Awareness about medical research among resident doctors in a tertiary care hospital: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Context: Every medical practitioner should strive to contribute to the generation of evidence by conducting research. For carrying out research, adequate knowledge, practical skills, and development of the right attitude are crucial. A literature review shows that data regarding knowledge, attitude, and practices toward medical research, among resident doctors in India, is lacking.

Aims: This study was conducted to assess research-related knowledge, attitude, and practices among resident doctors.

Settings and design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a pretested, structured, and pre-validated questionnaire.

Materials and methods: With approval of the Institutional Ethics Committee and a verbal consent, a cross-sectional survey among 100 resident doctors pursuing their second and third years in the MD and MS courses was conducted using a structured and pre-validated questionnaire.

Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results.

Results: The concept of research hypothesis was known to 58% of the residents. Ninety-eight percent of the residents were aware of the procedure to obtain informed consent. Seventy-six percent agreed that research training should be mandatory. Although 88% of the residents were interested in conducting research in future, 50% had participated in research other than a dissertation project, 28% had made scientific presentations, and only 4% had publications. Lack of time (74%), lack of research curriculum (42%), and inadequate facilities (38%) were stated as major obstacles for pursuing research.

Conclusions: Although resident doctors demonstrated a fairly good knowledge and positive attitude toward research, it did not translate into practice for most of them. There is a need to improve the existing medical education system to foster research culture among resident doctors.

Keywords: Attitude; knowledge; postgraduate student; practice; research; residency curriculum.

Figure 1

Number of residents involved in the research, other than the dissertation

Figure 2

Topics of research training that resident doctors would like to learn