STRUCTURED RESEARCH TRAINING IN RESIDENCY TRAINING-PROGRAMS - THE IMPACT ON THE LEVEL OF RESIDENT RESEARCH ACTIVITY

A survey was conducted to construct a profile of structured resident r esearch training and experience in physiatric residency training progr ams. Resident research activity was quantified, and factors that may i nfluence the level of resident research activity were examined. Questi onnaires were sent to all 72 residency training program directors, of which 87% responded. To construct the profile of structured training a nd experience in research that currently exists, descriptive analyses were applied to the survey responses. Resident research activity was q uantified according to projects per resident per year over the last 3 yr. Resident research activity was assigned to level I activity (great er-than-or-equal-to 0.25 projects/resident/year) or level 11 activity (<0.25 projects/resident/year). This point of discrimination was chose n because it represents one project per resident per 4-yr graduate med ical education cycle. Nonparametric, univariate analyses were used to evaluate the impact of each characteristic in the research training pr ofile on resident research activity. The following characteristics wer e found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05): (1) the use of men tors outside of the physical medicine and rehabilitation department; ( 2) the provision of guidelines to residents for choosing a mentor; (3) the provision of responsibility guidelines to mentors; (4) the presen ce of a classroom curriculum. Mentorship outside of the department, ho wever, had a negative impact on resident research activity, although t he other three characteristics had positive impacts. A multivariate an alysis using stepwise logistic regression was applied to further deter mine the capacity of each characteristic to predict independently the level of resident research activity. Only one characteristic simultane ously and independently remained significant (P < 0.05). The use of me ntors outside of the physical medicine and rehabilitation department n egatively impacts resident research activity. Our data also suggest th at when responsibility guidelines are present they will have positive nonsignificant impact on the level of resident research activity.