. b. The Effectiveness of the tool: Questions: 2,3 and 4 c. Usefulness of the training program: Questions: 6,7 and 8 3. Values are assigned as 1 for not at all, 2 for No and so on until 5 for Very much. 4. In order to evaluate the outcome of the questionnaire, these groupings should be used to analyse the above factors of the tool. The ease of use is provided by combining the answers to the questions 1 and 5 and plotting the graph. This would let us know how easy the tool is. Similarly, the effectiveness of the tool can also be plotted after adding the answers for the questions 2, 3 and 4. Usefulness of the program is obtained by adding the values for 6, 7 and 8. 5. Since the mid point of the values, 3 refers to a neutral answer, the values when added up would mean a neutral value if it is 6 or 9 depending on whether we are adding up 2 or 3 answers. 6. By having more than one question for a similar group would ensure that the answers are not biased unduly. 7. The averages of all the values of the respondents for any specific group would provide us the perception of the people. The respondents may also be classified and accordingly specific group perception may also be evaluated. For instance, if the respondents are students then the average would provide the students' perception. 8. The open question in the questionnaire would provide the respondent's view point on the issue of improving the program. We might also get some of the negative points in the program which could be analysed subsequently. Read More