The Health Professions Education (HPE) Research and Scholarship Group comprises faculty members and higher degree research students interested in the scholarship of learning and teaching across various health professions. Our priority is to foster a Community of Practice for people undertaking research or scholarship in health professions education. This priority includes supporting collaboration and connections for educational research, as well as upskilling researchers. It also includes raising awareness of current best practice for learning and teaching in the health professions.
With the Health Sciences & Medicine Faculty offering a range of health professional degrees, there are a number of research streams, many involving cross-disciplinary collaboration.
The research in which members of the HPE Research Group are currently engaged includes:
- Interprofessional education for undergraduate students
- Programmatic evaluation and benchmarking
- Cultural safety in health professions and decolonising health professions curricula
- Planetary health and environmentally sustainable healthcare
- Professional identity development
- Optimising online learning and learning via social media
- Optimising virtual and augmented learning
- Student and staff well-being
- Student experiences of placements
- Ethics and law
- Simulation
Research areas and recent publications
With the Health Sciences and Medicine Faculty offering a range of health professional degrees, there are a number of research streams, many involving cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Health Professions Education Research and Scholarship Group fosters such collaboration through educational research.
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Clinical education, including placements, MD projects, program evaluation and assessment
Research in this broad area includes learning non-technical skills required for practising medicine, professional identity development, student well-being, student assessment, program evaluation, and the maintenance of professional competence.
Who works in this space?
- Associate Professor Tanisha Jowsey (Chair)
- Associate Professor Christian Moro
- Associate Professor Suzanne Gough
- Assistant Professor Patricia Green
- Assistant Professor Jaclyn Szkwara
- Assistant Professor Nicolene Lottering
- Assistant Professor Rowan Pickering
- Professor Kirsty Forrest
- Professor Michelle McLean
- ​Associate Professor Jo Bishop
- Associate Professor Jane Smith
- Assistant Professor Amy Bannantyne
- Assistant Professor Melanie Forbes
- Assistant Professor Helen Houghton
- Assistant Professor Lucy Grant
- Assistant Professor Sacha Kennedy
- Assistant Professor Jessica Stokes-Parish
Recent publications
- Kodagoda Gamage S, Jowsey T, Bishop J, Forbes M, Grant LJ, Green P, Houghton H, Links M, Morgan M, Roehl J, Stokes-Parish J. Internal evaluation of medical programs is more than housework: A scoping review. Plos one. 2024 Oct 25;19(10):e0305996.
- Moro C, Phelps C. Encouraging Study in Health Sciences: Informing School Students Through Interprofessional Healthcare Simulations. Simulation in Healthcare. 2024 Jun 1;19(3):144-50.
- Szkwara J, Stokes-Parish JB, Bishop J, Forrest KA. Inclusive Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) designs: feasible or a pipe dream?. InAustralia and New Zealand Association of Health Professions Educators (ANZAHPE) Conference 2023: Turning Tides Navigating the opportunities 2023 Jun 28.
- Ghani M, Cooper-Ioelu P, Jowsey T. Measuring the added value of virtual communities of practice for developing the educator role of critical care professionals. BMJ Open Quality. 2024 Jan 1;13(1):e002556.
- Savastyuk A, Campos C, Jowsey T. Simulation-Based Learning for Pain Medicine: A Scoping Review of Undergraduate Education. Australian Journal of Clinical Education. 2024 Dec 30;13(1):265-86.
Funded research project
Associate Jane Smith (Academic Lead) was awarded an RACGP Medical Education Research Grant: Exploring GP medical educator and trainee perceptions of benefits, challenges and enablers to online and face-to-face teaching and learning in vocational GP training. $150 000.
Current doctoral candidates and their projects
- Patricia Green: Medical students’ core procedural skills competency and their maintenance (University of Queensland)
- Katrina Reynolds: Preparedness for practice: Podiatry graduates and clinical supervisors (Bond University)
- Natasha Yates: Co-regulated learning in simulation-based education (Bond University)
- Victoria Brazil: Translation simulation: How can simulation improve quality in healthcare? (Bond University, PhD by prior publication)
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Clinical practice research informing education
Members of the Health Professions Education Research and Scholarship Group not only research education, we also apply research evidence to our learning and teaching. We also make the most out of existing data. Routinely collected health data are often collected without specific a priori research questions. The growing availability of data routinely generated during health care delivery and through monitoring disease incidence and outcomes has transformed the research landscape. Real-world findings from clinical practice such as typical medication use, have informed educational approaches that have been designed to improve clinical management and patient care.
Who works in this space?
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Ethics and Law Education
Ethics, law and professionalism are essential in healthcare. Inclusion in the various health professional curricula is essential and is likely to include ecological, planetary and public health ethics, discrete ethical dilemmas governing clinics as well as the complex challenges involved in research on humans and other animals. Current research focuses on questions of injustice, violence and disrespect in health care which manifest systemically as well as an exploration of the philosophical drivers of inequities, which generally have health sequelae for both privileged and oppressed populations. Research also includes the ethics of judicious prescribing and clinical decision-making to inform safe and effective prescribing.
Who works in this space?
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Planetary health and sustainable healthcare
Human health depends on a healthy planet. With the planet currently facing a number of crises such as rapid warming, biodiversity loss and water and air pollution, and with healthcare having a large environmental footprint, health care professionals need to mitigate further ecosystem disruption and adapt to changes that have already happened. Educating for sustainable healthcare and planetary health is therefore urgent. A number of MD student projects involve theatre waste audits.
The traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples around the world is vital for transforming the healthcare system and health professions education.
Who works in this space?
- Professor Michelle McLean
- Associate Professor Neelam Maheshwari
- Associate Professor Richard Matthews
- Associate Professor Treasure McGuire
- Associate Professor Christian Moro
- Associate Professor Beth Mozolic-Staunton
- Assistant Professor Kristen MacKenzie-Shalders
- Assistant Professor Lucy Grant
- Assistant Professor David Pache
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Technology-enhanced learning, including social media
Modern education practices aim to move away from traditional, didactic lecturer-focussed instruction to student self-directed, authentic and experiential learning environments. The introduction of technology has been one step towards achieving this goal. The introduction of serious games, virtual and augmented reality, web-based services and mobile-based interactive activities has been another step. Research assesses the effectiveness of technology-enhanced learning and investigates the impact if its use on student achievement. Another area of expanding research is the use of social media in learning and teaching and the dissemination of health messages.
Who works in this space?
- Associate Professor Suzanne Gough
- Associate Professor Christian Moro
- Associate Professor Tanisha Jowsey
- Assistant Professor Nicolene Lottering
- Assistant Professor Jessica Stokes-Parish
Collaborative research
Two recently established Bond University collaborations, the Collaboration for Research in Understanding Stigma in Healthcare (CRUSH) and the Translational Simulation Collaborative are also involved in health professions education. CRUSH focuses on advancing knowledge and understanding on stigma to improve care provision and health outcomes for the individuals/groups experiencing stigma. The various members undertake evidence-based research on stigma and discrimination in healthcare to support stigma reduction efforts through education, prevention, care and treatment. Some members of this Collaboration are involved in researching student well-being, including sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) at university. The Translational Simulation Collaborative is an academic and operational alliance between Bond University and Gold Coast Health to deliver better care, improve simulation delivery techniques and develop healthcare practitioners who can use simulation in their everyday practice.