Building a resident research program in emergency medicine.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Research Methodology
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Residency programs require scholarly activity, but methods for achieving this are unclear.
• Traditional resident scholarly work often lacked empirical basis, with only 27% being empirical studies before 2012.
• A need existed for a structured approach to foster resident engagement in research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a novel, three-phase resident research program.
• To emphasize resident participation in quantitative or qualitative empirical research.
• To enhance the quality and quantity of scholarly output among residents.

Main Methods:

• A three-step program ('Think, Do, Write') was implemented, aligning with residency years.
• Phase 1: Topic selection, hypothesis formulation, and research certifications.
• Phase 2: Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and study execution; Phase 3: Data analysis, interpretation, and abstract writing.

Main Results:

• Achieved nearly 100% resident participation in empirical studies post-implementation.
• Significant increase in original empirical works, national conference presentations, and peer-reviewed publications.
• Residents developed enhanced skills in research design and statistical analysis.

Conclusions:

• A comprehensive, supported resident research program effectively facilitates high-quality empirical research.
• The program significantly increased resident productivity and skill development in academic and clinical research.
• This model provides a viable strategy for meeting residency scholarly activity requirements.