Do you have to like research?

[GrtWhtNrth]

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I know research is a big part of this field. It is certainly expected of medical students. What you aren't that happy doing research?

Is rad onc a good field to go into if you like most aspects of the field, but don't love research? How important is enjoying research in terms of residency and career satisfaction (ie. if you don't like research, will residency make you miserable)?

 

[Gfunk6]

As a medical student you need to do some type of research to get into a residency. To be truly "passionate" about your research during interviews, you either have to honestly enjoy it or be able to lie convincingly.

Once you get past this hurdle though your entire residency/career may be totally devoid of research if you wish. Since easily > 90% of programs will be very happy if you take no elective research time, not enjoying research is a non-issue.

 

[IndyXRT]

As a medical student you need to do some type of research to get into a residency. To be truly "passionate" about your research during interviews, you either have to honestly enjoy it or be able to lie convincingly.

Once you get past this hurdle though your entire residency/career may be totally devoid of research if you wish. Since easily > 90% of programs will be very happy if you take no elective research time, not enjoying research is a non-issue.

There is an ACGME requirement for radiation oncology that the resident must complete one research project of publishable quality. As I read this, something as simple as a retrospective chart review or dosimetry study would qualify. So you can't get through residency with zero research, but you can certainly get through without doing much. There are residency programs that tend to be mostly clinical, so you could target your applications to those programs.

 

[stephew]

There is an ACGME requirement for radiation oncology that the resident must complete one research project of publishable quality. As I read this, something as simple as a retrospective chart review or dosimetry study would qualify. So you can't get through residency with zero research, but you can certainly get through without doing much. There are residency programs that tend to be mostly clinical, so you could target your applications to those programs.

Are you sure about that? I certainly not questioning you- i dont know otherwise. Just wondering how sure you are about this requirement.

 

[radonc]

from the ACGME website:
http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/dutyHours/dh_dutyhoursCommonPR07012007.pdf

B.
Residents’ Scholarly Activities
1.
The curriculum must advance residents’ knowledge of the basic principles of research, including how research is conducted, evaluated, explained to patients, and applied to patient care.
2.
Residents should participate in scholarly activity.
[As further specified by the Review Committee]
3.
The sponsoring institution and program should allocate adequate educational resources to facilitate resident involvement in scholarly activities.
[As further specified by the Review Committee]



http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/navP...ram_ResidentScholarlyActivity_Explanation.pdf

Explanation:
In order to pursue scholarly activities, residents not only need to work and learn in a culture that values and nurtures scholarship (i.e., faculty actively engaged in and rewarded for scholarly activities) but also need to learn specific skills, such as transforming an idea into a research question (experimental, descriptive or observational), choosing an appropriate study design, determining what instrumentation to use, preparing for data collection, management and analysis, ethical conduct of research, and the rules and regulations governing human subjects research.

 

[stephew]

i didnt recall and specific need for a research project. Scholarly activity is a very soft term that allows for other activities.

 

[IndyXRT]

This requirement is specific to radiation oncology, and so is not spelled out in the general requirements. See below.

From the ACGME requirements for Radiation Oncology (http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/downloads/RRC_progReq/430radiationoncology07012007.pdf):

IV. Educational Program​

B. Residents’ Scholarly Activities
2. Residents should participate in scholarly activity.​

a) During their training, residents shall be required to complete
an investigative project under faculty supervision. This may
take the form of biological laboratory research, clinical
research, medical physics research, or the retrospective
analysis of data from treated patients. The results of such
projects shall be suitable for publication in peer-reviewed​

scholarly journals or presentation at scientific meetings.

 

[stephew]

suitable for publication but not required to be published.

 

[IndyXRT]

suitable for publication but not required to be published.

Exactly. I assume the wording is carefully chosen to allow for the unlikely event of a resident doing a project that he/she cannot get published (although with lots of the stuff that gets published, it seems very unlikely that this would happen).

At our program, we have a yearly resident research day, where all PGY 3-5 residents are required to present their work (we generally have a visiting professor for this event). At minimum, we end up doing 3 projects (more than the ACGME requires). Residents are encouraged to submit to meetings and to publish their work as well (it is actually uncommon that work is only presented in the above format, but this is how we are sure that we meet the ACGME requirement).