Hello Everyone,
This is about publishing the education work of medical/healthcare educators in scientific journals. We do a lot of hard work as educators day-in and day-out and this needs to be shared and recognized on scientific platforms. There are scientific journals dedicated for this purpose.
However,
Scientific journals usually ask for ethical approval of the research from which the manuscript is generated.
It is absolutely alright if it is a research project.
But if we are doing a program evaluation as an educator for the improvement of the education program as a routine institutional protocol, then, we usually do not go for ethical approval, though we do follow the ethical guidelines (such as informed consent, confidentiality) when doing the evaluation of the program.
So, what is the guideline in such a case.
1. Should we take every evaluation as a research project and go for ethical approval for each and every evaluation we want to do?
2. Simply mention to the scientific journals that this is a program evaluation conducted as per the ethical guidelines and depend on the scientific journal for the decision.
I do have some literature (Attached herewith) which indicate that program evaluation as such does not require ethical approval even if it would lead to publication. But it would be good if we have some discussion.
Well, that's it.
Looking forward to hear from you all.
And thank you all for taking out time to discuss this matter.
Sincere Regards
Wasim