Grantsmanship Refined: Evaluación y Entrenamiento de la Eficacia en Residentes (Estudio GREATER)

Extramural funding is critical to career success in academic surgery and most federal and societal funding opportunities for trainees require application submission early in residency. Single institution studies have demonstrated that surgical resident self-efficacy in grantsmanship is limited, but there are no national data on trainee experience and comfort with grant writing. The objective of this study was to perform a multi-institutional needs assessment to explore surgical resident grantsmanship self-efficacy.

This was a multi-institutional survey of all general surgery residents enrolled in the Association for Surgical Education list-serv. A previously validated, 19-item grantsmanship self-efficacy inventory was distributed electronically. The survey included 3 domains of grantsmanship: project conceptualization, study design, and knowledge of the funding process. Each item was scored on a scale from 0 (no confidence) to 10 (complete confidence). Junior and senior residents as well as residents with and without prior grant writing experience were compared using Student t-tests, 1 way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Pearson's Chi-square tests.

The 77 resident respondents represented all training levels and multiple program types. The mean resident grantsmanship self-efficacy score was 6.0 (standard deviation-SD: 2.3, range: 0 to 8.9) out of 10. Senior residents (PGY3-5) had significantly higher mean scores than junior residents (PGY 1-3) (5.5 vs. 3.5, p = 0.002). Grantsmanship self-efficacy was also higher among residents who completed research time, submitted or funded a grant, and/or attended formal grantsmanship training compared to those that did not (all p < 0.001). A significantly higher proportion of residents who received formal grant training had a grant funded compared to those who had no formal training (43.2% vs. 7.5%, p < 0.001).

General surgery resident grantsmanship self-efficacy is low with some evidence of improvement later in training, after key funding opportunities have passed. Residents with exposure to both formal and informal grant writing training have higher reported comfort with the process. In an increasingly challenging funding environment, formal curricula that support mastery of the grant writing and funding processes are needed early in residency.