Course content

A 2 weeks course covering theoretical, practical, ethical and methodological aspects of palliative care research, with main emphasis on biomedical research.
Topics:
- Introduction to palliative care and palliative care research: definitions and concepts, main research areas and strategies, ethical and practical challenges related to studies in a palliative care population. The PhD education.
-Research methods and study designs
-Literature searches. How to read scientific papers.
-Protocol design, including background, eligibility criteria, outcome measures, monitoring of the data collection, reporting and analysis, publication policy.
-Protocol writing, approvals and procedures
-Ethical and legal regulations in biomedical and health care research
-Organisational aspects of palliative care research (multi-centre trials, trial office structure, data entry and management, monitoring procedures)
-Reporting of results, dissemination and publication processes, getting research evidence into practice

Learning outcome

After completing this course, the PhD students should
-have an understanding of palliative care as a specific area of health care, with its main characteristics and concepts
-have an understanding of the palliative care population and the specific challenges related to doing research in this population
-have knowledge about the main research areas in palliative care and relevant study designs and methods
-have knowledge of ethical and legal regulations in biomedical and health care research
-be able to plan a study in a palliative care topic: formulate research questions and
hypotheses, choose appropriate study design, write a protocol, prepare patient consent forms
-be able to perform systematic literature searches in scientific databases
-be able to read and critically appraise scientific papers presenting palliative care research
-have knowledge about publication processes and important aspects of writing scientific
papers
-be able to give a presentation on a given research topic
-have an understanding of the PhD education, the responsibilities of the tutor and the
candidate, the academic training, and the scientific demands

Learning methods and activities

Lectures and group work during the two separate weeks at the NTNU and the University of Edinburg, respectively. The students will be given a home assignment in the period between the two weeks.

No. of lecture hours: 20 hours per week
Group work: 17 hours per week
The course will be taught in two separate weeks, the first at the NTNU and the second at the University of Edinburgh.
Language of instruction: English

Compulsory assignments

• All lectures, group work and home assignments are mandatory.

Recommended previous knowledge

Admission to the Ph.d.-programme.

Required previous knowledge

The applicant must have a Master’s degree or equivalent education within a relevant field like medicine, genetics, pharmacology, physiology, health science, social science or others. The applicant must have a weighted average grade of his/her Master’s or equivalent education of B or higher, in accordance with NTNU’s grading system.

Credit reductions