Clinical Education Scholarship and Research: Getting Started

As co-editors of The Clinical Teacher (TCT), we are often asked how to get involved in the field of education and research. Those entering careers in education and research often do so serendipitously 1. Clinicians have many roles and responsibilities, with various career paths available, although the pathway to clinical education is not always visible or well-defined. Educators take on various leadership roles in teaching and curriculum development and engage in educational scholarship, specialising in the science and theory of education 1, 2. This may entail reviewing literature, evaluating the effectiveness of teaching methods and utilising this data to inform new developments in teaching and learning practice. In this editorial, we unpick some of the issues as scholars take their first steps into the field. Getting involved locally in clinical education projects provides a meaningful way to connect with others across university and healthcare sectors and often leads to valuable opportunities to work in partnerships on national and international projects. Guided by changes in healthcare systems and available resources, the structure and teaching methods used in the educating and training of health professionals are continuously evolving, leading to opportunities for involvement. Examples of recent trends at universities include the increasing use of team-based learning (TBL) as a key pedagogy across the health professions—with many innovations in interprofessional TBL 3-5. Joining an existing team that is implementing and evaluating a new teaching method or innovation contributes to continuous quality improvement in teaching and learning. Here we provide some key tips on how to get started in clinical education scholarship and research: Mentorship and networking. Seek out guidance or mentorship from clinical education researchers within your organisation. Ask your peers or senior colleagues how they became involved. While it is important to seek opportunities, also take advantage of opportunities that come your way. Implementing and evaluating a new innovation in the health professions requires varied expertise—usually from early career and senior clinicians, educators and researchers. Peers and colleagues may be aware of opportunities and existing activities or teams requiring your expertise. Focus your research interests. Select specific areas of interest. By taking part in education and research activities, you will discover what aspects you most enjoy. There is a smorgasbord of choices in topics, such as curriculum design, patient safety, faculty development, simulation, professionalism, work-based assessment and specific teaching pedagogies, and research methods, such as various qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Attend local health professions education seminars to gain further insight to your local context. Formal training. Not all clinical educators or researchers hold formal qualifications in education. Starting out, explore options available within your hospital or affiliated university—some offer free professional development courses. For example, the Clinical Teacher Training programme at The University of Sydney 6. However, if you are considering a long-term career in clinical education and scholarship or research, various coursework and research pathways are available, including professional certificates and higher education research degrees. Many programmes are now available to be studied flexibly at a distance; for example, Hull York Medical School offers a postgraduate certificate/postgraduate diploma and Masters (PGCert/Dip/MSc) in health professions education with a strong record of supporting students to publish. For other examples, see https://clinicaleducationresearch.org/resources/postgraduate-courses-in-clinical-education/. Inclusive belonging. As a discipline of study, clinical education encompasses a wide range of academic specialties (e.g., psychology, biology, economics, linguistics and philosophy) which has implications for the ways in which individuals feel they belong and have a voice. Historically dominated by the medical model, the more recent social science integration into the discipline provides a plethora of assumptions into bias, evidence, validity and trustworthiness 7. As an individual, you bring unique insights which can facilitate different ways to think about traditional issues. Your experiences, background and professional identities all have a valid place within the field. We encourage you to challenge and contest knowledge assumptions to help advance the field, no matter what type of prior experience you may have. Networking. Engage with the wider health professions education community and societies, such as the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) https://www.asme.org.uk/. There are many health professions education organisations that offer excellent resources, professional development, networking opportunities, research grants and awards. Harvey Bluemel and colleagues 8 provide a list of key organisations helping to support clinical educators in their scholarship endeavours. Where possible, attending health professions education conferences provides opportunities to meet people with similar interests, and keep up to date with current trends. Of course, our ‘go to’ international conference is the annual ASME Annual Scholarship meeting (https://www.asme.org.uk/events/asm2026/). It is valuable to also look to your own region, for example, the annual Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference (APMEC) https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/cenmed/sites/apmec2027/. Search for grant and award opportunities. Your local institution may offer education research grants and awards and provide links to larger government grants—team up with others to apply—they will be glad you have initiated an application. Health professions education organisations (including ASME) and journals (including The Clinical Teacher and Medical Education) offer grants and awards that specifically target early career clinicians and educators. Join a journal club. Join a clinical education journal club and take the opportunity to present a paper. If you do not have access to an existing journal club, you can start your own. Key tips for presenting at a journal club and starting a journal club can be found here 9: https://asmepublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tct.12759. Disseminate your work. Make your work known through conference presentations, workshops and ultimately, publications. We have been delighted to see many publications written by members of the New Voices alumni, including a ‘How to’ article co-authored by award recipients, reflecting on their experience of the community 10. In setting yourself up for success, read widely—there is a wealth of information available in specific areas. For example, Church and Sandars 11 recently published a ‘Clinical Teacher's Toolbox’ article as a guide to publishing scoping reviews in health professions education 11. There are also texts available purposely written for early career researchers. For example, ‘Starting research in clinical education’, edited by Rees et al. 12 features various research methods and pathways to success 12. Members of the NIHR Incubator for Clinical Education Research recently published a series of papers, providing insights to the key stages of developing clinical education research projects and careers: https://asmepublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1743-498X.clinical-education-research-projects We wish you every success in your clinical education research journey and at TCT we will be with you every step of the way! Annette Burgess: conceptualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Paul E. S. Crampton: conceptualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. The authors have nothing to report. Annette Burgess is Professor of Medical Education at The University of Sydney and leads the Clinical Teacher Training programme. Paul E. S. Crampton works at Hull York Medical School and was previously programme director of the PgCert, Dip and MSc in Health Professions Education (2019–2024). Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.