Brandenburg, Caitlin

Fawzy, Peter

Glasziou, Paul P

Henry, David A

Narouz, Isaac

Noble, Christy

Stehlik, Paulie

English

BACKGROUND and OBJECTIVESPatient do better in research-intense environments.1 The importance of research is program requirements of trainee doctors globally. In 1994, the late Doug Altman raised concerns about doctors conducting research to progress their careers;2 however, the nature of college mandated research development, including scholarly projects, has not been systematically explored. We aimed to examine the research development curricula of Australian medical colleges and the expected stages of research engagement.METHODSWe undertook a content analysis exercise to map the research development curricula of Australian College physician and surgical training. We reviewed all publicly accessible information from college websites, including curricula, handbooks, and assessment-related documents.Research activities were coded as learning outcomes, learning activities, or assessments; and by research engagement stage (using, participating in, or leading research). We coded learning and assessment activities by type (formal research training, thesis, publication, etc.), whether it was mandatory, linked to a scholarly project, and whether the project supervisor’s required research experience. Completion requirements were further subdivided into: 1. only option; 2. option system: requirement is one of several options where the trainee needs to fulfil at least one option to gain fellowship; and 3. points system: requirement carries a prespecified number of “points” and trainee must collect a certain number of “points” to gain fellowship.RESULTS55 of 58 Australian colleges and subspecialty divisions required scholarly project requirement; one used an option system, and three a points system. Ten colleges required formal research training (one options based, two points based) and only two colleges required a research-experienced project supervisor. Colleges emphasised leading research outcomes and assessments, but not learning activities. Less emphasis was placed on using research, and almost no emphasis on participation. Overall, most learning and assessment activities were affiliated with completing a scholarly project rather than developing researcher capabilities.CONCLUSIONColleges appear to place emphasis on leading research and research deliverables, but not on developing researcher capabilities i.e. through formal research training and guidance from research experienced supervisors. Colleges may be unknowingly contributing to the growing reproducibility crisis and wastage in medical research but are also well positioned to improve research quality and reduce waste.Proposal; https://osf.io/3rq25/?view_only=3c617668e04f448fb8dab5ae81862157 REFERENCES1. Jonker L, Fisher SJ. The correlation between National Health Service trusts' clinical trial activity and both mortality rates and care quality commission ratings: a retrospective cross-sectional study. Public Health 2018;157:1-6. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.12.0222. Altman DG. The scandal of poor medical research. British Medical Journal 1994;308(6924):283-84. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6924.283 %J BMJ<br/

