Table 2.
Solutions offered by survey respondents regarding how to increase medical student research engagement
| Themes | Representative responses | % of responses |
|---|---|---|
| Improve access to and promotion of research opportunities | “[Allow] earlier exposure to actual research as opposed to just teaching research methods” | 51.8% |
| “Updated databases of possible research project opportunities” | ||
| “A subscription service notifying students of new research opportunities tailored to the fields they want to pursue” | ||
| “More accessibility to full time researchers as clinicians are too busy” | ||
| “More opportunities for students in rural settings to do research” | ||
| Better education about both research skills and the importance of research | “Faculty teaching … on research skills such as ethics submission and study design” | 18.4% |
| “Explaining the role of research in patient care” | ||
| “Knowing the weighting of research on internship and specialty applications” | ||
| Provide incentives to complete research | “Better remuneration and appreciation, not treated as free labour with a $200/week summer research scholarship for fulltime work” | 8.7% |
| “Make it more interesting and financially accessible for students that cannot justify putting off getting paid for a whole year” | ||
| Allow dedicated time for research | “Active exposure via shadowing researchers or Honours students” | 6.9% |
| “Further integration of research into the course such as [the programs at] Stanford and Harvard” | ||
| Actively encourage research | “Active encouragement and platforms to showcase undergraduate research like [the International Conference of Undergraduate Research] and the research week” | 3.6% |
| “Consultants/medical staff that are associated with teaching hospitals [should be] encouraged to involve medical students in research projects” | ||
| “Active encouragement by faculty [with] tutors speaking about their own research projects” | ||
| Safeguard against the exploitation of medical students by researchers | “Having increased accountability for supervisors to credit/acknowledge students as opposed to using them as guinea pigs for data collection” | 2.1% |
| “Better canvassing of opportunities with more opportunities to get involved where students are aware of time commitment and if [they will receive authorship]” | ||
| Publish stories about other medical student research experiences | “Produce day-in-the-life stories/videos following BMedSc (Hons) students” | 2.1% |
| “Talks by current and past students about what [research is] really like, not just from the faculty” | ||
| Medical student research should not be promoted | “Most BMedSc (Hons) projects are small and lacking in [academic or clinical] utility” | 1.8% |
| “Too many students do research [to increase employability] and are not actually interested in it” | ||
| “Doing research to get an internship/advanced training place produces non-contributory, [poor quality] research” |