Cultural Influences Catalyzing Resident Scholarly Productivity

Scholarly activity is a core requirement set by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). A previous study documented a significant 302% increase in scholarly activity at Eglin Family Medicine Residency after implementation of a standard set of interventions from 2016 to 2019. Few researchers have explained why such interventions to increase scholarly activity are effective. Prior work has suggested that many different interventions are helpful, but why? Our qualitative study took a multilevel approach to explain accompanying cultural factors and to determine how specific interventions led to the observed increases in quality and quantity of resident scholarship.

Taking a grounded theory qualitative approach, we interviewed a cross-section of high- and low-producing residents (12) and faculty (5) using a semistructured interview guide. Data analysis occurred concurrently with interviews. The team iterated the interview guide three times until core code saturation was achieved. Then axial coding occurred, and our team developed a grounded theory of scholarship cultural change.

During the transformation period of 2016 to 2019, participants identified mentorship availability, interest/opportunity alignment, research mechanics demystification, leadership support affecting productivity, and scholarship begets scholarship as key factors that promulgated the culture change leading to increased scholarship productivity. No single factor led to increased scholarship. Collectively, they mutually reinforced one another.

This explanatory inquiry developed into a multilevel model which suggests that the synergy of promoting elements drives increased scholarly productivity. Other residencies should consider fostering these combined elements instead of emphasizing only isolated individual elements to increase resident scholarship productivity.