Research Elective

Each resident is encouraged to develop a research project and discuss it with your faculty advisor. In order to take a research elective, a description of the research project must be approved by the Program Director. There is an opportunity to present research data at Pediatric Science Day and the Fellow’s Research Conference, and some residents may present at the Southern Society for Pediatric Research or other national meetings.

Goal: To improve the quality of the Research experience of Pediatric Residents

Proposal: Before submitting a request for a research month, the Resident in question should:

  1. Identify a Faculty mentor who accepts responsibility for the project. Faculty mentoring should include:
    1. Guiding the Resident to appropriate literature to review prior to writing a proposal
    2. Helping the Resident to formulate a Hypothesis-driven research question
    3. Guiding the Resident in the development of appropriate methods with which to study the question at hand
    4. Helping to secure/identify resources needed to successfully complete the project
  2. When requesting a month of Research time, each Resident should submit a written proposal (via New Innovations Journal Entry)which includes:
    1. Hypothesis (statement of problem to be studied)
    2. Specific aims (state how each specific aim or objective tests the hypothesis)
    3. Background (what are the gaps in the literature that this study will fill?)
    4. Brief overview of methods to be used (e.g. questionnaire, chart review, PCR, etc.)
    5. Short list of relevant references (2-5 max.)
  3. The stated expectation for such a research experience should include the presentation of results at Pediatric Science Day or the Fellow’s Research Conference.