SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY AND RESIDENCY TRAINING: SEEKING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) program requirements for residency education in family practice acknowledge the importance of research and other scholarly activity in residency training.1 Included in the core competencies of medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice, the ACGME requires formal scholarly activity to occur in residency programs. While not directly stated, scholarly activity is often used as an umbrella term under which research is included as a separate entity. While some research is often included in the residency curriculum, research is often but not consistently a required component of training. In a survey of family practice residency program directors, Neale2 found that 48.6% of responding programs required a resident research project. The top reasons for requiring resident research were to develop critical thinking and patient care skills and to promote an understanding of the medical literature. The top reasons for not requiring resident research were an attitude that it was not necessary and lack of faculty or time. Overall, family medicine residency directors are supportive of scholarly activity in their programs. In a survey by DeHaven,3 more than one half of family medicine residency directors felt that their training program actively promotes research. Furthermore, 3 of 4 survey respondents indicated that involving residents in research was a goal of the program. To successfully integrate research and scholarly activity and to overcome acknowledged barriers, residency programs require enthusiastic faculty that possess the skills, expertise, experience, and success in this area. Faculty involvement has been a reported characteristic of programs that are successful in research.1 Currently, only 12.9% of family practice residency programs require faculty to engage in research or scholarly activity.2 As such, program directors may need to seek assistance outside of their residencies in order to produce a successful scholarly activity curriculum. In addition to promoting excellence in family medicine residency training, the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors (AFMRD) and its Board of Directors is committed to the following goals: To represent family medicine residency program directors at a national level and provide a political voice for them in appropriate areas To develop the art and science of resident education in family medicine To improve the quality of education of family physicians To promote the ethical behavior in all aspects of residency operation To promote communication and cooperation between family medicine residency programs and other members of the family medicine family To provide a network for mutual assistance among family medicine residency directors To enhance the administrative operation of family medicine residencies Consistent with these goals and to assist with overcoming acknowledged barriers, the AFMRD is committed to serving as a resource for residency directors in their efforts to incorporate formal scholarly activity curriculum into their residency programs. AFMRD seeks strategic partnerships with fellow family medicine organizations to assist in these efforts. For instance, the AFMRD will partner with the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) to integrate both research and quality improvement as recognized scholarly activities and to develop a scholarly activity curricula that provides a structure as well as fl exibility for program directors. In addition, the organization seeks to develop partnerships between NAPCRG members and specifi c residency programs to provide the research experience and expertise not always present in family medicine residency faculty members. In terms of other key organizations, the AFMRD seeks the assistance of peer-reviewed publications such as the Annals of Family Medicine, Family Medicine, the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine and others to actively seek, promote, and publish work produced by residency faculty and family medicine residents. In particular and as an encouragement to future researchers, the promotion and publication of the products of resident research should be a priority. As an example, these publications could sponsor a resident research competition and publish the results in a special edition as a means of stimulating resident research activities and fostering the development of our future family medicine scholars. Through overcoming challenges and by seeking strategic partnerships, the AFMRD is actively pursuing many of its stated goals and central mission of serving as a resource for family medicine residency directors.