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and a track record of working successfully with students are more important than the potential mentor’s number of publications or national reputation. Of course, an extensive research portfolio never hurts, and the mentor should be involved in enough projects so that he or she can provide an experience that matches the strengths and objectives of the student. After a mentor has been identified, the student and mentor CHAPTER 6 — TRAINEES AND EMERGENCY CARE RESEARCH 33 can jointly identify a research question and design a suitable study. Because this process will be similar for students and residents, we will defer considerations related to study selection until the next section. Residents Residents may consider conducting research during residency for a number of reasons, such as to fulfill a residency requirement, to inform a decision regarding future career direction, or to prepare for a future academic career. The value of a resident research requirement is debatable (3, 4), but generally speaking, an activity that is primarily externally motivated is less likely to result in lasting benefit for either the resident or faculty mentor. Other types of scholarly activities, such as authoring book chapters or clinical review articles, may provide a more valuable educational experience in this circumstance. In the second situation, residents who are trying to decide between community-based and academic careers should be cautious about placing undue weight on a single research experience, because it may result in the premature abandonment of a potential academic career. It can be misleading to compare the immediate satisfaction of clinical practice, such as the making of a challenging diagnosis, a touching patient encounter, or mastery of a procedure, with that of research, which can be a solitary pursuit with delayed gratification. A better predictor of long-term career satisfaction may be to compare the gratification from caring for patients with routine presentations, such as nonspecific abdominal pain, viral bronchitis and the like, with the intellectual stimulation derived from research activities. Regardless of the motivation for pursuing research, residents should select mentors and study questions that are aligned with their objectives. Residents should attempt to define a question based on their own clinical experiences, because the process of conceiving a testable question and developing an appropriate design is educational in its own right, even if the study is never executed. Identifying an answerable question is a challenging task, even for experienced investigators, and the resident should not hesitate to speak with mentors about potential research ideas (5). The most important criterion for a resident or student project is feasibility within the allotted time period. It is better to successfully complete a study that addresses a simple question than to undertake a more ambitious study that is never completed. Prospective data collection is possible if planning is initiated early during the residency, but a retrospective study is often a more reasonable option; even a study that involves the retrospective collection of data usually requires more time than anticipated. If there is an existing dataset that can answer the study question in a valid manner, then analyzing these data can be an efficient approach, because it allows the resident to focus their energy on aspects of research other than data collection. Residents often spend the greatest proportion of their time on data collection at the expense of other activities, such as data analysis and manuscript preparation. These other activities have greater educational value and, if the resident is considering a future academic career, they reflect more accurately the duties of more established academic researchers. Fellows Fellowship provides an opportunity for graduates of emergency medicine residency programs to develop an area of specialized expertise, with the majority of fellows choosing to focus on clinical areas, such as pediatrics or ultrasound. For fellows intending to ultimately practice in a community setting, considerations regarding the selection of a project are similar to those for residents discussed previously. Often, however, fellowship is a stepping stone towards an academic career that will involve research activities to some degree. In this circumstance, work on more ambitious individual or even ongoing collaborative projects during fellowship should be considered, especially if that work can reasonably be expected to continue after graduation from the fellowship. For example, 34 CHAPTER 6 — TRAINEES AND EMERGENCY CARE RESEARCH the fellow may continue to work on the project as a faculty member at his or her current institution after the completion of training or may continue collaboratively after taking a position at another institution. An extended time horizon and working collaboratively provides greater flexibility in the questions that can be asked and the types of study designs that can be considered. It is generally more educational and valuable for a fellow who anticipates research being a substantial component of his or her future career to complete a single project for which they have ownership, from start to finish, within the span of their fellowship. Doing so will, of course, require that the complexity and scope of the 

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