Abstract
IntroductionEducators and education researchers report that their scholarship is limited by lack of time, funding, mentorship, expertise, and reward. This study aims to evaluate these groups’ perceptions regarding barriers to scholarship and potential strategies for success.MethodsCore emergency medicine (EM) educators and education researchers completed an online survey consisting of multiple-choice, 10-point Likert scale, and free-response items in 2015. Descriptive statistics were reported. We used qualitative analysis applying a thematic approach to free-response items.ResultsA total of 204 educators and 42 education researchers participated. Education researchers were highly productive: 19/42 reported more than 20 peer-reviewed education scholarship publications on their curricula vitae. In contrast, 68/197 educators reported no education publications within five years. Only a minority, 61/197 had formal research training compared to 25/42 education researchers. Barriers to performing research for both groups were lack of time, competing demands, lack of support, lack of funding, and challenges achieving scientifically rigorous methods and publication. The most common motivators identified were dissemination of knowledge, support of evidence-based practices, and promotion. Respondents advised those who seek greater education research involvement to pursue mentorship, formal research training, collaboration, and rigorous methodological standards.ConclusionThe most commonly cited barriers were lack of time and competing demands. Stakeholders were motivated by the desire to disseminate knowledge, support evidence-based practices, and achieve promotion. Suggested strategies for success included formal training, mentorship, and collaboration. This information may inform interventions to support educators in their scholarly pursuits and improve the overall quality of education research in EM.
Highlights
Educators and education researchers report that their scholarship is limited by lack of time, funding, mentorship, expertise, and reward
Stakeholders were motivated by the desire to disseminate knowledge, support evidence-based practices, and achieve promotion
The objective of this study was to evaluate the perspectives of both core-faculty educators and successful education researchers with regard to the supporting factors and motivators to performing education research, as well as the barriers and their perceived impact, and proposed solutions to assist them in their scholarly endeavors
Summary
Educators and education researchers report that their scholarship is limited by lack of time, funding, mentorship, expertise, and reward. Despite increased production and dissemination of education scholarship, there is still a great need to improve the quality of medical education research and associate educational practices with patient care outcomes.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] Medical educators have reported multiple challenges to their scholarly pursuits, including lack of time, expertise in research methodology, funding, mentorship, collaborators, research support, and reward for their efforts.[10,11,12] Limited data suggest that lack of time may be the greatest barrier.[11]. How EM educators perceive these barriers and what interventions would be most beneficial in helping to overcome them is still not well understood
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