Students’ perspectives on research and assessment of a model template designed to guide beginners in research in a medical school in Cameroon

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Abstract

Background

Research activities for medical students and residents (trainees) are expected to serve as a foundation for the acquisition of basic research skills. Some medical schools therefore recommend research work as partial requirement for certification. However medical trainees have many difficulties concerning research, for which reason potential remedial strategies need to be constantly developed and tested. The views of medical trainees are assessed followed by their use and appraisal of a novel “self-help” tool designed for the purposes of this study with potential for improvement and a wider application.

Methods

This study was a cross-sectional survey of volunteering final-year medical students and residents of a medical school in Cameroon.

Results

This study surveyed the opinions of a total of 120 volunteers of which 82 (68%) were medical students. Three out of 82 (4%) medical students reported they had participated in research activities with a publication versus 10 out of 38 residents (26%). The reported difficulties in research for these trainees included referencing of material (84%), writing a research proposal (79%), searching for literature (73%) and knowledge of applicable statistical tests (72%) amongst others. All participants declared the “self-help” tool was simple to use, guided them to think and better understand their research focus.

Conclusion

Medical trainees require much assistance on research and some “self-help” tools such as the template used in this study might be a useful adjunct to didactic lectures.

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Most cited references 10

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Undergraduate medical research: the student perspective

Louise Burgoyne, Siun O’Flynn, Geraldine Boylan (2010)

Background Research training is essential in a modern undergraduate medical curriculum. Our evaluation aimed to (a) gauge students' awareness of research activities, (b) compare students' perceptions of their transferable and research-specific skills competencies, (c) determine students' motivation for research and (d) obtain students' personal views on doing research. Methods Undergraduate medical students (N=317) completed a research skills questionnaire developed by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Applied Undergraduate Research Skills (CETL-AURS) at Reading University. The questionnaire assessed students' transferable skills, research-specific skills (e.g., study design, data collection and data analysis), research experience and attitude and motivation towards doing research. Results The majority of students are motivated to pursue research. Graduate entrants and male students appear to be the most confident regarding their research skills competencies. Although all students recognise the role of research in medical practice, many are unaware of the medical research activities or successes within their university. Of those who report no interest in a career incorporating research, a common perception was that researchers are isolated from patients and clinical practice. Discussion Students have a narrow definition of research and what it entails. An explanation for why research competence does not align more closely with research motivation is derived from students' lack of understanding of the concept of translational research, as well as a lack of awareness of the research activity being undertaken by their teachers and mentors. We plan to address this with specific research awareness initiatives.

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Student research projects and theses: should they be a requirement for medical school graduation?

W H Frishman (2016)

From 1981 to 1994, 69 fourth-year students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine participated in a 6-month medical school research project (MSRP) with the same mentor. Students could choose an original project or library project, and were required to prepare a written report suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. In this article, it is assessed whether a mandatory fourth-year MSRP might substitute for traditional clinical electives. Student reactions to the experience were ascertained by using the responses to an open- and closed-ended questionnaire regarding skills gained by doing MSRPs, the impact on their careers, and their relationship to the mentor. Eighty-nine percent of the students responded that MSRPs increased their ability to formulate a hypothesis, 91% reported that this project increased their ability to conduct a literature search, 95% felt that MSRPs increased their knowledge of research techniques, and 91% reported having improved data collection skills after completing these projects. Students also reported that MSRPs increased their ability to critically evaluate the literature (95%) or to work independently (93%), and 89% responded that the project improved their ability to evaluate their individual strengths and weaknesses. Eighty-nine percent reported that the project increased their ability to write a research paper (34% of projects were original research, 35% were literature reviews, and 30% both original research and literature reviews). Thirty-three percent of respondents reported having some kind of problem completing their projects, and 90% of project reports were accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Ninety-one percent of students responded that they had received appropriate guidance from their mentor, and 73% met with him at least once a week. Seventy-three percent described a relationship with the mentor that went beyond project advising. Eighty-five percent responded that the project impacted their careers in medicine, 97% felt that the research experience was a useful replacement for fourth-year electives, and 91% felt they were as well prepared for residency training as their classmates who had regular fourth-year electives without research. Fifty percent of students indicated that completion of an independent research project should not be required for graduation, whereas 18% responded it should be a requirement and 32% were undecided. Incorporating an MSRP in the fourth year appears to increase research skills and is considered to be a useful replacement for traditional elective rotations. The MSRP impacts favorably on future careers; however, many students do not think it should be a mandatory requirement for graduation from medical school.

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Student views of research training programmes in medical schools.

A. de Boer, Sueli L A Alves, Roberto M Saraiva … (2011)

Research activity is not a mandatory component of medical education in many developing countries, including Brazil, although such experiences can have a positive impact on the quality of medical education. The interest and involvement of medical students in research and the barriers they face in accessing research training in developing countries have not been adequately addressed. We sought to assess the availability of scientific training programmes in Brazilian medical schools, the degree of involvement of medical students in these programmes, the main barriers to student involvement in research and possible reasons for the lack of scientific training programmes. This study examined 13 medical programmes conducted in six Brazilian states. A total of 1004 medical students were interviewed. We evaluated the availability of scientific training in the institutions attended by these students, the participation of the students in such activities and students' reasons for not joining such programmes based on student answers to our questionnaire. Although only 7% of the medical students expressed no interest in research, only 60% of them were involved in research training. Students regarded a lack of institutional incentive as the most significant barrier to their participation in research activities. Other significant barriers included defective infrastructure and insufficient time available for professors to mentor undergraduate students. According to the feedback from the students, eight of the 13 schools investigated featured structured programmes for scientific training. However, a mean of only 47% of students participated in scientific training programmes on their campuses and 13% of students were compelled to pursue such activities off-campus. Although scientific training during medical education in Brazil is still less frequent than expected, most of the students were interested in research activities. The barriers to undergraduate scientific training described in this paper may help the Brazilian government improve research training in medical schools. These issues might also be explored in other developing countries. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Joshua Tambe: tambej@yahoo.fr

Jacqueline Ze Minkande: minkandeze@yahoo.fr

Boniface Moifo: bmoifo@yahoo.fr

Robinson Mbu: rembu2000@yahoo.com

Pierre Ongolo-Zogo: pc.ongolo@gmail.com

Joseph Gonsu: jgonsu@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Med Educ

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Med Educ

Title: BMC Medical Education

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1472-6920

Publication date (Electronic): 21 December 2014

Publication date PMC-release: 21 December 2014

Publication date Collection: 2014

Volume: 14

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 269

Affiliations

[ ]Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, The University of Yaoundé 1, PO Box 1839, Yaoundé, Cameroon

[ ]Center for the Development of Best Practices in Health, Yaoundé, Cameroon

[ ]Doctoral Research Unit, The University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Article

Publisher ID: 269

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-014-0269-y

PMC ID: 4302438

PubMed ID: 25528159

SO-VID: 6cf5fe0b-70f3-4b61-8a0e-60c509b66fcf

License:

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 21 August 2014

Date accepted : 10 December 2014

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Education

Keywords: medical trainees,novel self-help template

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Education

Keywords: medical trainees, novel self-help template

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Students’ perspectives on research and assessment of a model template designed to guide beginners in research in a medical school in Cameroon

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Most cited references 10

Undergraduate medical research: the student perspective

Student research projects and theses: should they be a requirement for medical school graduation?

Student views of research training programmes in medical schools.

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