PHVIT9540 Participation and Cooperation Course description

This course offers insights into recent trends in the relationship between users of and professionals in the health and care services. The course will focus on looking critically at perceptions of user involvement, empowerment, and coordination between health care professionals and users. In particular, the course will discuss different traditions in understanding goal definition and redistribution of power, relational knowledge, and the concept of coproduction in the context of public services. User involvement in research will also be a topic of discussion.

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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

• is a the forefront of knowledge of conceptual understanding and theories of user involvement and professional input
• can critically assess how different perspectives of user involvement and professional coordination can be applied in health science research

Skills

The PhD candidate can

• critically reflect on the knowledge base for user involvement and coordination
• articulate problems that address the complex relationships between individuals, service provision, and society in health science research
• design a plan for including users in research design

General competence

The PhD candidate can

• discuss user involvement and coordination as concepts and practices based on critical thinking of empowerment, goal-setting, and relationships between professionals and users
• communicate and discuss topics from research about user involvement and coordination in the field of the health sciences
• demonstrate how critical insight generated from studies of user involvement and coordination can be applied in innovation processes

Work and teaching methods consist of lectures, seminars, and self-study. The outcomes of the seminars are presented and discussed in plenary sessions.

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This course adopts a basis and critical perspective of Needs Led Research. The process linked to the first step in the research pathway dealing with the identification and prioritization of research issues. Needs Led Research is characterized by two parallel processes; user involvement and identification and verification of evidence gaps by systematic searches in databases.

User involvement is characterized by processes in which users/stakeholders (eg patients, relatives, health workers) suggest, discuss, prioritize and agree on research questions they consider important. Several framework and methodologies for user involvement in research exist, of which the most relevant ones will be focused on in this course.

Identification and verification of evidence gaps, being the core of evidence-based research, is based on a systematic and transparent review of existing research in order to guide new studies in answering relevant and valid research questions. The course will focus on how to identify, verify and document evidence gaps by systematically searching the existing evidence.

The course will be run as a five-day course over a period of three months.

Admission requirements

This course is primarily aimed at PhD candidates admitted to the PhD Programme in Health Sciences but is also open to other applicants. Admission requirements are a completed hovedfag, master's degree (120 ECTS credits) or equivalent qualification.

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.

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

Knowledge

The PhD candidate:

• has an outstanding insight into the most relevant methodologies for user involvement in decision-making processes for identifying relevant research questions
• is at the forefront of knowledge about how to identify and verify evidence gap.

Skills

The PhD candidate can:

• identify, facilitate and use the most suitable methodology in which users/stakeholders suggest, discuss, prioritize and agree on research questions they consider important, in a given context/study
• identify, verify and document evidence gaps by systematically searching the existing evidence, that is, conducting literature searches and selecting relevant and high-quality articles

General competence

The PhD candidate can:

• utilize processes for user involvement, as well as identification and verification of evidence gaps, in order to identify relevant and unanswered research questions.
• facilitate Needs Led Research in close collaboration with the relevant field of practice
• develop project management and communication skills.

Work and teaching methods consist of lectures, seminars, small group work and discussions, self-study, and practical exercises. In the seminars the students will present and discuss the status of their work and progress in plenary sessions.

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