Wanted: Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, and Knowledge Translation and Exchange Training for Students of Public Health

Abstract

Students vocalized their concern with public health training programs in Canada at the 2010 CPHA Centennial Conference. Given these concerns, we reviewed the objectives and curricula of public health graduate (master's) programs in Canada. Our objective was to understand to what extent public and population health graduate programs in Canada support interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) training. This was achieved through a review of all public and population health master's programs in Canada identified from the public health graduate programs listed on the Public Health Agency of Canada website (n=33) plus an additional four programs that were not originally captured on the list. Of the 37 programs reviewed, 28 (76%) stated that interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or cross-disciplinary training opportunities are of value to their program, with 12 programs (32%) providing multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary training opportunities in their curriculum. Only 14 (38%) of the 37 programs provided value statements of KTE activities in their program goals or course objectives, with 10 (27%) programs offering KTE training in their curriculum. This review provides a glimpse into how public health programs in Canada value and support interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration as well as KTE activities.

A literature review of knowledge translation and partnership research training programs for health researchers

“…The identified training initiatives all utilised a combination of different delivery styles to expose trainees to the multidisciplinary nature of KT, an approach that has previously been recommended in the literature [24].…”

“…Studies were excluded if they described a KT intervention or a training course focused on improving evidence-based practice among health professionals. Studies assessing KT training needs (to inform future training programs) or mentorship programs were beyond the scope of this review [24–26]. Studies describing training programs for dissemination and implementation science [27, 28] were also excluded.…”

Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Training in Global Health Through a Novel Joint Project for Trainees from Diverse Disciplines: Benefits, Risks, and Observations

“…This is often accomplished by having trainees seek out and consult specialists outside their field. 8 Thus, while many programs promote the value of interdisciplinary approaches, this is usually accomplished through diversity of faculty mentor disciplines rather than though programs that combine postdoctoral trainees from different disciplines, an alternative and complementary approach to achieving interdisciplinary training. 9 The interdisciplinary nature of our team of fellows, all of whom participated as coinvestigators on projects utilizing methodologies which might be outside of their fields (including computer science, social sciences, and clinical medicine), enriched the learning experience by periodically immersing the fellows in new disciplines and methods, as compared with simply "drawing on" complementary methods for ancillary support in the traditional postdoctoral fellowship.…”

Design, delivery, and evaluation of a knowledge translation intervention for multi-stakeholders

“…In addition to many KT training initiatives that have focused on training faculty [ 33 , 36 ] and health care professionals [ 19 , 23 ], there is a need to incorporate KT in graduate and postgraduate training for the next generation of researchers [ 37 ]. Mishra et al [ 27 ] identified that current graduate programs do not have organized training for critical KT skills that allow trainees to gain professional expertise and better appreciate the true added-value of their research training endeavors [ 27 ]. While trainees are increasingly identifying KT as their research discipline [ 7 ], there are few graduate programs specifically targeting KT skills [ 29 ].…”