As part of a Vidi research project the Radboudumc Health Academy offers a PhD candidate position in Educational Sciences/Psychology. This projects aims to unravel how prior performance influences rater-based assessments in health professions education Will you join our team?

PhD project
Raters often already have prior information about a trainee. This prior information can contribute to learning, for example through specific feedback, but can also lead to stigmatization. This project investigates how prior information plays a role in single assessments and in decisions based on multiple assessments.

The researchers also investigate whether this results in unjustified differences in assessments between trainees from ethnic minority and majority groups. Unravelling this assessment process is crucial for fair assessments for all trainees, and thereby for achieving a diverse future workforce for our multicultural society. You will work together with a PhD candidate who will start in the fall of 2024. The project is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Central to this PhD project is understanding how prior performance information plays a role in assessments of trainees' performance during their hospital clinical placements. Does it matter for an assessment whether an assessor has seen a trainee before, heard about, or read about the trainee? That's what we're going to find out in this project.

We will also explore if this might have an additional disadvantageous effect for students with a migration background. Furthermore, we will investigate which mechanisms lead to differences in scores and whether the increasing use of narrative feedback is better than grades. In this project we combine experiments, content analysis and mixed method studies.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Conducting the research (literature research, collecting and analysing data, reporting the results), resulting in international scientific publications and a dissertation.
• Presenting the research (nationally and internationally at scientific conferences).
• Active participation in the research group of the project and of the Radboudumc Health Academy.
• Professional development through training and education.

Supervision and collaboration
Direct supervision is the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Karen Stegers-Jager, Professor in Person-centred and innovative learning and working in health care (PhD supervisor). Other team members involve Prof.Dr. Marise Born (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Prof. Dr. Eva Derous (Ghent University) and Dr. Peter Yeates (Keele University; UK).

You will primarily work together in a team of educational and clinical researchers. There are regular research community meetings within the RHA in which you will also participate.

You are an enthusiastic researcher who wants to dedicate 4 years to exploring the theme of 'prior performance information in rater-based assessments,' with the goal of developing a fair and unbiased approach to longitudinal assessments. You have an affinity for healthcare and an interest in research in complex healthcare practice.

You have the ambition to unravel the role of prior performance information in rater-based assessments and to develop and research interventions aiming to improve the current assessment methods. You are genuinely interested in others, curious about the motivations of professionals, and have a heart for people. You are flexible and can cooperate well within different teams. Perseverance, a good mood, and a positive attitude are important conditions. In addition, you have fresh ideas and can turn them into concrete actions and results. You also know how to enthuse others.

Moreover you have:

• Excellent Master degree with high GPA in educational sciences or psychology (educational/ cognitive/experimental), or a related discipline, preferably a research master (completed or nearly completed).
• Strong interest in the pursuit of influential applied research for publication purposes in top-tier journals.
• Research skills in qualitative and quantitative research methods and willing to master new research methods.
• Excellent demonstrated written and spoken academic English and Dutch language skills (for foreign applicants: the intention to reach proficiency in Dutch within a short period of time).
• Preferably experience or affinity with experimental research.
• Demonstrated good time management.
• Strong social skills in hierarchical organizations such as Academic Hospitals.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

At Radboud university medical center, you build on your future. We are committed to providing the best care, education, and research. And we are true to our word, because we help you develop and seize opportunities and give you the room to grow. As an employer, we believe that employees should feel vital and happy at work in all stages of life. We are also committed to creating a healthy and safe working environment. Our employment conditions contribute to that. What we offer:

• The salary depends on education. Scale 10 will be offered to MSc medical graduates; those holding degrees in other disciplines will be offered scale 10A. A gross salary between € 2.901 and € 3.677 (scale 10A) or between € 3.359 and € 5.292 (scale 10) based on full-time employment. You will also receive an 8% holiday allowance, an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a 47% to 72% bonus for working unsocial hours.
• Plenty of opportunities for personal development. You can take a variety of courses in our online learning environment. You can also share knowledge with colleagues through digital learning spaces – perfect for getting inspired and inspiring others.
• Your well-being and vitality are a priority. For example, we have our own sports facilities and a Healthy Professionals program to help you manage your energy. And if you are going through a life-changing event, our Company Support Team and a personal coach are there to help you.
• Support in achieving a good work-life balance at every stage of your life. This includes advice and training courses (from ‘Millennial Dilemmas’ to ‘Your Career After 57’), activities at our own mindfulness center, and informal caregiving consultations if you have questions about juggling work and caregiving responsibilities at home.
• 168 holiday hours per year (23 days) based on a 36-hour working week.
• 26 weeks of parental leave, nine of which are paid.
• A good collective pension scheme with a 70% reimbursement of your pension premium.
• Discounts on health insurance and ten other types of insurance, from home insurance to legal assistance.
• An allowance for your travel expenses or a working-from-home allowance of €2 per day.

Radboudumc

The Radboudumc Health Academy (RHA) is the center for education, training and development for the lifelong learning health professional. The RHA offers a diverse training program for various target groups, including physicians, nurses, paramedics, and researchers. Within the Radboudumc Health Academy, professionals already come into contact with each other during their training and are trained from a single perspective. Central to this is our core compass:

• Room for learning in the workplace.
• Innovative education.
• Personalized learning paths.
• Interprofessional learning.
• Personal leadership.

We develop together with practitioners and patients. We believe in continuous professional development of healthcare professionals, which includes lifelong learning to provide the best care to patients every day.

Radboudumc
Welcome to Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc), where scientific breakthroughs are born through the curiosity and passion of our collaborating researchers in a vibrant environment. We believe trust and excitement are crucial elements to achieving our goals, and we approach our research as teams and with the utmost rigor to make a significant impact on health and healthcare. Our researchers are driven by their fascination with the biological, psychological, and sociological mechanisms underlying health and healthcare. They collaborate with partners from all over the world to improve health outcomes for all. Radboudumc unites patient care, research, education, and corporate learning, which allows us to approach our mission to shape the health and healthcare of the future in an innovative and person-centered way.

Our ambition is to lead the way in the pursuit of prevention, sustainability, meaningful care. We believe that through our research, we can significantly improve the health and well-being of society. Join us on our mission to make a difference in healthcare. Become a part of our community of gifted researchers, professionals or patient partners who are dedicated to making a real impact on population health and healthcare.

Read what it is like to do a PhD at the Radboud University Medical Center.