Attitude, Practice and Barriers of Academic Research among Radiology Residents in Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Survey

BACKGROUND: Radiology has become one of the most sought out residency programs in the country attracting highly qualified candidates from all over the country. The objective of the study was to determine the attitude, practice and barriers of radiology residents towards academic research: METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted across all five institutions currently giving radiology residency programs in the country the survey was carried out from 12/16/2020 to 12/12/2021. Using a questionaries' that were distributed to the residents using google docs. RESULTS: There were A total of 120 radiology residents participated in the study. 93(77.5%) of the participants were male while the rest 27 (22.5%) were female. With the mean age of the participants was 29 (1.75)years of age. Out of the 120 residents only 6 (5%) of them have published a research paper. 92.6% of the respondents were found to have a positive attitude towards academic research. Some of the major barrier to research identified by the study were the lack of time due to heavy workload, lack of Training course, inadequate Mentor Support and inadequate financial support. CONCLUSIONS: The study has showed that the overall attitude of radiology residents across the country towards academic research was positive but the practice of the residents in various academic research activities was found to be low. The authors recommend that all the stakeholders in radiology post graduate education to encourage residents in their academic pursuits by providing the necessary time and resources needed to perform quality research