Scholarly Project

Rotation: Scholarly Project

Rotation advisor: Vanderbilt faculty and GPHC Emergency Residency Programme Director

Each resident is required to complete a scholarly project before graduating. The main goal of this project is to “instruct residents in the process of scientific inquiry”. Other goals include developing problem solving abilities, learning the art of medical writing, exposure to research, and focus on an area of expertise. The definition of the scholarly project focuses more on the process than the final product. Various endeavours can meet the objectives and requirements such as formal research, a medical book chapter, or a community project, among others. The project must include the identification of a problem and/or the formulation of a hypothesis; some form of information gathering or data collection; an analysis of data or evidence of analytic thinking; and a statement of conclusion or interpretation of results. This must be submitted in a written form usually following a proposal format or a journal manuscript format. The resident is expected to discuss a project with the programmed director by the beginning of the second year of residency (see timeline below). The committee will set the standards that must be met to receive a satisfactory grade for each project, respecting the four items listed above.

Graduation requirements:

Final submission: 1 PDF version that will serve as your official final write up and 1 word version that will serve for comments and editing that can be the basis of publication if indicated.

Submit your project for consideration at the Guyana Scientific Conference.

Examples

To fulfill the Scholarly Activity requirement, each resident must participate in or complete one of the following by the end of his or her residency:

• • Original research project: The resident serves as principal investigator, co-investigator, or a sub-investigator on a project. Presentation of the protocol and/or completed project at a recognized conference is required. A written manuscript, although encouraged, is not required.

  • Evidence-based Medicine Critically Appraised Topic ("CAT"): The resident chooses six clinical questions, searches the literature for pertinent articles, and writes approximately 6 one to two page critiques in the style of the annals of emergency medicine: http://www.annemergmed.com/content/ebeminstauth

  • Product invention/development: The resident designs a medical product/device. A written description and prototype or product are required. In addition, the resident will review the patent process and protection of intellectual properties.

  • Computer project: The resident designs a computer program or educational project. A written description and completed prototype or product are required. The resident reviews the process for protecting intellectual properties.

  • Practice guidelines: Using evidence based medicine skills, the resident investigates one or several clinical questions (depending on the complexity of the topic), searches for pertinent articles and/or previously-written guidelines, assesses their validity, and develops a departmental practice guideline. Example: "What are the indications for prescribing antibiotics to patients with acute bronchitis?"

  • Case report: A publication-ready manuscript submitted is required. Acceptance for publication is not required though it will strengthen the project.

  • Collective review: The resident identifies a topic, performs a literature search, and prepares a manuscript following the style established by the Annals of Emergency Medicine or Critical Decisions in Emergency Medicine.

Projects by prior residents:

See webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/em-residency-scholar-gy/home

Timeline

2nd year:

• • by the beginning of 2nd year: discuss project ideas with the residency director

  • by month 3 of 2nd year: complete preliminary research and narrow down the topic

  • by month 6: submit a 1 page proposal with a detailed timeline (this implies that the bulk of the literature review has been completed)

    • • proposal should include:

      • aim

      • objectives

      • hypothesis

      • rationale

      • methods

      • expected results

  • end of year 2: project is well under way ideally with data collection started or teaching initiated (but at a minimum: data collection ready to begin for research, curriculum written and approved for teaching projects...)

3rd year:

• • until month 6 implement the project

  • month 6-9: write it up

  • month 9-11: review, edit

  • month 12: submit to the examination committee.

Research time

You have a dedicated research month in year 3. You also have a variety of rotations in year 2 that are less demanding. Use those months wisely: depending on your project you may want the research time to implement the project or to write it. Speak with the programme director to schedule that time most appropriately. You cannot use your elective month for research time. It is expected that as an emergency resident you can juggle your clinical requirements and scholarly project with the help of your research months. Start early and stay on schedule!

Report Outline

Generally speaking, you will follow the outline of scientific paper with the addition of a literature review. Your report will be generally longer than a scientific paper. if you are presenting a class or doing some teaching your teaching materials will be in the appendix. Note that GPHC now has a Research Committee which has certain guideline to follow. All research being conducted at GPHC must be submitted to this committee. In addition Guyana has an IRB which also has certain requirements for submission. For details on this please see https://sites.google.com/view/em-residency-scholar-gy/home

• Abstract

• Introduction

• Literature review

• Materials and Methods

• Results

• Discussion

• Conclusion

• References

• Appendix (if applicable)

Tips

• Use a free reference manager such as zotero.com or mendeley.com. It will help you organize your references and list them in the appropriate format

• Use Hinari to access almost all articles that require subscriptions. Ask me for login details

• Do not limit yourself to free articles because they are easy to download.

• You are writing a scientific paper that should be publishable with minimal editing so write carefully in proper english; do not use colloquialisms, vague sentences or repeat yourself. Pay attention to grammar.

• Your introduction about the geography and economic context of guyana should be no more than a short paragraph. You can look at Dr. Cameron's paper on the surgery program or mine about our residency for inspiration.

• Every statement that is not generally accepted knowledge ("ACLS teaches cardiac resuscitation" is common knowledge; "ACLS reduces mortality of patients in cardiac arrest" needs a reference)

• When you write your literature review, place your references from the beginning as it becomes harder when time goes by to remember what statement came from what paper. So I usually just write it out. For example: ...sentence…. (forget, 2013, page 3) so that I remember what part of the paper backs up my statement. You can format it all with the nice little superscript numbers and formal bibliography at the end. It also helps me give you more precise feedback on your lit review early.

  • It is NOT a lit review until you cite the literature!

• DO NOT PLAGIARISE!!! you can paraphrase if you reference but you CANNOT copy and paste.

• Assume you are writing for other doctors who may not be specialists in EM but are well educated. So you don't have to explain what ATLS is for example but you may want to spend 1 line on TTT since it is not as universally accepted.