How to become an excellent pediatric resident: a qualitative comparative study from China

Abstract

Background Competency-oriented medical education has become a global trend. However, most current studies focus on the independent effects of various competencies and lack an examination of the combined effects. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the competency configurations of excellent pediatric residents and general pediatric residents and to provide a scientific reference for the talent training and career development of pediatric residents. Methods Behavioral event interviews were conducted with 23 pediatric residents at a children's hospital in Beijing in July and August 2019. Two researchers coded the interview data to summarize the competency of pediatric residents. The research group scored the performance of 23 pediatric residents in various aspects of competency and used the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the competency configurations of excellent pediatric residents and general pediatric residents. Results This study concludes that pediatric residents should have six core competencies: professional spirit, clinical skills, communication ability, learning ability, mental capacity and research ability. There are 4 combinations of competencies for becoming an excellent pediatric resident: the clinical type, scientific research type, all-around development type and high emotional intelligence type. In addition, there are 3 combinations of competencies for becoming a general pediatric resident: the comprehensive ability deficiency type, lack of professionalism and mental capacity type, lack of communication ability type. Conclusions There are differences in competence between excellent and general pediatric residents. Excellent pediatric residents do not need to possess all competencies but should specialize in clinical practice, scientific research or communication skills. This study suggests that training in mental capacity, professional spirit and communication ability should be strengthened during pediatric resident training. Pediatric residents should make career development plans according to their actual situation, and hospitals should arrange suitable positions according to the characteristics of pediatric residents.

Association between residents' scholarly activities and publication requirement policy

“…Scholarly activity has been reported to have a positive impact on residents' clinical performance, patient outcomes, residents' examination scores, and career development 5,6,8,25–27 . Our study similarly indicated that publication was associated with certification test success.…”

“…Scholarly activity has been reported to have a positive impact on residents' clinical performance, patient outcomes, residents' examination scores, and career development. 5,6,8,[25][26][27] Our study similarly indicated that publication was associated with certification test success. Not limited to association with examinations, scholarship is included among the key competencies in postgraduate training programs.…”

“…Not limited to association with examinations, scholarship is included among the key competencies in postgraduate training programs. 1,2,5 In these worldwide waves of postgraduate training, pediatrics residency in Japan will be clearly incomplete without emphasizing scholarship along with clinical knowledge and skills, communication, collaboration, advocacy, and so on. For this reason, we believe that the academic society should not drop the flag of the publication requirement policy to foster a scholarly culture.…”

“…Our study similarly indicated that publication was associated with certification test success. Not limited to association with examinations, scholarship is included among the key competencies in postgraduate training programs 1,2,5 . In these worldwide waves of postgraduate training, pediatrics residency in Japan will be clearly incomplete without emphasizing scholarship along with clinical knowledge and skills, communication, collaboration, advocacy, and so on.…”

“…Scholarship has become increasingly important in postgraduate medical education 1–4 . The core competencies for residents include scholarship, 1,2,5 and trainees themselves have reported a desire for and satisfaction from participation in scholarly activities 4,6–10 . However, it has been reported that scholarly activities, particularly article publication, were scarce in pediatrics residency training in Japan 11…”