TY - JOUR
T1 - "Important but risky"
T2 - attitudes of global thought leaders towards cost and value research in health professions education
AU - Cleland, J A
AU - Cook, D A
AU - Maloney, S
AU - Tolsgaard, M G
N1 - © 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Studies of cost and value can inform educational decision making, yet our understanding of the barriers to such research is incomplete. To address this gap, our aim was to explore the attitudes of global thought leaders in HPE towards cost and value research. This was a qualitative virtual interview study underpinned by social constructionism. In telephone or videoconference interviews in 2018-2019, we asked global healthcare professional thought leaders their views regarding HPE cost and value research, outstanding research questions in this area and why addressing these questions was important. Analysis was inductive and thematic, and incorporated review and comments from the original interviewees (member checking). We interviewed 11 thought leaders, nine of whom gave later feedback on our data interpretation (member checking). We identified four themes: Cost research is really important but potentially risky (quantifying and reporting costs provides evidence for decision-making but could lead to increased accountability and loss of autonomy); I don't have the knowledge and skills (lack of economic literacy); it's not what I went into education research to do (professional identity); and it's difficult to generate generalizable findings (the importance of context). This study contributes to a wider conversation in the literature about cost and value research by bringing in the views of global HPE thought leaders. Our findings provide insight to inform how best to engage and empower educators and researchers in the processes of asking and answering meaningful, acceptable and relevant cost and value questions in HPE.
AB - Studies of cost and value can inform educational decision making, yet our understanding of the barriers to such research is incomplete. To address this gap, our aim was to explore the attitudes of global thought leaders in HPE towards cost and value research. This was a qualitative virtual interview study underpinned by social constructionism. In telephone or videoconference interviews in 2018-2019, we asked global healthcare professional thought leaders their views regarding HPE cost and value research, outstanding research questions in this area and why addressing these questions was important. Analysis was inductive and thematic, and incorporated review and comments from the original interviewees (member checking). We interviewed 11 thought leaders, nine of whom gave later feedback on our data interpretation (member checking). We identified four themes: Cost research is really important but potentially risky (quantifying and reporting costs provides evidence for decision-making but could lead to increased accountability and loss of autonomy); I don't have the knowledge and skills (lack of economic literacy); it's not what I went into education research to do (professional identity); and it's difficult to generate generalizable findings (the importance of context). This study contributes to a wider conversation in the literature about cost and value research by bringing in the views of global HPE thought leaders. Our findings provide insight to inform how best to engage and empower educators and researchers in the processes of asking and answering meaningful, acceptable and relevant cost and value questions in HPE.
KW - Health Occupations/education
KW - Humans
KW - Qualitative Research
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Economic theory
KW - Cost and value
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132271760&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10459-022-10123-9
DO - 10.1007/s10459-022-10123-9
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35708798
SN - 1382-4996
VL - 27
SP - 989
EP - 1001
JO - Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice
JF - Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice
IS - 4
ER -