Maritime Health Research and Education-NET/EDUCATION/Education module links/Diploma 1-3: Education in Health Research Methodology

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Diploma 1-3: Education in Scientific Health Research Methodology

 * Diploma 1: Education in Health research methodology
 * Diploma 2: Education in Occupational Health research methodology
 * Diploma 3: Education in writing a scientific article in occupational health

Introduction
Prevention and promoting of well-being for all ages while supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Our research education programs in Occupational-, Maritime- and Public Health are especially related to prevention in SDG3: Good health and well-being for all and strongly related to several other goals The Diploma education of Health Research Methodology is divided into three phases and each phase is based on satisfactory completion of the previous phase. Diploma 1-2 can be done independently but Diploma 3 needs the data from either the data collecting program or other data. The condition for going through all three steps is that the students have passed steps 1,2 in that order and the students can choose only to graduate in Diploma 1.

The skills you gain in this Diploma will enable you to pursue a career in research through the university or a combination of research in the clinical healthcare practice. You'll graduate with a multifaceted understanding of health research that is increasingly sought after in healthcare and research environments. The course calendar is flexible and can be delivered on a full or part-time basis, attracting people who might also be working alongside their studies.

The main emphasis of this Diploma is to learn how to conduct independent research and to use the international research outcome for teaching and prevention of health risks. This program is unique in developing countries. It is based on research methodologic training, which is not the case in the other postgraduate courses in health offered in Latin America. The Diploma is open to all students, health educators, doctors, nurses, hygienists, and all other health and safety personnel types.

Purpose
The purpose of Diploma 1 is to provide the students with the necessary tools to understand and apply health research results in daily life to maintain a high professional level and ensure an updated and evidence-based prevention and treatment. The is also the basis for learning evidence-based in the next step and for their thesis. The relevant SDG17 goals for occupational health include

The Diploma is intended to prepare the students for scientific-based university thesis work with data collection in school classes or by other methods, analyze the data, and do a literature review as the main part of the thesis. Further, the aim is to train the students to carry out independent research projects to be internationally published and inspire them to actively engage in health research and teaching. The Diploma is focused on epidemiological occupational health research, but as the same research method is used in other health specialties, the course is useful for other students and professionals in health. Mastery of the process of searching, reading, and using the scientific literature is the most important competence to achieve as a basis for evidence-based practice and independent research. As the literature background in health research is quite voluminous, the participants have to select the reading after their own personal interest. In the end, The Diploma of well-done in health research methodology is handed out after having passed the Midterm and final test exams (see below midterm and final test)

Learning methods
The students are trained to seek knowledge in scientific articles. The structure is like running small research projects with 1. Identification of the problems, 2. formulating research questions, 3. searching and reviewing the relevant literature of the etiologies, and solving them. Learning is helping students to use the research tools to solve problems in the projects.

Location
Zoom meetings

Time
To be adapted according to wishes

Languages
Most of the study materials are bilingual, English, and Spanish.

Study Hours
45 min Zoom meeting every week /Friday and 5 hours self-study per week, in total 150- or more study hours over 3-6 months or more months, if needed.

Midterm exams
Show online how you use the "Boolean" type of search in Google Scholar or PubMed. Show how you store the references in the Zotero reference system or another system you have installed. Write in Word a small short IMRAD structured summary 100-150 words and make the reference list in Word. Questions of understanding of the course content will also be used.

The final exam
Formulate a clinical or public health practice within your own interest. Conduct a systematic search in the research literature to illuminate the chosen issue. Write a 100-200 words summary with your considerations while inserting the references and make a reference list.

