Learning the process of research by using the scientific method.

A decision to pursue an academic career is often based on experiences acquired during residency training (Sanders et al., 1992, Sanders et al., 1994; Pollack, 1994). One of the greatest impediments to convincing young physicians to seek an academic career is the knowledge that their advancement will be largely dependent upon their interest and ability to perform some type of research (Brancati et al., 1992). Most residents view the research requirement as only another obstacle to overcome for the completion of their residency (Pollack, 1994; Levitt et al., 1997). Even those who are academically inclined can be dissuaded by the seeming complexity of scienti® c inquiry. Furthermore, without a sense of an overall purpose to their investigation, the young researcher often becomes bored with the drudgery of data collection and analysis. It is difficult to interest young physicians in academics when their only experience of such a life is from their resident research requirement. In fact, there is a strong correlation between the quality of the resident’s research experience and a decision concerning academics as a career choice (Sanders et al., 1992; Sanders et al.,1994). Those who do choose a faculty track cite an impression of the value of research more than adequacy of research skills as a major factor in ̄ uencing their career decision (Sanders et al., 1994). With this in mind, we chose to re-examine the way that the research curriculum is presented and to develop a method of learning that would stimulate a greater interest in research among our residents and young faculty. Six years after implementation of a new curriculum that was ® rst described in a prior edition of this journal (Summers et al., 1998), current and past residents in our program were surveyed to judge the quality of their resident research experience and to determine the effectiveness of this method of learning to in ̄ uence their view of research and the academic environment.