Ellie Edmond Shimmin: Reducing health inequities by strengthening the education of health professionals

Tell us about your work

I am working as a research assistant in the Partnership for the Education of Health Professionals (PEP). PEP is a partnership-based programme operating across India and Kenya focused on reducing health inequities by strengthening the education of health professionals in both preventing and caring for cardiometabolic diseases.

My role is multi-faceted, cutting across the whole project and encompassing different types of work. In this sense, my role is much broader than just research. For example, I am currently developing a monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) system for the UCPH part of the programme; I am aiding research efforts in the Global Health Section’s new Health Workforce research group; and I am exploring avenues of research around MEL for capacity-strengthening projects and global partnerships.

Why is this work important?

There are many reasons why the work of the PEP programme itself is important from thematic and structural perspectives. Most important and relevant to my current work and professional background is PEP’s simultaneous focus on and possibilities for capacity strengthening and research, as well as the possibility for extracting learnings for future programmes through our MEL system. In the current climate of increasingly restricted aid and development budgets and shifts in the development sector, a partnership-based, capacity-strengthening programme focused on sustainable systems strengthening is an important avenue to explore and learn from as a way of finding new ways of working.

What excites you about your work?

I am really interested in the use of global partnerships and capacity strengthening as a means of strengthening health systems, combining my educational background in Global Health from the master’s programme at UCPH and my work experience in a global partnership focused on capacity strengthening of education advocacy civil society organisations (Education Out Loud at Oxfam Denmark). The PEP programme has a unique capacity to produce research and learnings in this area which can aid the formation of partnerships and capacity strengthening initiatives in the future.

The MEL system I am developing for UCPH’s PEP grant has a strong emphasis on evaluating and learning from all aspects of our work. The evaluation findings and learnings will not only help us to adapt and refine our own project to be successful, but also produce knowledge which could aid the development of similar programmes.

I am really excited to see what knowledge and learnings we discover throughout the next few years, both on the thematics of the programme and its structural design.

All I can say is - if it feels a little scary but something says it’s the right thing to do – do it! I wouldn’t be in this role now if I hadn’t done that myself.

What advice do you have for junior researchers in global health?

My own career path has followed a winding journey with difficult decisions, whose trajectory didn’t always seem clear at the time. My biggest piece of advice would be to always remember your interests, but most importantly stick to your instincts and always keep an open mind to opportunities which might cross your path. There have been times when I couldn’t fully articulate why accepting a job outside of my thematic area of education made sense, or why I was insistently pursuing an independent research project for my thesis which was at odds with some people’s beliefs of what I should do – it just felt right. All these decisions will pay off even if it takes years to understand. I certainly still can’t see the red thread through my professional life yet.

What is your favourite source of global health inspiration and knowledge?

I have been lucky enough to always have inspiring colleagues, and the Global Health Section is no exception. So primarily I would say the people I am surrounded by every day, but more importantly, those people I have met who tirelessly work to bring about real change in their countries across the world.