What problem does this initiative address?
This initiative seeks to advance a culture of collaboration across health disciplines. It creates a formal and recognized mechanism by which individuals can establish sustainable cross-professional learning and scholarly projects, advancing UBC scholars’ collective capacity to lead in research, scholarship and practice in health professions education.
Does this not duplicate other resources at UBC?
No. The initiative nurtures the development of cross-professions teams in formative stages. It provides necessary infrastructure supports to cultivate team development, including linking teams over time to relevant, existing resources as appropriate to their projects.
What kinds of projects will be supported?
In general, project proposals will be expected to address an issue of importance across health disciplines, nurture development of a cross-professional team, and have potential, through the team’s collaboration, to achieve an important impact on health professions education scholarship and practice. The leadership team will look most favourably upon projects that appear sustainable and have potential to lead to further scholarship/learning and sharing of findings with diverse audiences.
How many teams will run each year?
Different kinds of support might be provided to different teams, based on their unique needs in relation to the initiative’s goals. For the first pilot year, full support (i.e., facilitated team meetings) will be provided for up to 2 teams across the 2014-2015 academic year. The initiative’s capacity and processes for supporting teams in the longer-term will be identified through the pilot year.
Who can participate?
In order to receive support from the initiative, project teams must focus on a theme relevant to health professions education and include participants from across the health disciplines. The initiative is designed for individuals in any role in health professions education at UBC who want to apply a scholarly lens to considering an educational issue of importance across the health disciplines, and who would benefit from working within a collaborative, cross-professional team to advance their learning, leadership, scholarship, practice, or research.
Participants do not have to have an identified team in place to participate in this initiative! In fact, the goal is to help in linking you with others who share common interests and concerns.
How will the initiative support the project teams?
The first point of support is a sequence of launching activities wherein participants can network and identify an area of cross-professional interest and develop a plan for learning or research within that area. The resulting preparation of proposals for support will formalize intentions into a plan of action.
A member of the leadership team will be assigned to oversee support provided to each project team. Depending on the proposed project, supports might include: assistance in building the network, group facilitation of up to 7 meetings per year, support from a graduate academic or research assistant, and/or assistance in connecting with expertise/information that might advance the team’s learning and project.
Do the project teams dissolve after the first year?
Ideally, no. Teams with the capacity for sustainability beyond the first year of support will be favoured in the proposal evaluation stage. As part of the support provided, teams will be connected with supports that they can access in an on-going way (e.g., grant facilitation services offered through units). Further, to support their sustainability, successfully launched collaborations will have opportunities to check-back and receive targeted assistance if necessary. It is also hoped that teams will share their findings, understandings and strategies with others in the initiative, as well as with their faculties, departments and schools, and ideally, with the broader academic community.
How will success of a project be determined and communicated?
Success will be defined differently for each project. Proposals will include success assessment criteria. In general, successful projects will be able to demonstrate in some tangible fashion, the degree to which the objectives have been met. Project teams will report their self-evaluation back to the leadership team. Project teams will be encouraged to share their experience and findings with larger audiences including their respective faculties, schools and departments.
How will success of the initiative be determined and communicated?
The leadership team will be responsible for researching and evaluating the initiative and will establish an ongoing evaluation strategy. In general, the leadership team will look for evidence that the project teams met their objectives; that new cross-disciplinary networks were developed and sustained; that new knowledge and understanding important across the disciplines was developed and shared; that cross-disciplinary teams become self-sustaining and better equipped to avail themselves of existing resources; and that a culture of collaboration is growing.
Does this initiative duplicate the work of CHES, the Faculty of Education, or the College of Health Disciplines?
This initiative represents a collaborative project developed in partnership by CHES, the FoE and the CHD. It is aligned with the mandates of each of these units, but does not duplicate supports provided through any of them. Neither does the initiative create a new “infrastructure unit” or centre. Instead, it is overseen by a leadership team comprised of representatives from across the Health Professions. Human resources necessary to support the initiative are being contributed from across partnering units (e.g., in an administrative leadership team; by a program assistant located in CHES). The initiative was designed carefully to amplify each partner’s ability to achieve their respective mandates.