Navigating new horizons: reflecting on my journey through student research supervision and charting a course for error remediation
Irina Rigoli
BPharm (Hons), GcertRegSc, FANZCAP (MedInfo) | Senior Medicines Information Pharmacist, Western Health | Irina.rigoli@wh.org.au
[Pharmacy GRIT article no: 20231394]
In the realm of research — where I’ve successfully undertaken various projects and collaborated on supervising small student groups — this year marked a significant milestone as I embraced the challenge of being the lead supervisor for the Monash Pharmacy Inquiry Students stream in a face-to-face setting.
Our project aimed to unravel the landscape of mental health education among Australian hospital pharmacists, including Mental Health First Aid, while pinpointing potential areas for improvement. Personally invested in the topic of pharmacists’ mental health, I actively engaged in discussions with colleagues, consistently hearing about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and workplace pressures on mental health, contributing to feelings of burnout, underappreciation, and being overworked.1,2 Our research team comprised of five Year 4 pharmacy research students from Monash University, who were assigned to Western Health for an 8-week project. While project coordinators had designed the project, the students collaborated and managed various tasks, such as constructing the survey questionnaire, distributing it, and collecting and analysing data. I oversaw the entire operation, receiving support from a senior education pharmacist.
In adopting a mixed-method project design, we incorporated both a scoping literature review and a nationwide survey using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture [Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN, USA]). The survey, disseminated to various pharmacy departments nationwide, included both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The student researchers explored suitable methods for analysing open-ended responses and utilised statistical methods for quantitative data analysis, seeking assistance from a statistician during the final analysis.
Initially, adjusting to a new hospital environment in their first week proved overwhelming for the student researchers. They arrived on-site without clear expectations and had only eight weeks to complete the project from start to finish. After an initial settling and learning phase, the students grasped the importance of the researched topic and embraced the process.
Coordinating the project presented its own set of challenges, the most prominent being planning and establishing a timeline, given the requirement for ethics submission. The planning phase was initiated before the students arrived onsite. Assigning responsibilities posed another challenge, considering my limited contact with the students. This process involved students distributing responsibilities within their group, making it difficult for me as a supervisor to ascertain whether the workload and contributions were evenly distributed. Maintaining clear, concise, and timely communication between the student researchers and the project supervisors also proved challenging.
Despite the challenges, I’m eager to engage with another group of student researchers in the future. To optimise the process and make it more enjoyable, I plan to make the following changes:
- Better prepare myself and establish clear lines of communication and negotiate communication preferences with all team members before the project commences
- Clearly assign and document roles and responsibilities for each team member
- Develop a learner module to enhance students’ comprehension of the ethics application process and guide them in navigating the Ethical Review Manager (ERM) platform for the submission of ethics applications
- Conduct regular check-ins and meetings with the group to ensure student researchers are adequately supported throughout the process.
In conclusion, this journey as the lead supervisor has been both challenging and immensely rewarding. The project delving into mental health education among Australian hospital pharmacists unveiled crucial insights and the dedication of the student research group was commendable.
References
- Lange M, Joo S, Couette P-A, de Jaegher S, Joly F, Humbert X. Impact on mental health of the COVID-19 outbreak among community pharmacists during the sanitary lockdown period. Ann Pharm Fr 2020; 78: 459–463.
- Pala AN, Chuang JC, Chien A, Krauth DM, Leitner SA, Okoye NM, et al. Depression, anxiety, and burnout among hospital workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study. PLoS One 2022; 17: e0276861.