Practitioner Research Literacy Skills in Undergraduate Medical Education: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally

Educating future clinician academics: the role of medical schools

“…Research literacy is a relatively new term that extends evidence‐based practice 16 to knowing the methods of enquiry to gather evidence. Being research literate includes the ability to locate, comprehend, discuss and evaluate a variety of research, convey its meaning and implications, and use the findings appropriately in health care 4,7,9‐11,17 . Working backwards from this graduate outcome, the foundational knowledge, skills and core competencies needed to achieve it can be defined.…”

“…Experiential learning is the most effective way to acquire work‐related graduate skills and we propose that research experience can be realised in many ways. Medicine is grounded in the scientific method and how knowledge is justified and evolves through each step of the research cycle 7 . These steps are activities that can be designed and delivered as competencies acquired through a variety of educational approaches and in different environments, and thus develop research literacy in medical students (Box 2).…”

“…Unlike clinical skills, there is no consensus on the research skills that Australian and New Zealand medical graduates should acquire 4,5 . Australia is not alone; these gaps are reported internationally with calls for better defined core competencies in research that would enable purposeful design of learning outcomes and assessment 4,6,7 . Although an absence of agreed expectations for research training is seen across the continuum of undergraduate to specialty education and training, this article focuses on primary medical education for all medical students, only some of whom will become clinician researchers.…”