PHVIT9600 De kommunale helse- og omsorgstjenestene som forskningssetting Emneplan

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.

The course covers key theoretical and ethical issues in behavior analysis research. Key strategies and tactics of behavior analysis and single case research. Topics such as measurement, design, internal and external validity, and interpretation will be emphasized. The alignment of single-case research methods with empirically supported treatments will be covered.

General admission requirements for the Ph.D. Degree in Health Sciences.

The course can also be offered to students who have been admitted to the "Health Science Research Programme, 60 ECTS", by prior approval from the supervisor and based on given guidelines for the research programme.

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.

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 can

• critically assess methods relevant to collecting and interpreting data
• assess of data collection methods’ appropriateness for answering research questions
• give examples and explain the difference between withdrawal and reversal designs
• give examples of the use of multiple baseline designs and alternating treatment designs
• give examples of direct, systematic, and clinical replication procedures

Skills

The PhD candidate can

• discuss basic principles for selecting an appropriate baseline
• discuss the rationale for single-case research designs
• discuss different recording techniques and their application criteria
• discuss different strategies for dealing with variability in data
• discuss criteria for validity and reliability and methods of assessing them
• discuss criteria for using different types of withdrawal designs
• conduct visual and statistical analysis of the effect of independent variables in single-case research designs

General competence

The PhD candidate can

• describe and discuss criteria for empirically supported treatment
• briefly outline the history of basic and applied single-case research
• discuss criteria for selecting behavior to assess (social, clinical, organizational, and personal significance)

The course consists of 1 introductory meeting, and 5 seminars of 5 x 45 minutes, with student presentations and time for feedback and discussion.

The introductory meeting is a 2-hours web-based meeting, taking place approximately 2 weeks ahead of the main part of the course. At this meeting, the structure, content, and purpose of the course are presented. The students are asked to give short presentations of their Ph.D. projects and describe how the course may be relevant to it. The main purpose of this early session is to help the students to start systematic work with the course readings.

The seminars target central themes from the course readings for student presentations and discussions. A high level of student participation is expected. During this time, students will produce several PowerPoint presentations, and a final presentation. Course teachers mediate discussions. After feedback and discussions, the students submit two PowerPoint files each, which serve as the exam.

• All papers approved
• attendance in at least 80 % of the seminars, and
• approved paper presentation in final seminar.

Portfolio.

Portfolio requirements: 2 PowerPoint presentations on specific topics from student classroom presentations