Unit information: Unit 1, Clinical Research Project in 2022/23

Unit name	Unit 1, Clinical Research Project
Unit code	VETSM0048
Credit points	60
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Professor. Sorrel Langley-Hobbs
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	n/a
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	This research unit will be run concurrently with the clinical skills units so data collection can be done while the student is on clinics.
Units you may not take alongside this one
School/department	Bristol Veterinary School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Unit Information

This unit equips students with the knowledge and skills to initiate and complete high quality, methodologically sound and ethical clinical research, during their three or four year residency programme. They will design a project, collect data, analyse it and present it for assessment in both written, poster and oral form.

Your learning on this unit

1. Clinical research methodology
2. Finding, reading and critiquing scientific literature
3. Learn information technology skills
4. Presenting and communicating (written and orally) scientific research
5. Statistical analysis of clinical or laboratory data
6. Ability to communicate clearly to both scientific and non-scientific personnel
7. Develop presentation skills including use of technology
8. Show good time management and organisational skills
9. Planning and prioritisation

How you will learn

Intensive seminars given over an introductory one week period

Podcasts and recorded lectures (on replay) made available on Blackboard.

Students will have regular teaching sessions with supervisors and other senior clinicians in their subject area to critique and reflect on and discuss the project and its implementation and progress, with trouble-shooting and alterations made as necessary.

Contact hours:

Direct contact approximately 20 hours lectures / seminars

Direct contact with supervisor 20 hours (30 mins / week) over one year

Breakdown of notional total student input (To include number of contact hours, independent learning, assessment, other activities)

• 20 direct contact hours taught element
• 80 hours Independent learning and project design
• 20 hours project proposal write up and presentation
• 60 hours direct contact with supervisor
• 300 hours project implementation, data collection and independent learning,
• 40 hours data analysis and statistics,
• 40 hours write up,
• 20 hours to prepare and present an oral presentation
• 20 hours to prepare and present a poster
• 600 hours total

How you will be assessed

• Students will be initially assessed on a written project proposal, including a hypothesis, literature search, materials and methods, statistical tests. Students will be allowed one resubmission of the project if required.

• Students will be assessed in a formative manner on a six monthly basis on progression of the project, data collection, write up, trouble shooting, any need to change the protocol.

• Written assessment - prepared as a paper for submission to a peer reviewed journal. The word count will be dependant upon the journal that this will be ultimately be submitted to but will be in the region of 3 - 6000 words, with a summary, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion section. This will be examined by internal and external examiners. Students will be allowed to resubmit the written work once for remarking if it is deemed unsatisfactory by the examiners

• Poster - the project will be prepared and submitted online as a poster. The poster will be assessed according to content. Unsatisfactory performance will require a repeat presentation and / or redoing of the poster.
• Oral assessment - a video abstract will be prepared, recorded and submitted online. Students will be given one opportunity to represent if the initial presentation is not considered satisfactory by the examiners.

• All of the above tasks need to be completed and ultimately passed for the student to pass this unit.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. VETSM0048).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.