Research Capacity of Hospital Librarians Serving Graduate Medical Education Programs: An Initial Report

ABSTRACT Community (non-academic) hospitals are  implementing graduate medical education programs to offset physician shortages in the United States. Teaching hospitals must meet accreditation requirements for scholarly activity, yet literature does not show whether or not a librarian’s research capacity impacts this requirement. Individual, professional, and organizational domains comprise the framework used to define and evaluate research capacity in this quantitative study. No significant difference in research capacity or GME scholarly activity was initially found between academic and non-academic hospital librarians. Further testing revealed the largest variances in the professional domain, but additional statistical analysis can provide insight on areas of librarian research capacity to guide future investigation and support.