title: So you wanted to do surgery and they keep talking about research: a discussion for the surgical resident and intern.
abstract: Surgical residents and interns frequently misunderstand the relation between surgery and research, and the contribution of surgical research to clinical practice. The problem is that the effects of research must be viewed in the long term. Once the resident can do this, the importance of research to surgery is evident and surgical research can be seen for what it is, the growing surface of surgery. Training to do surgical research has many parallels with clinical training. A core-training period in investigation provides the resident with the right mental approaches to investigation so that training in a specific area of research may be done later. Surgical scientists must be excellent clinicians as well as scientists and so long training periods are required. Four years of clinical practice training and 3 of research training are probably ideal. Shorter periods of research training may be valuable for many surgical residents, particularly those who have had little research experience. Training should be tailored to the trainee's desired role in surgery.
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D003479:Curriculum; D004813:Epidemiology / Q000193:education; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012107:Research Design; D013672:Technology; D013997:Time Factors