Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Barriers for Research amongst Medical Students of GMC, Nagpur

Background & Purpose: Medical research paves a way towards this evidence-based medicine. Experience of research in an early time in the medical profession is associated with continued professional academic work and may also help resident’s career decisions. The present study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of medical research amongst medical students and also the potential barriers in carrying out the medical research. Materials & Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted at Government Medical College, Nagpur, India from January 2020 to February 2020 amongst 156 medical students. A pretested, validated, self-administered questionnaire with 31 questions that assessed knowledge, attitude, and practice of conducting research was used for data collection. Statistical analysis was carried out by IBM SPSS software version 24.0. Results: Out of 156 subjects, 61% and 69% had a positive attitude and a good level of knowledge about research respectively. Knowledge regarding the online databases where the research articles can be searched was poor (27.5%). Only 8.4% students have conducted a research project amongst which only 5.7% of the students have published their study. Lack of time (75%), lack of proper guidance (68%), and lack of funding (67%) were some important barriers limiting their research practice. Most of the students (39%) have suggested to include research in medical school curriculum 35% of them have thought of the necessity to improve awareness about research. Conclusions: Various measures like conducting a hands-on training course on research methodology, organizing research workshops, frequent research presentations, and journal clubs to provide knowledge and skills needed to implement the scientific research should be undertaken to up bring the practice of research.