Research amongst Irish surgical trainees: what's the trend?

A high publication rate for surgical trainees is considered a prerequisite for progression to Higher Specialist Training (HST). This rate has arguably been decreased by the formation of a new 'run-through' training pathway. We aim to quantify the number of publications that the 'new' pathway trainees have attained compared to the 'old' pathway trainees. We further aim to compare the H-index and average citations between General Surgery (GS) and Trauma and Orthopaedic (T&O) trainees.

Publications from old pathway trainee years 2007-2014 (T&O n = 59, GS n = 64) were compared with new pathway trainees from 2015 to 2016 (T&O n = 11, GS n = 12). H-index and average citations were also compared for trainees commencing HST years 2007-2009. Statistical analysis involved D'Agostino normality testing. An unpaired Student's t test ± Welch's correction was utilised for parametric data and a Mann-Whitney U test for non-parametric data.

The average number of publications attained by the old pathway T&O trainee was 4.2 ± 3.1 and was 3.1 ± 2.4 for the new trainee. Old GS trainees had an average of 6.5 ± 3.3 publications prior to HST with new GS trainees having an average of 3.7 ± 2.8 publications. The average H-index attained for GS trainees on completion of the HST pathway was 5.1 ± 3.2 and 4.6 ± 2.4 for T&O trainees.

There has been a significant decrease in publication rates between new and old GS pathways. No significant changes were identified between new and old T&O pathways. There was no difference between H-index and average citations between specialties.