Letter to the Editor: Editorial: Should Orthopaedic Residents Be Required to Do Research, or Would Critical Reading Programs Be a Better Use of Their Time?
Year: 2022
Type: letter
Abstract: To the Editor, I read with interest your editorial titled “Should Orthopaedic Residents Be Required to Do Research, or Would Critical Reading Programs Be a Better Use of Their Time?” [1]. It stimulated a healthy debate within our department. And while I found myself agreeing with many of your points, I don’t agree with the main recommendation because I believe there is value in having all residents experience the research process. As a concerned academician, I realize that not everyone loves or will pursue any aspect of research. Experiential learning may be one of our most valuable tools of the residency educational process. I can read about nailing a tibia 20 times, but until I try it in the operating room, I won’t really fully grasp those concepts. It is my opinion that everyone should know “how the sausage is made,” especially when trying to learn the research process. Preventing the oversaturation of orthopaedic journals with “noise” is an important concern worthy of discussion. But I fear the noise would only be compounded by the removal of education surrounding research from our curricula. Critical appraisal of orthopaedic journal articles is a key skill, one that has been the goal of journal clubs for years. Improving and sustaining journal clubs could certainly improve assessments made of the literature. However, making critical reading a requirement for graduation will lead to a checked-box approach at training programs; just one more list or form that residents and their attendings will be forced to complete. Learning does not have to be an efficient process, and those who have engaged in any research understand this concept better than most. Residency provides a brief window in which we can impart knowledge and introduce concepts that may never again be used in practice (I’m thinking here of the costotransversectomies I performed in residency impacting my total joints practice…or not). But even things we don’t use again can provide great value as part of an overall education. Residents who are motivated to pursue research will continue to excel at it, but it’s important that we continue to provide the resources and education surrounding research and continue to ask all residents to engage in it, as there is value in that process regardless of whether they ever do it again after graduation. The tools provided by CORR are excellent for reviewing articles, but until someone has thought about the logistics of patient recruiting or data sorting, one may not appreciate the efforts and challenges that go into producing good quality research. Residency affords a short window during which a foundation of knowledge is established. The absence of research as a requirement during this time would create a gap in our knowledge unlikely to be filled and too important to lose.
Author: Matthew J. Dietz
Institutions: West Virginia University, West Virginia University Hospitals
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4283164520