Research: Why aren’t more medical students doing it?

Background:Many medical schools in Australia and Internationallystruggle to engage medical students along a researchpathway.Aims:The aim of this study was to identify medical student’sconfidence, attitudes and perceived obstacles toparticipating in research during medical school.Methods:A cross-sectional survey was carried out of undergraduatemedical students in years 1–5 attending the University ofTasmania.Results:Of the 237 students who responded to the survey (responserate of 41.9 per cent) the majority (70.3 per cent) agreedthat research was a useful experience and expressed adesire to be involved in research (60.1 per cent). Womenwere generally less confident than men in their ability toconduct research while research experience was significantlyassociated with an increase in confidence in conductingresearch. Frequently endorsed reasons by students for not undertaking an Honours year were a desire to not delaygraduation by a year for financial (79 per cent) andemployment reasons (71 per cent) and social concernsregarding integrating with a different year group (69 percent). Additional concerns included a lack of time andmotivation.Conclusion:The difficulties inherent for students in undertaking researchincluding low confidence, lack of time, financial constraintsand pressure to get out into the workforce should help toinform medical educators in developing solutions toencourage student participation in research