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A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper
Introduction: Research is a critically important skill for medical trainees that helps physicians to advance the state of science and provide optimal healthcare to patients. The number of physician-scientists is decreasing. Competing priorities, limited research faculty, shrinking research budgets,...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9792335/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36579282 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.31901 |
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author | Jacobs, Robin J Costin, Joshua |
author_facet | Jacobs, Robin J Costin, Joshua |
author_sort | Jacobs, Robin J |
collection | PubMed |
description | Introduction: Research is a critically important skill for medical trainees that helps physicians to advance the state of science and provide optimal healthcare to patients. The number of physician-scientists is decreasing. Competing priorities, limited research faculty, shrinking research budgets, and meeting accreditation standards limit the amount of time and effort needed to train undergraduate medical students sufficiently for them to engage in independent research activities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of a fully online research practicum as part of the medical school curriculum. Methods: A fully online research curriculum for preclinical medical students was developed and implemented by the researchers as a mandatory component of student training. This curriculum addressed research education challenges in medical schools with limited resources and/or for situations for which face-to-face research may be impractical or expensive. Students were also encouraged to practice critical thinking and critical appraisal of the evidence. Student-initiated research projects were conducted in teams and completed with support from faculty research mentors and librarians. During the first two cycles, 86 student team projects were completed. During the third cycle, 45 team projects were conducted. Results: Two complete cycles of a two-semester research practicum were completed. The majority of these studies were presented at regional, national, and international conferences, published as posters, and/or published as articles in peer-reviewed journals. Faculty mentor publications also increased as a result of engagement in the practicum. Discussion: The results of this research practicum provide evidence of the usefulness of a hands-on tailored research program delivered online for increasing research literacy, promoting interest among medical students in research, and motivation for future engagement in research as verified by student project outcomes during and beyond the practicum experience. The practicum can be used for individual students or as a team-based approach. A research practicum such as this also has the potential to improve the prospects of a successful application for post-graduate training, grants, and high-impact publications. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9792335 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97923352022-12-27 A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper Jacobs, Robin J Costin, Joshua Cureus Medical Education Introduction: Research is a critically important skill for medical trainees that helps physicians to advance the state of science and provide optimal healthcare to patients. The number of physician-scientists is decreasing. Competing priorities, limited research faculty, shrinking research budgets, and meeting accreditation standards limit the amount of time and effort needed to train undergraduate medical students sufficiently for them to engage in independent research activities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of a fully online research practicum as part of the medical school curriculum. Methods: A fully online research curriculum for preclinical medical students was developed and implemented by the researchers as a mandatory component of student training. This curriculum addressed research education challenges in medical schools with limited resources and/or for situations for which face-to-face research may be impractical or expensive. Students were also encouraged to practice critical thinking and critical appraisal of the evidence. Student-initiated research projects were conducted in teams and completed with support from faculty research mentors and librarians. During the first two cycles, 86 student team projects were completed. During the third cycle, 45 team projects were conducted. Results: Two complete cycles of a two-semester research practicum were completed. The majority of these studies were presented at regional, national, and international conferences, published as posters, and/or published as articles in peer-reviewed journals. Faculty mentor publications also increased as a result of engagement in the practicum. Discussion: The results of this research practicum provide evidence of the usefulness of a hands-on tailored research program delivered online for increasing research literacy, promoting interest among medical students in research, and motivation for future engagement in research as verified by student project outcomes during and beyond the practicum experience. The practicum can be used for individual students or as a team-based approach. A research practicum such as this also has the potential to improve the prospects of a successful application for post-graduate training, grants, and high-impact publications. Cureus 2022-11-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9792335/ /pubmed/36579282 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.31901 Text en Copyright © 2022, Jacobs et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Medical Education Jacobs, Robin J Costin, Joshua A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title | A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title_full | A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title_fullStr | A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title_full_unstemmed | A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title_short | A Fully Online Research Practicum Curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Students: A Protocol Paper |
title_sort | fully online research practicum curriculum for undergraduate medical students: a protocol paper |
topic | Medical Education |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9792335/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36579282 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.31901 |
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