Open Study Plan --> DIPLOMA 1

6-9 months 600 hours
6-9 months 600 hours work the students have to work with on a scientific basis, with the students' method to do in Diploma part 1. The program includes the scientific study of the four main topics of the EU-Occupational Health strategy: Mental health, Ergonomics, Safety climate, and Exposure to chemicals besides The students will pick up their new knowledge from the scientific articles so the students must seek knowledge in the specific areas in the articles and write the sections in their own evidence-based textbook in occupational medicine. The students will make minor systematic literature reviews (PRISMA), search phrases of each of the 28 items in the (their) occupational medicine area, and write their own textbook based on scientific literature by using the learnings in Diploma 1. The students describe the results from the abstracts and the full text of the articles so that it is understandable to other actors in occupational health. The final product will be a digital book in 3000-6000 words and pictures the students have made themselves and Pptx presentation. In the end, a Diploma of well-done Health research is handed out after going through 45 min. oral exam where they present a 10 minutes PowerPoint of their results and discussion. You get a research question and have to search for five references, Where are you orienting yourself in abstract and write in Word a small short IMRAD structured summary max 150 words. The same way of learning can be used in occupational medicine, maritime medicine, and other medical specialties after having made a test to see the interest for such learning.

Open Study Plan-> DIPLOMA 2

Writing scientific Article/ Thesis education in health research
Writing a thesis is the compulsory final part of all postgraduate educations for candidates or postgraduate master's degrees. Diploma 3 is relevant also for those who want to start health research independent of postgraduate education. This step runs over 6-12 months and having completed Diploma 1-2, the students are well trained in using the literature and writing a thesis that can be structured like a scientific article and published. It is based on your own data from your research project or secondary data from another side. The thesis can be either structured as a scientific article or as the traditional thesis structure. By using the traditional thesis structure a lot of scientific work is wasted because a thesis cannot normally be used as a scientific reference like peer-reviewed articles. There must, of course, be permission from the institution that the finished work can consist of a scientific article. Now the students can benefit from the possibilities to get data from The Maritime Health Research and Education-NET (MAHRE-Net) or other sources. Projects with pooling of data from many countries and trends analysis and combining of different questionnaires will require experienced researchers and fundings. In the end, a Certificate of well-done article/thesis in Health research is handed out after going through a final exam, with the presentation of your article/thesis. The guide here is for your research project that ends with the publication of an article or presented in a thesis.

Open Study Plan--> DIPLOMA 3 

The requirements are 3-4 published articles and a Doctoral Dissertation 4000 hours in 3-4 years
After having obtained the needed skills to study and to produce a scientific published article as the first author in Diploma 1-3, the students are very well prepared to enter a Ph.D. study. According to the international requirements for a Ph.D., the students are obliged to publish 3 scientific articles as first authors and a written summary of the Doctoral Dissertation articles. The dissertation can be based on independent data collection or secondary data from another side. Now, like in the Thesis work, the students can benefit from the possibilities to get data from The Maritime Health Research and Education-NET (MAHRE-Net). This program includes the permanent monitoring of the four main topics of the EU-Occupational Health strategy: Mental health, Ergonomics, Safety climate, and chemical-related Skin diseases. In the cohort design strategy, we will follow and support the young people from the maritime schools in their careers. The method is that we ask the classes of maritime students to fill out a short questionnaire about their health and wellbeing at the beginning of their studies. When they start their practice times at sea, they answer the same questions to identify the influence on their well-being on board. We measure how many of them leave the sea profession and we ask them how they think the profession can continue to be attractive to young people. It is intended to suggest and assist in the implementation of preventive measures based on the results. Here, the students will be able to contribute to the overall new knowledge about working conditions in the maritime area or the land sector, in the same way as is practiced in the Mahre-Net program. Data may be from school classes in vocational schools and using the themes used in Mahre-Net or your choice. Projects with pooling of data from many countries and trends analysis and combining of different questionnaires will require experienced researchers and fundings. The skills gained in this course will enable you to pursue a career in research through universities or a combination of clinical healthcare practice research. The course is flexible and can be delivered on a full or part-time basis, attracting people who might also be working alongside their studies. In the end, an examen 45 min oral exam. After the defense of the Dissertation with external evaluators, a Ph.D.diploma in Health Science is handed out.