Graduates’ affective transfer of research skills and evidence based practice from university to employment in clinics

Abstract

Background: This research sought to determine the impact of explicit program-based development of skills associated with research and Evidence Based Practice (EBP) on the attitudes and sustained behaviours of graduates subsequently employed in clinics. Systematic reviews have shown that university teaching of EBP and research skills rarely result in transfer of commensurate attitudes and sustained behaviours of students to their subsequent studies or to employment. Studies have therefore called for detailed exploration of what may enable this transfer of knowledge and skills to attitudes and behaviours. In keeping with these calls, this paper presents a fine-grained qualitative study of graduates' research skills and EBP in clinics with particular reference to pertinent attitudes, values and behaviours sustained, or further developed, one year after program completion. Methods: The study revolved around employed graduates of a Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) program, which used the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework to structure the explicit, coherent and cyclic development of the skills associated with research in multiple semesters of the degree. One year after their completion of the BOH program, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine employed graduates, three from each of three consecutive cohorts, to gain their professional perspectives on their research skills and EBP developed at university and then used in clinics. While the predetermined interview questions focused on employed graduates' knowledge and skills, the attitudes and values around research skills and EBP emerged spontaneously. Results: Graduates that were interviewed relayed in detail their attitudes and values associated with research skills and EBP when asked about their work in clinics, even though the affective elements were not specifically elicited. In the employment context, the positive affective aspects of the skills associated with research and EBP that graduates discussed were pronounced, and this contrasted with working graduates retrospective view of university research skills and EBP. Conclusions: The richness of affective interaction with patients was a factor that enabled the interviewed graduates to transfer university knowledge and skills into attitudes and behaviours associated with EBP. We recommend similar fine-grained qualitative research to further develop constructs that enable quantification of the interplay of cognitive and affective facets in researching and EBP.

How Do We Arrange?

“…However, it was also found that there was a risk that the thinking skills developed may atrophy. A follow-up series of studies looked at the explicit use of MELT across multiple semesters of a degree in Media [3,4], Oral Health [5] and Animal Science [6].…”

“…So yes, it slowly did lead up to a better research in the third year. I think if we started researching in the third year, we wouldn't produce a high-quality piece of work at all (italics added) [5].…”

What Will We Use?

“…Before I left for Cambodia yes-because I actually took a silver fluoride which is a product that we didn't even actually come into contact with in the Bachelor of Oral Health here. When we went for a placement for Canberra there was a tutor there that was working with us and she used it [silver fluoride] because she trained I think in Darwin or somewhere out and she was working out in the sticks and so they had that as a prevention for decay and all that sort of stuff so they were using that product a lot, but we didn't come into contact with it because it stains teeth and there's all these things that they don't like aesthetically so that's why we weren't using it, but it's like an amazing product because I was really looking into that because I thought that might be really beneficial for Cambodia because they don't get care often and they're considered more rural so I was doing a lot of research with that and I ended up purchasing some and taking it over with me and I was using it when I was over there [16].…”

“…Analysis of the interviews showed that for them, embark & clarify was complex in the affective domain, initiated by numerous and diverse interactions, and seemed to be much more nuanced and context-sensitive than any other facet [21]. Sometimes, sophisticated thinking is driven by curiosity, sometimes by empathy for patient needs and sometimes by passion for an issue [16]. This starting point may be initiated by a teacher, as shown in the class context of Place Value, and in such cases, the challenge is to clarify what the teacher wants.…”

“…In cases where the starting point is initiated by a student, the process of clarification can end up being even more complex, with students needing to fine-tune the question, aim or need. In addition to curious, the study in the Oral Health context found other affective descriptors that impelled graduates to embark: passion, ownership, interest in learning, implications of not researching, boredom and the need to justify [16]. Therefore research is showing that embarking & clarifying has, to date, the most complex cognitive and affective domains.…”