Cross-sectional Survey of Medical student Attitudes to Research and Training pathways (SMART) in the UK: study protocol

Cross-sectional Survey of Medical student perceptions of And desires for Research and Training pathways (SMART): an analysis of prospective cohort study of UK medical students

OBJECTIVE

Clinician-scientists are critical to medical innovation and research. However, the number of clinician scientists in the UK has been declining steadily over the last decade. One of the cited reasons is poor student recruitment to academic training pathways. The SMART study aims to assess current student perceptions on research and identify key factors influencing whether a student is interested in research.

DESIGN

We conducted a cross-sectional survey study between January and May 2022.

SETTING

This was a multi-centre national study with data collected across 40 universities offering medical courses in the UK.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants were UK medical students enrolled in medicine for 21/22 academic year.

MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE

The main outcomes were related to participant perceptions on research and whether they were interested in engaging with research in their future career. These measures were correlated with demographic and non-demographic details using regression analyses.

RESULTS

One thousand seven hundred seventy-four individuals participated in the SMART survey from 40 medical schools. Nearly half the participants felt there were barriers preventing them from doing research (46.67%) and almost three-quarters felt it was at least somewhat difficult to combine research with medical school (73.49%). Of the options available, most commonly students did not want to pursue an academic career (43.11%) or training pathway (42.49%). However, most participants felt it was useful to do research at medical school (59.54%) and were also interested in doing more research in the future (69.16%). Regression analysis identified many factors influencing student's perceptions of research including year of study, gender, socioeconomic status, family background, research exposure at medical school, ethnicity, and country of pre-university education.

CONCLUSIONS

The SMART study is the first of its kind in the UK, shedding light on medical student perceptions. While some express strong interest in academic careers, a larger proportion show a broader interest in research. Demographic factors like gender, parental occupation, and socioeconomic status play a role. Further exploration is needed for specific groups to address barriers, promote research, and boost academic pathway recruitment.

Medical Students’ Attitudes and Influential Factors Towards Conducting Medical Research

Background: Medical research has become an essential part of medical students’ curricula at several medical colleges in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to assess medical students' attitudes and identify factors influencing their willingness to conduct medical research. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2021 and April 2022 using the students' attitudes towards research and the students’ perceived influential factors toward participating in research activities questionnaires. A 5-Likert scale to calculate the average of the students’ responses, where 5 indicated ‘strongly agree’ and 1 indicated ‘strongly disagree’.  The survey was distributed to medical students at the College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Saudi Arabia. Results: A total of 500 responses were collected from the students (67.2% male and 32.8% female). Most students agreed with the following statement: ‘Research is important for identifying and investigating problems in a subject matter’ (N=399, 79.8%). More than half of the students agreed with the following statement: ‘I am very interested in participating in research activities at the undergraduate level’ (N=318, 63.6%). The top three influential factors for conducting medical research were ‘to facilitate entry into competitive residency programs’, followed by ‘interest in specific research fields or medical topics’ and ‘to improve curriculum vitae (CV).’ Conclusion: The majority of the surveyed students showed a positive attitude towards conducting medical research in King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia. Most students conduct research to gain a competitive edge and explore specialties of interest.