Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Aug 26;16(1):226.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-016-0749-3.

Research interest and activity among medical students in Gothenburg, Sweden, a cross-sectional study

Marit Stockfelt  1 , Lars Karlsson  2 , Caterina Finizia  3
Affiliations

Research interest and activity among medical students in Gothenburg, Sweden, a cross-sectional study

Marit Stockfelt et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The proportion of physicians undertaking doctoral studies is decreasing. Early recruitment of medical students could counteract this trend. This follow-up survey investigated research interest and activity among medical students at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Methods: A questionnaire was administered to all medical students at the Sahlgrenska Academy, as a follow-up to a 2006 survey. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for ordinal variables and the Fisher exact test for categorical variables. Data from Statistics Sweden was used to analyse the number of PhDs awarded to individuals who earned a medical degree in 2000-2012.

Results: Of the students, 16 % were already conducting and another 36 % wanted to conduct research during their studies. The interest was at the same level compared to 2006. The main reasons for conducting research consisted of an interest in scientific problems or the research topic, a wish for personal development or intellectual stimulation. Students engaged in research reported lack of time, increased workload and less time to study as hindering factors.

Conclusions: Recruitment could be improved by offering improved and regular information, clarifying career paths, broadly announcing available projects, and creating new and expanding existing research programmes. The potential for recruitment of Gothenburg medical students to research is substantial, but students are hampered by lack of time, lack of supervisors and lack of information.

Keywords: Medical student; Physician; Recruitment; Research; Scientist.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Reasons for medical students to conduct research
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Ratio between PhD degrees awarded to persons holding a medical degree and number of medical licences issued per year in Sweden for the period 2000–2012
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Hindering factors for medical students who wished to conduct research
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Stendahl O. Världsklass! Åtgärdsplan för den kliniska forskningen. SOU. 2008;Stockholm(7):1–271.
    1. Cech TR, Egan LW, Doyle C, Gallin E, Lichtman MA, Queenan CJ, Sung N. The biomedical research bottleneck. Science (New York, NY) 2001;293(5530):573. doi: 10.1126/science.293.5530.573. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wyngaarden JB. The clinical investigator as an endangered species. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1981;57(6):415–426. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rosenberg LE. Physician-Scientists--Endangered and Essential. Science (New York, NY) 1999;283(5400):331–332. doi: 10.1126/science.283.5400.331. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gottesman MM. The role of the NIH in nurturing clinician-scientists. N Engl J Med. 2013;368(24):2249–2251. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1302969. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources