PHVIT9600 The Municipal Health and Care Services as a Research Setting Course description

Background

This PhD course has been an introductory course at the national, interdisciplinary research school Muni-Health-Care, financed by the Norwegian research Council (NRC), the last eight years (2016-2023). As the NRC ends the financing of the research school at the end of 2023, partners must assume responsibility for the courses in the next phase of the research school. OsloMet has been a partner in Muni-Health-Care since the start, but has not been responsible for any PhD-course in the research school so far. We therefore ask that OsloMet takes responsibility for the course from 2024.

Introduction

The overall aim of the Muni-Health-Care research school is to contribute to the improvement of the health and care services in the municipalities by building research capacity, developing research culture and generate sound scientific knowledge for the Norwegian municipality sector. The Norwegian municipalities vary largely in size, demography, economic and social structures. The municipal health and care services is the largest health care service within Norwegian health care. It provides the bulk of services to the Norwegian population, serving approximately 270.000 recipients annually. The services span from health promoting services to newborn, young children and teenagers, to day-to-day complex services to frail older people and people with long-term conditions across the lifespan.

Since its inception, Muni-Health-Care has contributed to the call for more research in this field by developing relevant state-of-the-art knowledge, reflecting the large variability and local needs of Norwegian municipalities. Furthermore, Muni-Health-Care has contributed to increased research capacity and culture by providing high quality doctoral education to a new generation of researchers and build research networks aimed at developing this field of research and clinical practice.

In eight years, 110 PhD students from 16 academic institutions in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland has successfully graduated from Muni-Health-Care’s program, in which they all have completed this introductory course during the first year.

The Municipal Health and Care Services as a Research Setting

The Municipal Health and Care Services as a Research Setting is an introductory course for PhD candidates whose research area is within the municipal health service. The course is interdisciplinary and aims to address several challenges associated with doing research within this sector.

The course will focus on key issues that must be addressed when conducting research into the municipal health care services and will emphasize different theoretical perspectives, organizational frameworks and structures, collaboration within the services and user involvement in research. There will also be lectures on key research topics and the challenges linked to these. The students will present their projects, participate in discussions, and function as opponents to fellow students’ presentations. The course will consist of lectures, presentations, group works, seminars and a final home exam.

The course will run as a three-day intensive physical course, followed by 4 follow-up webinars over the course of the next two semesters. The webinars will focus on the participants’ own projects, linking them to the overall theoretical and methodological topics addressed in the course.

Learning outcomes:

On completion of the course, the PhD candidate has achieved the following learning outcomes, defined in terms of knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

The PhD candidate has knowledge of

• Significant political, legal, financial and organizational aspects of the municipal health and care services
• Relevant research related to the municipal health and care services
• Theoretical and methodological perspectives of relevance to research into the municipal health and care services
• Key challenges and opportunities linked to research within this context

Skills

The PhD candidate can

• Analyse and discuss key characteristics and challenges related to the municipal health and care services
• Analyse and discuss central research topics and methodological issues related to municipal health and care services
• Present and argue for the need to carry out research on various aspects of the municipal health and care services

Competences

The PhD candidate can

• Reflect on and discuss topics related to the development of the municipal health and care services
• Reflect on and discuss user involvement in research in the municipal health and care services
• Critically assess the need for research within the municipal health and care sector
• Discuss specific research studies in light of relevant theoretical and methodological perspectives

Work and teaching methods consist of lectures, self-study, group work, seminars and plenary discussions.A high degree of activity and involvement is expected from the participants.

The participants submit an abstract of their research study prior to the start of the course. Each participant gives an oral presentation of their research study during the course and the participants provide feedback ("opposition") to each other. A written reflection note is submitted before each webinar, discussing theoretical and methodological issues of one’s own study, drawing on the literature in the course.

Approved by the Doctoral Committee 24 May 2018. Minor changes approved 27.04.2020.

This PhD course is open for candidates at the PhD Program in Educational Sciences for Teacher Education, other PhD candidates and academic employees.

Language: English (and Norwegian, dependent on the language of participants).

This course is one of two PhD courses on Action Research. Course 2 builds on Course 1. In this second course, epistemological, methodological and ethical perspectives on action research will be presented, discussed and related to examples of research projects. Reflections on connections between epistemological conceptual frameworks and practical choices in educational action research are emphasized.

Completed Course 1, or that candidates / students can document competence equivalent to Course 1. In such cases, the student must apply for approval from the head of the program.

On completion of the course, the candidate will have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The candidate

• has in-depth knowledge of epistemological and methodological perspectives on Action Research projects
• has in-depth knowledge of the role of the researcher in action research projects

Skills

The candidate:

• has gained methodological competence in understanding and engaging in Action Research at a sufficiently high level to develop knowledge in his/her field of study.
• can give academically competent written presentations of a relevant topic within action research

General competence

The candidate:

• can identify and establish constructive connections between theories, empirical data, and practices based on developed methodological competence in Action Research
• has sufficient ethical competence to identify relevant ethical challenges in his/her research process.

Organised tuition is given in the form of lectures and seminars. Candidates are expected to actively participate in all the teaching activities. Candidates will receive academic supervision on writing essays.