A Study on Postgraduate Trainees Attitudes towards Research

Abstract

Introduction: The declining number of researchers in the field of medicine over recent years has aroused interest to inquire into the causes leading to it. Thus, the objective of this study was to promote and preserve research culture amongst the young doctors by assessing the attitude of postgraduate trainees towards research.

Methodology: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study in which an anonymous questionnaire, comprising of 32 questions in Likert scale format, was distributed to surgical, medical and allied residents of six institutes. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the responses.

Results: The overall response rate was 56%. The mean score for “research usefulness” was 3.25; for “research anxiety was 2.64; for “positive attitude was 2.74; for “relevance to life” was 2.47; and for “research difficulty was 2.70. The overall mean was 2.76. Although majority of the postgraduate trainees perceived research useful to their professional lives but at the same time experienced research anxiety, difficulty during the process and thought it was irrelevant to their personal lives. There was no apparent difference between the mean scores for different genders, age groups and specialty.

Conclusion: The results of the study concluded that overall postgraduate trainees view research with a negative attitude.

Keywords: Postgraduate trainees, research, attitude