Mentoring Fellows in Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology for Academic Practice in the Contemporary Era—Perspectives From Mentors Around the United States

Common Problematic Scholarly Activity Project Planning Expectations of Project Novices

“…The intended audiences of this paper are resident physicians and their mentors (e.g., chief residents, residency program officials, clinically experienced colleagues) who develop and implement SA projects across the nation. 11,14,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] The authors will discuss a total of 26 problematic SAPN project planning expectations in five categories. (Table 1) To guide readers, these expectations are listed in Table 1 in typical chronological order of SA project developmental phases.…”

“…3,9,13,21 Conclusions were that many SAPNs may be less familiar with the value of replicating published project articles, possibly due to pressure towards producing SA projects from more "established" (i.e., more readily recognizable) types of studies, e.g., randomized clinical trials (RCTs), etc. 25,26,[29][30][31] • "My project must be an entirely new design. "…”

“…when organizing their initial project design. 25,28 Refining one's timeline with mentors may be viewed as either unnecessary or too time-consuming, sometimes perhaps based on a naive expectation that "everything will come together in the end." 5,10,33 However, the authors and others have regularly emphasized to the SAPN that a detailed timeline can facilitate: a) successful project completion, and b) reduce the time needed for institutional review board (IRB) project approval, as well as conduction of analyses and interpretation of final results.…”

“…16,18 It will almost always be advantageous to have "additional sets of eyes" throughout not only the initial project design and PDS, but also in subsequent steps of developing IRB application drafts, data collection sheets, drafts write-ups, etc. 2,5,24,25 This misunderstanding has come from medical school curricula oftentimes placing a higher value on randomized controlled trial or other complex designs, generally signaling that QI projects are "not as rigorous." 21,28,34 However, it has been emphasized in GME literature that QI project results can be more often rapidly incorporated into patient care processes and facilitate an institutional "collective learning" in healthier GME environments.…”

“…5,9,13,14 Secondly, the authors and others have observed the SAPN struggling with meeting project-related demands when juggling other competing non-project role demands. 9,10,19,24,25,27 Project planning timelines/deadlines have been shown to help the SAPN complete project demands and later posters, presentations and manuscripts. 18,24,27,29,31 TAKE HOME POINTS FOR DATA COLLECTION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT…”