MEDEV

School of Medical Sciences Education Development

Introduction

As the style and content of medical education changes and evolves, more doctors at all stages of training are undertaking dissertations as part of the requirements for research modules or other degrees.This paper aims to highlight some of the steps involved in planning such a task.

When you undertake a taught module, your tutors do most of this preparation for you. They look at the material you have to learn, break it down into digestible portions, logically sequence it, give you guidance on what you need to read and think about it in your private study, organise practical activities, and finally set up tutorials and assessments as milestones, giving you feedback on your progress.

A dissertation on the other hand requires you to look at all these areas, yourself, and plan how you will incorporate them into your study time. Of course this process is itself a valuable learning experience. The key is to approach the planning in a systematic fashion and the following are aspects you should consider.

Identify what it will entail

List all the activities involved in completing your dissertation. Among other things it might involve the following:

• thinking of a topic to research
• finding a supervisor
• drawing up a questionnaire
• piloting study
• undertaking interviews
• transcribing material
• searching the literature
• background reading
• textual analysis
• statistical analysis
• tabulating results
• writing up/compiling a bibliography
• proof reading
• binding.

After you have listed the key activities you will need to undertake, you can then order the items chronologically, noting which can proceed simultaneously, as opposed to those that have to occur sequentially. For instance you could continue background reading while conducting interviews; however, you would have to conduct an interview before you could transcribe it. It may be worthwhile using a relatively simple project planning tool such as a Gantt chart.

Make an estimate of the time that each item is likely to take. Try to be realistic in apportioning time. You need to take account of the entire duration of the project/research. For example if it takes you two hours to read one journal article, and twelve hours to digest a book, don’t compile a bibliography that amounts to two years’ reading! Also, remember that your dissertation needs to fit in with your many other demanding commitments.

Aims, objectives and titles

One helpful way to make sure your dissertation is achievable is to have a concrete aim in mind. You can then establish what you’ll need to do to attain it. An aim is a general statement of what you hope to achieve and will form the basis for your set of detailed objectives. A very simple and direct aim would be ...to successfully complete my dissertation! However you may prefer to have some more inspiring aim based on your fundamental research question.

The aim can also help you formulate the title of your work, which should be explicit without being too wordy! In the title, seek to indicate:

• the subject area
• the specific aspect/group/unit of analysis
• the approach/method of analysis
• any distinctive focus e.g. geographical/historical.

Objectives are specific, operational statements detailing your intended accomplishments (e.g. to undertake a literature search covering print and eSources; to compile a bibliography in either Harvard or Vancouver format). These will enable you to plan a schedule of activity with timelines which will greatly facilitate the process of achieving your overall aim. Your objectives should be as SMART as possible. That is they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time limited.

Objectives need to define a specific interim goal which is a definite and doable task. They are of little use if when you look at them you are not clear about what you have to do to achieve them. If they are clear and specific you will feel as though you are making progress.

You should be able to measure or clearly recognise in some way, your progress towards the objective compared with your start point. Again if you cannot do this then they will not help to motivate you when you are faced with a choice of working on your project or on one of your many other pressing concerns.

They also need to be achievable and to be realistic in terms of the time you have available. In an ideal world of course you would have unlimited time to read everything ever written on your topic going back to the views expressed in Egyptian hieroglyphics! In practice your reading, research and time for writing are all finite and have to be fitted within realistic timescales and the pressure of multiple other commitments.

Make sure also that your objectives are directly relevant to your project. For example, you are not likely to have the luxury of doing a lot of background reading, and you will certainly have to be very selective in evaluating articles for their immediate value to your needs.

Finally you need to identify the key time-limited milestones for the achievement of your project. This will give you a definite sense of progress and of being in control which increases your comfort level and most likely lead to your achieving the best outcome. On the other hand, leaving work to the last minute will put you under considerable stress and almost certainly reduce the quality of the final product.

Tools and space

A useful strategy is to devise a visual representation of your plans for your dissertation, such as a wall chart (a calendar, pinned up perhaps for all the family to see!), a Gantt chart, or network diagram.

Also, it is useful, at the outset, to try and anticipate what sorts of materials you are likely to gather, and think of suitable receptacles for them. For instance, boxes for photocopies, files for dissertation documents (briefing sheets, notes on meetings with supervisors), a hard back book for ideas, and so on. Label each, and use dividers, so that material can be organised appropriately (e.g. alphabetical or colour coded). This will make it much easier for you to know what you already know and to access the resources you have gathered. If you don’t do so then you may waste time researching specific topics more than once or even lose completely valuable ideas and materials.

Cautionary tales!

Nowadays most of your material will be kept on computer, but it is wise to keep hardcopy too. Also, get in the habit of making regular back ups - a floppy disk/CD/Zip drive/memory stick copy of your work - and consider keeping one copy in a different location (with a friend). It’s bad enough losing an hours work when your computer crashes (so save, regularly) - but to lose your entire work is heartbreaking.

Some additional resources

There are a very wide range of resources you can use to help you with your dissertation. For example, you can find some very useful guidance on how to find relevant information and do searches in the abstract of the AMEE Guide Best Evidence Medical Education: systematic searching for evidence in medical education which can be found at:

www.medev.ac.uk/resources/features/AMEE_summaries/BEME3.doc

So whats in it for you?

To write a good disseration is challenging yet ultimately rewarding, not only will it enable you to develop an in-depth understanding of your chosen topic with all the personal satisifaction that such understanding gives, but also it will help you to further develop your project planning and research skills. Those in turn will stand you in good stead in all aspects of your professional practice. But remember to achieve those benefits systematic prior planning and preparation is essential.