A case report curriculum to promote scholarship

Engaging in scholarly activity during residency can facilitate the acquisition of important skills; however, residents may encounter barriers such as unclear expectations as to what constitutes scholarship, a paucity of dedicated time and a lack of mentorship. Residents may encounter barriers such as unclear expectations as to what constitutes scholarship OBJECTIVE: In July 2013, we developed a Case Report Curriculum (CRC) for first-year residents to guide them towards creating a high-quality case report and helping them to achieve the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education scholarly activity requirement.

The CRC is composed of four 1-hour educational sessions (seminars and group work) at intervals of 4-6 weeks, with specific homework assignments. Sessions are divided into four topics: (1) importance of scholarship and selecting a case; (2) defining appropriate learning objectives; (3) writing a discussion; and (4) editing and submitting. The culmination of the CRC is a poster competition at our institutional Academic Week.

In 2012/13, the year prior to CRC implementation, six of 18 (33%) first-year residents participated in scholarly activity. During the following 2 years, 20 of 20 (100%) of the 2013/14 first-year residents and 21 of 22 (95%) of the 2014/15 first-year residents participated in the CRC and presented a case report. Furthermore, 16 of 20 (80%) of the first-year residents who completed the CRC in 2013/14 voluntarily continued to work on scholarly projects, with a total of 44 projects published or presented regionally or nationally.

The CRC represents a practical structured framework for promoting scholarship, which can be easily implemented in a residency programme.