Preparing the next generation of health researchers by embedding public and patient engagement into Canadian graduate education: reflections from graduate students

Public and Patient Engagement (PPE) in health research has become an established practice and is increasingly now an imperative for publicly funded health research grants. Graduate students represent the next generation of health researchers; therefore, it is essential they gain PPE knowledge and skills within academic landscapes that promote collaborative research with those whom research is intended to benefit. By securing theoretical knowledge and practical experience early in their research careers, effective PPE can become well-established in all academic, health research and healthcare domains. However, many academic institutions struggle with implementing the necessary systemic and cultural change to moving the science and practice of PPE forward within their institutions. Nine students enrolled in a graduate level PPE course at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada engaged in an end-of-term reflexive class exercise that centred on the question “What would make patient engagement more possible for graduate students during their graduate degrees?” As a result of iterative review and discussion of the responses, four key themes were identified: (i) embed PPE elements into health research graduate program structure, (ii) offer opportunities to support hands-on learning and practice of PPE, (iii) integrate public, patient, and community members into graduate program design and delivery, and (iv) emphasize ethical community-based research considerations and researcher reflexivity. For health science graduate students to inclusively integrate PPE theory and principles into their research work, it is important that the academic institutions they are enrolled in keep pace with current research imperatives, and ethical and funding practices. This means regularly assessing and evaluating ways their institutional systems, processes, and programs are responding and evolving. In this reflective commentary we offer our considerations, and suggested guidance on best practices to continue to ‘move the needle’ on embedding PPE culture and practice in academic institutions in Canada and globally. We hope to initiate response and further discourse from other graduate students and from patient partners who have shared their lived experience insights to graduate student research studies, and mentorship and governance roles in health science graduate level curriculum and program planning. It is important to include people whom health research is supposed to benefit in deciding what should be researched and how research should be carried out and put into practice. Organizations that fund public health research, such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), now make it essential that research teams include patient and community research partners in the research studies they fund. Graduate students are students who have completed an undergraduate degree and are working to obtain Master or Doctorate degrees. Completing these degrees often includes a comprehensive research project. This project provides an opportunity for them to get real-world experience working with patient and community members to ensure their projects are relevant to what matters to people and to learn how respectfully and inclusively work with patient and community members. Academic institutions, like universities, are often slow to keep up with this evolving idea and practice. Nine students from a University of Calgary graduate course about Public and Patient Engagement (PPE) in health research, collectively with their three course instructors, wrote this commentary to help universities, researchers, and patient and community members to start and keep discussions going about how to best do this. We hope to inspire all universities to embed PPE in their graduate studies programs and courses. We also hope to initiate further discussion, including from patient partners who have shared their lived experience insights to graduate student research studies, mentorship and governance roles in health science graduate programs and curriculums and other students.