Fostering the physician–scientist workforce: a prospective cohort study to investigate the effect of undergraduate medical students’ motivation for research on actual research involvement

Abstract

ObjectivesThe medical field is facing a physician–scientist shortage. Medical schools could contribute to developing physician–scientists by stimulating student involvement in research. Studies have examined motivation for research as a key parameter of success. However, previous studies did not investigate if students act on their self-reported motivation. The aim of this study is to examine if motivation for research of medical students is related to actual research involvement. Furthermore, this study distinguishes intrinsic (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) for research and aims to investigate if a type of motivation matters in the relation between research motivation and involvement.Design and settingProspective cohort study in which students were surveyed at the start of medical school and reported IM and EM for research, self-efficacy, perceptions of research and curiosity on a 7-point Likert scale. One year later, students involved in research were identified. Logistic regression was used to examine influences of IM and EM on research involvement.ParticipantsAll undergraduate medical students starting at one medical school in the Netherlands in 2016. In total, 315 out of 316 students participated (99.7%), of whom 55 became involved in research (17.5%).Main outcome measureResearch involvement, which was operationalised as the enrolment of students in the research-based honours programme or the involvement of students in voluntary research activities outside of the regular curriculum.ResultsStudents with higher levels of IM were more often involved in research (OR 3.4; 95% CI 2.08 to 5.61), also after adjusting for gender, age, extracurricular high school activities, self-efficacy, perceptions and curiosity (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.35 to 4.78). Higher levels of EM increased the odds of research involvement (OR 1.4; 95% CI 0.96 to 2.11). However, the effect of EM disappeared after adjusting for the above-mentioned factors (OR 1.05; 95% CI 0.67 to 1.63). Furthermore, the effect of IM remained after adjusting for EM, whereas the effect of EM disappeared after adjusting for IM.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the type of motivation matters and IM influences research involvement. Therefore, IM could be targeted to stimulate research involvement and could be seen as the first step towards success in fostering the physician–scientist workforce.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation as Drivers for Early Engagement in Research by Medical Students

“…At rst glance, our results appear to be contradictory to those from the only other study addressing medical student motivation and research involvement 8 . Whereas we found EM to be more strongly associated with research engagement, Ommering and colleagues 8 found IM to be a bigger driver.…”

“…Whereas we found EM to be more strongly associated with research engagement, Ommering and colleagues 8 found IM to be a bigger driver. However, it is vital to note a key difference in study populations: rst-year medical students in the study by Ommering et al 8 , compared with all medical students in our study. It is possible some of the senior medical students in our sample were, at least partially, in uenced by the looming deadline for intern position applications (a strong extrinsic motive to engage in research in order to 'stand out' 14 ).…”

“…Based upon previous studies 7,8 , we classi ed responses relating to the major factor encouraging research participation as IM if they included interest, passion, and enjoyment; and responses as EM if they related to nancial gains, improving chances to gain entry to competitive post-graduate training, and publications/travel. Responses that mentioned both (e.g., interest and nancial compensation) or neither (e.g., undertaking research due to being inspired by a speci c mentor) were excluded (see Table 1 for response examples).…”

“…For example, a recent study by Miyoshi et al found that a Japanese student's biggest motivation to matriculate in a medical course was intrinsic motivation (rather than family pressure or positive in uence by a physician) 7 . Dutch medical students who scored higher on intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivation were more likely to be involved in research 8 . Residents from a US institution who were promised monetary rewards were more likely to publish their research ndings 9 .…”

Promoting positive perceptions of and motivation for research among undergraduate medical students to stimulate future research involvement: a grounded theory study

“…These results also indicated that pre-clinical students' beliefs about the value of research were important to influence research motivation [18]. In turn, research motivation was related to actual research involvement among undergraduate medical students [19]. This implies that insights into how beginning medical students perceive research could be of great value in directing more medical students towards a physician-scientist career.…”