Assessment of the "scholarly project" requirement for emergency medicine residents: Report of the SAEM Research Directors' Workshop

Objectives: Differences in interpretation of the residency review committee (RRC) directive concerning resident scholarly activity have resulted in in consistencies in the practical fulfillment of this responsibility among the various training programs in emergency medicine. During a workshop organiz ed by the SAEM Research Directors' Interest Group (RDIG), a consensus state ment was developed regarding the scope, definition, and purpose of the scho larly project requirement. Methods: During the workshop, the NIH model of c onsensus building was used to develop statements pertaining to specific que stions of the goals, definition, and endpoints of the scholarly project. Th e program consisted of an overview of the history and issues related to the scholarly project and presentations of varying viewpoints from interested parties. A final consensus of answers to the defined questions was then dev eloped by the workshop participants during roundtable discussions and furth er refined through interactive debate using the RDIG e-mail list server. Re sults: By consensus it was agreed that the primary role of the scholarly pr oject is to instruct residents in the process of scientific inquiry, to tea ch problem-solving skills, and to expose the resident to the mechanics of r esearch. To realize these goals, the project should include the general ele ments of hypothesis formulation, data collection, analytic thinking, and in terpretation of results. It was also thought; that these elements should be documented in some written form with a literature review. Conclusions: Whi le each residency program must implement the RRC residency requirements in a manner that best suits the needs and culture of its individual environmen t, a concurrence of definition and approach to satisfying the scholarly pro ject requirement would provide better consistency in resident training. Gui delines developed by consensus during the SAEM RDIG workshop may serve as a general recipe that can be used to fulfill the goals of the scholarly proj ect and the spirit of the RRC directive.