Early course on “Research in Medicine”. Development of critical reading, projects, and medical drafts

Abstract

Introduction: Early exposure to research stimulates students to develop research projects (RP) and share results.

Objective: To report the development of a RP, a poster, and a publishable article in a “critical reading of research” (CRR) course.

Method: 31 second semester medical students were evaluated in a three-stage course. 1) CRR (10 hours) of five published articles following a reader´s guideline (RG), that evaluated the methodological features and the pertinent statistics of: instruments, case-control studies, RCT, validation of diagnostic tests, and cohort studies with group discussions. 2) Development of RP. 3) Diffusion of results in a poster and publishable article. CRR of the referred study designs was evaluated with a validated and consistent (0.67, KR) instrument with 50 items in the “T”, “F”, “D” format. Results (medians) were grouped into random, very low, low, intermediate, high, and very high. Four Likert 1 - 5 questionnaires (never to always) were applied to evaluate the usefulness of a) The RG, b) The elaboration of a RP, c) The article and its diffusion, d) The docent´s evaluation. Frequency and consistency of responses were recorded.

Results: The group obtained a median of 32 in CRR; one student provided random answers, and 17 scored in the intermediate and high range. 19 students (four sub-groups) completed their RP and medical draft. Questionnaires: 89% reported that the RG and the RP were useful, and the diffusion of their results was also useful in over 70% of cases. The docent´s evaluation was adequate. Consistency of the four questionnaires was between 0.85 and 0.96 (McDonald´s omega).

Conclusions: With participative strategies, students can be motivated early manner to develop CRR skills, a research project, elaborate a poster presentation, and a medical manuscript.