The development of a TED-Ed online resident research training program

Background: Pediatric health research is important for improving the health and well-being of children and their families. To foster the development of physicians’ research competencies, it is vital to integrate practical and context-specific research training into residency programs. Purpose: To describe the development of a resident research training program at one tertiary care pediatric academic health sciences center in Ontario, Canada. Methods: We surveyed residents and pediatricians/research staff to establish the need and content for a resident research training program. Results: Residents and resident research supervisors agreed or strongly agreed that research training is important for residents. However, few residents and supervisors believed that their academic health sciences center provided adequate training and resources to support resident research. As such, an online resident research training program was established. Residents and supervisors agreed that the program should focus on the following topics: 1) critically evaluating research literature, 2) writing a research proposal, 3) submitting an application for research funding, and 4) writing a manuscript. Discussion: This highly accessible, context-specific, and inexpensive online program model may be of interest and benefit to other residency programs as a means to enhance residents’ scholarly roles. A formal evaluation of the research training program is now underway