Background of project Between 20-40% of patients in EU health systems are estimated to receive treatment and care that is inconsistent with scientific evidence (Seers et al., 2012). The lag between the generation of evidence from research to underpin both health and social care services, and the complexities of accelerating its implementation at scale are well documented. The consequences of failures in implementation are financial inefficiencies, reductions in the quality of health and social care, and concern for service users and citizens. There are few opportunities for health and social care professionals to gain advanced knowledge and skills in implementation science (also referred to as knowledge translation). Implementation is a growing discipline in these fields that investigates how to close the gap between evidence of ‘what works’ from research, and the services that are provided for citizens (Eccles, 2009). Growing professionals’ capability in implementation science will ensure they will be equipped to support innovation in health and social care, to engage in public policy discussions about health and social care systems, as well as ensuring citizens’ access to effective services. Although no validated curriculum for implementation exists, our experience would suggest this should include the following competences: systems thinking; knowledge-brokering and (organisational, professional and scientific) boundary-crossing; and co-production with diverse stakeholder groups. The ambition of our European Implementation Science Education Network (EISEN) is to increase the number of health and social care professionals who have the required knowledge and skills to lead implementation within health and social care. Our network will provide a novel platform for building capacity and capability in implementation science across the EU at scale and pace, and so ensure sustainability. Objectives Our objectives are to develop: • Stakeholder-validated competences and learning outcomes (including desired knowledge, skills and attributes) for implementation science within health and social care. • A Technology Enabling Learning (TEL) concept with embedded ICT methodologies and tools to provide accessible and attractive learning opportunities. • Opportunities for professionals to gain competences in implementation science. • Greater internationalization within participating institutions through cross-national working to develop, evaluate and roll-out the implementation science curriculum. Participating organisations Participating organisations share strategic interests and expertise in implementation science. Our transnational approach will allow greater and more diverse access to knowledge from experts, and learning within different health and social care systems. Partners and their associated expertise are: • Western Norway University of Applied Sciences: implementation; evidence-based practice; Masters level provision. • Hogskolan Dalarna: implementation and patient safety; TEL approaches including tools. Masters level provision • Bangor University: implementation; and delivery of related postgraduate education programmes (MSc, PhD and Professional Doctorate). • Karolinska Institutet: health system improvement; networking around doctoral education in the health sciences. Masters and PhD level provision • Escola Superior De Enfermagem De Coimbra: practice development through internships. Benefits for participating organisations include strengthened relationships with stakeholders; new postgraduate programmes; increasing reach of existing programmes; access to expert implementation networks; and new expertise in Next Generation Learning. Target groups Our project outputs are at postgraduate level as professionals will mostly have completed undergraduate preparation, and be working mainly in leadership / management roles. Approximately 4000 participants will benefit from exposure to project activities. Description of activities Evidence synthesis and consensus work will build the implementation curriculum. This will inform new Masters and Doctoral Level modules and associated learning opportunities (e.g. vodcasts; webinars; networking; transnational projects), constructed, piloted and disseminated through a TEL framework linking project participants and organisations. Methodology In line with the EU Higher Education Modernisation Agenda, co-production of the curriculum and learning platform involves extensive stakeholder engagement to ensure utility of project outputs. Results and impact Through the publication of the curriculum framework and on-line learning opportunities, there will be an increase in implementation competence among health and social care professionals in Europe. Potential long-term benefits Dissemination of the curriculum will enable its incorporation into future, generic health and social care postgraduate education. In addition to staff and student mobilisation.
Implementation science is the scientific study of methods and strategies that facilitate the uptake of evidence-based practice and research into regular use by practitioners and policymakers. There are few opportunities for health and social care professionals to gain advanced knowledge and skills within this field (also referred to as knowledge translation). Thus, the European Implementation Science Education Network project (EISEN) was created to develop these skills in health and social care professionals in Europe. The EISEN partnership consists of five Higher Education partners: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences; Dalarna University and Karolinska Institute, Sweden; Canterbury Christ Church University, UK; Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, Portugal. In additon, 20 stakeholders representing the health service employers, researchers and implementation experts across our four countries were involved in co-creation activities to ensure that aspects of work relevance were addressed during the development processes. The EISEN objectives were to: • develop stakeholder-validated competences and learning outcomes for postgraduate implementation science within health and social care • use the curriculum to co-create and pilot test two online courses for health and social professionals: one at master level (7,5 ECTS) and one at PhD level (5 ECTS) • develop a Technology Enabling Learning (TEL) concept with embedded ICT methodologies and tools to provide accessible and attractive learning opportunities • increase internationalisation within participating institutions through cross-national collaboration • create a sustained EISEN network for European educators During spring semester 2021,13 professionals from 8 countries participated and evaluated the master course (EU level 7). 17 European citizens and 5 international students enrolled in European universities qualified for the PhD level course (EU level 8). Both courses were ran online using a tailored Technology Enabling Learning (TEL) concept with embedded ICT methodologies and tools. In addition, many activities were performed to increase the result quality and impact. An EISEN webpage, and several online platforms were created to support interactive collaboration between project partners and students. A series of workshops were ran to develop the EISEN team's TEL concept and capability, as well as to agree on appropriate methodologies and tools to use. When students evaluated the courses, they particularly mentioned how the teachers' strategic use of the tailored TEL methods increased their digital skills and participation in active learning with colleagues who were working and studying in varied health and social services contexts and countries. The participants also told that they will use their new TEL skills to continue collaborating and networking in the future. When the Covid-19 pandemic prohibited physical meetings, we developed an “EISEN - Implementation Research Leadership Development Needs Assessment” followed by substantial pedagogical methods to compensate for the planned face- to-face learning methods and co-creation activities with international implementation experts. Feedback from the PhD students show that they highly appreciated the skills assessment instrument. Many also told that they had used the insight from this process in future career discussions with their university supervisors. To further increase the impact, we presented results as invited speakers at the two most influential conferences within the field of implementation science: The Global Implementation Society’s international conference (GIC21) and the European Implementation Collaborative’s conference (EIE21). In addition, relevant websites and social media were used to attract attention and direct visitors to the EISEN website. All the above-described results are reported and shared via the Erasmus+ Project Results platform, which again links to deliverables that can be downloaded from the EISEN website. Impact - potential longer-term benefits relates to: • increased implementation and TEL competence among 35 health and social care professionals with potential for wider spread to colleagues and patients when the learning is acted upon and shared at work • increased partner universities' capability in Implementation science and advanced digital teaching tools, with a potential to expand this capacity to other teachers. • due to positive evaluation, the partners have agreed to continue offering joint courses; Karolinska Institute will host the PhD courses and Canterbury Christ Church University, UK and HVL, Norway the Msc courses • positively influenced national accreditation of PhD programmes for the Norwegian and Portuguese partners • secured future sustainability and growth by establishing an EISEN educator network within the organisational infrastructure of the "European Implementation Collaborative"