Research involvement and obstacles among trainees enrolled in a pediatric residency program in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate pediatric residents' involvement in research and their attitudes toward potential barriers to conducting research. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2017 and targeted residents enrolled in the Saudi Pediatric Residency Program. An online self-administered questionnaire was designed to assess residents' involvement in different domains of scholarly activity and their perception of barriers to research. All items used a five-point Likert-type scale with response options varying depending on the question. The relative importance index (RII) approach was used to analyze the relative contribution of each indicator to its main theme. RESULTS: A total of 314 pediatric residents agreed to complete the survey. Of these, 168 (53.5%) were female. Residents rated their involvement in all aspects of research as low. The top-ranked item was residents' participation in data collection for research (mean [standard deviation, SD] rating, 2.74 [1.3]; RII, 54.2%), followed by residents' participation in a structured literature review of a topic (mean [SD] rating, 2.6 [1.3]; RII, 52.1%). The lowest-rated items were residents' involvement in manuscript writing (mean [SD] rating, 2.3 [1.24]; RII, 46.1%) and their participation in statistical analysis (mean [SD] rating, 1.23 [1.21]; RII, 44.5%). The residents ranked the lack of dedicated time as the most significant barrier to their participation in scholarly activities (mean [SD] rating, 3.44 [1.3]; RII, 68.83%). Conversely, they ranked the lack of interest as the lowest barrier to research participation (mean [SD] rating, 2.85 [1.2]; RII, 56.96%) CONCLUSION: Overall, pediatric residents rated their involvement in all aspects of research as low, especially in manuscript writing and statistical analysis. These findings suggest the need to provide support for the development of a mentoring program as well as to develop a robust and longitudinal research curriculum for the pediatric residency program to encourage the involvement of trainees in research.