Scholarly Activity during Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship.

Abstract

Objective:  This study aimed to describe scholarly activity training during neonatal-perinatal medicine (NPM) fellowship and factors associated with scholarship productivity.

Study design:  NPM fellowship program directors (FPDs) were surveyed between March and October 2019, as part of a larger study of all pediatric subspecialty programs, to define barriers, resources, and productivity for fellow scholarly activity. High productivity was defined as >75% of fellows in a program in the last 5 years having a manuscript accepted for publication based on fellowship scholarly work.

Results:  Fifty-four percent (54/100) of NPM FPDs completed the survey. Nineteen fellowship programs (35%, 19/54) met the definition for high productivity. High productivity in scholarly activity was associated with a greater likelihood of having funds to conduct scholarship (p = 0.011), more protected months dedicated to scholarly activity (p = 0.03), and fellow extramural grant applications (submitted or accepted, p = 0.047). FPDs of productive programs were less likely to report lack of an adequate core research curriculum (p = 0.018), lack of adequate expertise on the fellowship scholarly oversight committee (p = 0.048), and lack of sufficient divisional mentorship (p = 0.048) as barriers to completion of scholarly activity during fellowship.

Conclusion:  Research funding, protected research time, established research mentors, and a research curriculum are associated with higher scholarly activity productivity among NPM fellowship programs. Further investment in these resources may improve scholarly activity productivity during fellowship training.

Key points: · Fellow productivity depends on protected time.. · Inadequate funding impacts fellow productivity.. · Mentorship is important for fellow scholarship.. · A research curriculum impacts research outcomes..