1. Defining a problem, challenge, or opportunity
Scholarship in Health Education Research and Innovation (SHERI) course
Rachel H. Ellaway
Community Health Sciences Office of Health and Medical Education Scholarship

2. Why engage in scholarship?
Curiosity
Commission
Problems
Challenges
Opportunities

3. Problems, challenges, opportunities
Does X actually work?
We can’t do X any more
We can’t afford X
We now need to do X but don’t know how
Do X and Y contradict each other?
Does X cause problems?
Is there a better/different way of doing X?
We have to do X, what is the best way to do it?

4. Defining a problem What is the problem: Who is it a problem for?
Deficits, gaps, holes, cost, sustainability, time, scale, media, location, failure, under-performance, resistance, compliance, unwanted/conflicting messages, compatibility, alignment, integration, consistency, culture, identity
Who is it a problem for?
How big a problem is it?
What are the consequences if the problem is not addressed?

5. Defining a problem What do we know? What do we not know?
Direct experience
Third-party knowledge
What do we not know?
Deficits, gaps, holes, shortfalls
What do we need to know?
Understanding
Basis for action
Basis for further work

6. Example What is the problem?
Inability of PGME systems to fail substandard learners – ‘failure to fail problem’
How big a problem is it?
Not know precisely but it would seem this is a system-wide issue
What are the consequences?
Some physicians complete training without meeting all of the required standards, potential patient safety issue
What do we know?
That this happens and that it is difficult to fix, combination of time pressures and conflicts between mentor and judge roles
What do we not know?
What the best strategy or strategies are for fixing this problem
What do we need to know?
What works, in what circumstances, what this costs and what other impacts making this change will have

7. Defining a response Core issues Nice to haves Nature of solution:
Knowledge, understanding
Persuading, changing behaviours
Mitigating/remediating activity/system
Changing/reinventing activity/system
Creating activity/system
Accounting

8. Utility, translation Health professional education is a field
Implied quality assurance and/or improvement
Implied translation to practice
Scholarship is to be used
By whom?
For what purpose?
Generalizability
Accessibility
Relevance

9. Cut your cloth … You can’t do everything Limits: One study or many?
Resources: time, money
Skills
Access
Ethics
Understanding
One study or many?
Programs of inquiry

10. Mode of inquiry: METRICS
Metascholarship
Methods, tools, publication, translation
Evaluation
Value, good/bad, better/worse
Translation
Things from elsewhere, effectiveness
Research
Inductive knowledge and theory testing, generating
Innovation
New things, ideas
Conceptual
Deductive knowledge and theory, critiques
Synthesis
What do we know, how do we know, what do we not know

11. Summary Purpose or driver for inquiry What’s the story?
Define in terms of:
Problem
Response
Mode of inquiry
Translation
Limitations
Having a clear problem or purpose sustains, provides relevance, links to utility