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryAre college mandated research requirements for trainee doctors incentivising researchwaste?Stehlik, Paulie; Fawzy, Peter; Narouz, Isaac; Brandenburg, Caitlin; Noble, Christy; Henry,David A; Glasziou, Paul PPublished: 21/02/2020Document Version:Peer reviewed versionLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Stehlik, P., Fawzy, P., Narouz, I., Brandenburg, C., Noble, C., Henry, D. A., & Glasziou, P. P. (2020). Are collegemandated research requirements for trainee doctors incentivising research waste?. Poster session presented atREWARD-EQUATOR Conference 2020, Berlin, Germany.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 09 Oct 2020Australian specialty training research curricula focus on trainees leading research, rather than using it or participating in it. Research curricula also lacked constructive alignment, and do not mandate adequate research development and project supervision. Contact: Dr Paulina Stehlik pstehlik@bond.edu.auAre college mandated research requirements for trainee doctors incentivising research waste?Paulina Stehlik1,2, Peter Fawzy3, Isaac Narouz3, CaitlinBrandenburg2, Christy Noble2,4,5, David Henry1,2, Paul Glasziou1Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, Bond University, Robina, QLD, Australia1, Gold Coast Hospital and HealthService, Southport, QLD, Australia2, Faculty of Health Science and Medicine, Bond University, Robina, QLD,Australia3, School of Medicine, Griffith University, Australia4, School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland,Australia5.BACKGROUND. Patients do better in research-intenseenvironments.1 The importance of research is reflectedin program requirements of specialist trainee doctorsglobally. We had observed trainees conducting projectsof wide-ranging methodological quality, and expresssignificant pressure to complete projects quickly to gainfellowship. Anecdotal evidence led us to believe thatspecialist college curricula requirements were drivingtrainee research behaviour and was therefore animportant target for systematic study.AIM. To systematically explore the intended researchcurricula of Australian trainee doctors as described byspecialist colleges, their constructive alignment, and thenature of scholarly project requirements.METHODS. Content analysis of publicly availableAustralian specialty training college research curricula,including websites, curricula, handbooks, and learningand assessment-related documents.To assess constructive alignment (FIGURE), data werecoded as learning objectives, activities, or assessments;and by:To further explore research requirements (TABLE)learning and assessment activities were coded by type(formal research training, thesis, etc.), if it was linked toa scholarly project, and the project supervisor’s requiredlevel of research experience. Activities were alsoclassified as mandatory, or part of an option-based orpoints based system.CONCLUSION. Colleges place emphasis on leadingresearch and research deliverables, but not formalresearch training and guidance from researchexperienced supervisors. This may be contributing toresearch wastage in medical research.Future work will look to quantify outcomes of enactedcurricula, including quality of trainee research outputsand their subjective experiences.Accepted for publication: bmjopen-2019-034962.R1Project Page:https://osf.io/a6kr5/?view_only=13cf3220cb4e4fd1bede1275c9de34d3N = 58 Yes (a) Yes (b) Yes (c) Optional No/ NRScholarly Project 51 1 3 1 2Research Training 8 1 2 31 16Experienced Research Supervisor 2 - - 30 (d) 24(e)Publication as first or second author 4 10 5 2 35Publication as any author 5 10 6 31 4Conference presentation 8 5 7 27 9Thesis 38 6 3 - 9(a) Mandatory: requirement had to be fulfilled to gain fellowship; (b) Option based system: requirement is one of several mandatory options andtrainee needed to fulfill at least one option; (c) Points based system: requirement carried a pre-specified number of “points” where trainees mustaccumulate a certain number of “points”; (d) Encouraged (rather than optional), (e) 12 stipulated project supervisor requirements (e.g. collegefellow) but did not mention research experience, nine did not provide any description of the characteristics of the project supervisor, three didnot mention a project supervisor anywhere in the publicly available documents.References:1. Jonker L, Fisher SJ. The correlation between National Health Service trusts' clinical trial activity and both mortality rates and care quality comm-ission ratings: a retrospective cross-sectional study. Public Health 2018;157:1-6. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.12.0222. Del Mar, C. (2001). "Publishing research in Australian Family Physician." Australian family physician 30(11): 1094.3. Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). "A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview." Theory Into Practice 41(4): 212-218.TABLE: Research requirements focused on outputs rather than developing researcher capabilities.• 55 of 58 Australian colleges required trainees to complete at least one scholarly project• 10 required formal research training• 2 required a research-experienced project supervision.• Most learning and assessment activities were affiliated with completing a scholarly project (see https://tinyurl.com/TraineeCurricula).RESULTS.FIGURE: There was a lack of constructive alignment across college research curricula.High emphasis on leading research objectives and assessments, but not learning activities.Some emphasis place on usingresearch objectives but  almost no learning activities or assessments.Almost no emphasis on participating in research.Objective = learning objective; Activity = learning activity; Assessment = assessment.Colleges are enumerated but not identified by name in the vertical axis of Figure. Higher frequency counts for documents that mapped tothe relevant domains are represented as darker shades in the heat map. The legend provides numeric calibration. The colleges differed indocumentary detail, hence vertical (between-college) comparisons will be affected by this. Horizontal (within-college) comparisons are likelyto have greater validity. For alignment across Bloom’s Taxonomy see: https://tinyurl.com/TraineeCurriculaFew lead researchSome participate in researchAll use research in practice• Research domain (Glasziou’striangle2): using, participating in, or leading research, and • Competency (Bloom’s Taxonomy3): remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating. 

Are college mandated research requirements for trainee doctors incentivising research waste?

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Are college mandated research requirements for trainee doctors incentivising research waste?

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