Medical Education

Our aims

Keele Medical School Education Research Group is a group of researchers and scholars who are committed to improving the quality of healthcare education by researching the underpinning theory of educational practice, and by developing, implementing and evaluating innovations into practice. 

We aim to support Keele University School of Medicine’s mission of graduating excellent clinicians by ensuring that the curriculum is enhanced by rigorously researched, cutting edge innovation, whilst contributing to the national and international challenges facing healthcare professions education.

Our activity

We achieve our aims through a variety of activities:

• Directly conduct of research, lead by our group members
• Provision of bursaries to support start-up project costs for medical educators with ideas for research projects
• Supporting the academic development of staff interested conducting medical education research through our meetings and by direct mentorship

Our themes

We support research around distinct themes in medical education:

• Assessment and Feedback: including research on: assessor cognition; skills assessment; standard setting; VESCA within OSCE's; social aspects of the feedback dialogue; students interaction with feedback and reflection
• Preparation for Practice: including research on Safe Effective Clinical Outcome (SECO) teaching; career transitions; career choices
• Scholarship and Learning: including research on immunology and anatomy learning; the use of digital media to support PBL and education in general practice

There is a larger group of people from the school who are affiliated to the group. If you would like to be included please contact medicine.educationresearch@keele.ac.uk

Further dates to be advised shortly.

Face 2 Face Forum where researchers present medical school education research projects to peers for advice and encouragement.

Present at any stage of the project:

• Developing the research proposal
• Discussion of analysis
• Practice conference presentation of the findings.

If you would like to present at Face2Face or be included on the MERG mailing list for these meetings, please email medicine.educationresearch@keele.ac.uk.

Support is available in a variety of different ways:

Statistical advisory clinic

The Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences (iPCHS) offers a free bio-statistical advisory service to the Medical School via drop-in sessions. Consultations can be arranged with experienced statisticians, with advice given on:

• study design to obtain appropriate data
• statistical analysis of data
• interpretation of analyses
• how best to record and store your data

The service will offer 30 minute time slots, up to a maximum of 4 sessions per month initially. If not all slots are taken and more time is needed for a specific project, sessions can be extended to 60 minutes. Note that advice is not given over the phone, only by face-to-face consultation with a follow up email where necessary.

For further details, read the Statistical Advisory Service - Information Sheet.

To apply for a clinic slot, complete this form Statistical Advisory Service - Booking Form and return to primarycare.statadvice@keele.ac.uk.

Research clinics

The Medical School education research clinics are one way for any school member with an idea for a medical education research project to have a consultation with an active medical education researcher for advice and guidance on the next steps.

The clinics would help you refine an idea into a research question. We aim to increase our medical education research output, engagement with research across the School, and the proportion of staff and students who successfully present and publish their work. We also offer guidance on some of the following;

• Relevant literature
• Appropriate methods
• Colleagues who may have aligned interests and with whom you could work
• Your next steps

To apply, briefly describe your idea (300 words should be sufficient) and email the summary to medicine.educationresearch@keele.ac.uk.

Your idea will be 'triaged' to the member of the group who is most likely to be able to help. We will then put you in contact with your advisor. You can arrange a consultation with your advisor at a mutually convenient time and place. The consultation would last about 30 minutes.

What happens after your consultation is very much up to you and your advisor. We anticipate that the next stage would be for you, perhaps with a more experienced colleague who we may have helped you identify, to work up a research proposal which is ready for peer review, ethics approval, and then data collection. The sky is the limit!

MERG bursaries

As part of supporting the development of Medical Education Research, MERG offers a number of small bursaries for research, scholarship, or for conference support.

Read about our MERG bursary scheme for application details.

University ethics

All research involving human participants requires ethical approval. Details of applying for ethical approval can be found on the Research Ethics web page.

Flow charts for research applications for student or staff projects.

To help with your research endeavours, here are a number of useful links:

Social Media

MERG Twitter account: @KeeleMERG

Medical Research Organisations

Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)
https://www.asme.org.uk

The Association for the Study of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE)
https://amee.org/home

The Academy of Medical Educators
http://medicaleducators.org/

The Society for Academic Primary Care
https://sapc.ac.uk

The General Medical Council - Education and Training
https://gmc-uk.org/education/index.asp

Research Councils and Grant Awarding Bodies

The National Institute of Health Research
https://www.nihr.ac.uk

The Economic and Social Research Council
http://www.esrc.ac.uk

The Leverhulme Trust
https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk

Medical Education Journals

Medical Education
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2923

Academic Medicine
http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/pages/default.aspx

Advances in Health Sciences Education
http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/journal/10459

Education for Primary Care
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tepc20 

Perspectives in Medical Education
http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/journal/40037

Teaching and Learning in Medicine
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/htlm20/current

Journal of Graduate Medical Education
http://www.jgme.org/?code=gmed-site

There are many others; please contact medicine.educationresearch@keele.ac.uk for a more comprehensive list.