units

MFM5006

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

18 September 2017 22 November 2024
Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

12 points, SCA Band 2, 0.250 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational UnitDepartment of General Practice
Monash Passport categoryResearch Challenge (Investigate Program)
OfferedClayton First semester 2015 (Online)
Clayton Second semester 2015 (Online)
Coordinator(s)Associate Professor Peter Schattner

Synopsis

This is a compulsory core unit for the Grad.Dip in Family Medicine and MFM(Clin) courses. Students are expected to explore the following areas; introduction to methodology, history of general practice, scope and nature of general practice research, study designs, qualitative versus quantitative research, the epidemiological basis of general practice research, descriptive, observational and experimental studies, getting started in research, critical appraisal of journal articles, research protocols, descriptive and inferential statistics, data analysis, questionnaire construction and survey techniques, writing papers and giving presentations on research.

The unit is designed to take a logical path from framing a researchable question to developing a plan, implementing it, obtaining and then analysing results, and finally writing the project up. Introductory concepts of statistical analysis will be included, but students will not be expected to have a detailed working knowledge of this difficult subject area.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. understand the nature and scope of research in general practice;
  2. understand and be able to implement the methods used in answering questions that arise out of general practice;
  3. critically appraise the medical literature;
  4. develop an enthusiasm for doing your own research;
  5. gain some practical experience in doing research projects.

Assessment

Students will be expected to complete 4 written assignments plus an MCQ.

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Peter Schattner