Attitude and perception of post-graduate residents toward thesis: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background: To increase research productivity among post-graduate (PG) students, there is inclusion of research dissertation or thesis in their academic curriculum. However, thesis or research project during the residency remains is the last priorities due to high demands on the PG student’s energy and time in terms of patient care. There are a very few such studies conducted in our nation pertaining to perception of PG students toward thesis. Aim and Objectives: This study is to assess the attitude and perception of medical PG residents toward research dissertation or thesis during residency training. Materials and Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional study with the 2nd and 3rd year MS/MD PG students as participants. Study tool was pre-validated questionnaire consisting 40 questions under following domains University regulations (5), attitude toward thesis (4), perception toward benefits of thesis (15), perception toward obstacles of thesis (13), and practice in regard to thesis (3). A study was initiated after approval of Institutional Ethics Committee. After obtaining written informed consent, a questionnaire was given to each student and was collected after 25–30 min. Confidentiality of responses was ensured by maintaining anonymity of responders. Data were entered into Excel and a descriptive analysis was done. Results: Of these 55 pre/paraclinical and 70 clinical PG students (n = 125) returned completely filled questionnaire. The mean age of the students was 27.40 ± 2.20 and was in the 2nd or 3rd year of the residency. 256% participants were from clinical whereas 44% were from pre/paraclinical branches. The majority of postgraduate students preferred observational studies (80%) over interventional study for thesis (19.2%). 61.6% PG students felt that thesis should be mandatory. Majority of students agreed to benefit of thesis which helps them to develop skills such as literature search (92.8%), data processing (84%), statistical analysis (73.6%), interpretation of results, and discussion (80.8%). PG students felt that there are few obstacles in their thesis such as inadequate lab facilities (66.4%), inadequate study tools (62.4%), and incompetent technical staff (55.2%). Conclusion: A number of barriers such as lack time, funding, and poor availability of research facilities for conduct of research need to be addressed to further enhance PG student’s positive attitude toward thesis.