Research

Biomedical research competencies for osteopathic medical students

des Anges Cruser^1* , Bruce Dubin^2* , Sarah K Brown^3* , Lori L Bakken^4* , John C Licciardone^2* , Alan L Podawiltz^2* and Robert J Bulik^5*

¹  Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth TX, USA

²  Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth TX, USA

³  Mental Sciences Institute, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth TX, USA

⁴  Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, USA

⁵  Department of Family Medicine and the Office of Educational Development, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston TX, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care 2009, 3:10doi:10.1186/1750-4732-3-10

Published:	13 October 2009

Abstract

Background

Without systematic exposure to biomedical research concepts or applications, osteopathic medical students may be generally under-prepared to efficiently consume and effectively apply research and evidence-based medicine information in patient care. The academic literature suggests that although medical residents are increasingly expected to conduct research in their post graduate training specialties, they generally have limited understanding of research concepts.

With grant support from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and a grant from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is incorporating research education in the osteopathic medical school curriculum. The first phase of this research education project involved a baseline assessment of students' understanding of targeted research concepts. This paper reports the results of that assessment and discusses implications for research education during medical school.

Methods

Using a novel set of research competencies supported by the literature as needed for understanding research information, we created a questionnaire to measure students' confidence and understanding of selected research concepts. Three matriculating medical school classes completed the on-line questionnaire. Data were analyzed for differences between groups using analysis of variance and t-tests. Correlation coefficients were computed for the confidence and applied understanding measures. We performed a principle component factor analysis of the confidence items, and used multiple regression analyses to explore how confidence might be related to the applied understanding.

Results

Of 496 total incoming, first, and second year medical students, 354 (71.4%) completed the questionnaire. Incoming students expressed significantly more confidence than first or second year students (F = 7.198, df = 2, 351, P = 0.001) in their ability to understand the research concepts. Factor analyses of the confidence items yielded conceptually coherent groupings. Regression analysis confirmed a relationship between confidence and applied understanding referred to as knowledge. Confidence scores were important in explaining variability in knowledge scores of the respondents.

Conclusion

Medical students with limited understanding of research concepts may struggle to understand the medical literature. Assessing medical students' confidence to understand and objectively measured ability to interpret basic research concepts can be used to incorporate competency based research material into the existing curriculum.