Overview

Scholarship is a critical part of family medicine practice. The CanMEDS-Family Medicine framework requires “As Scholars, family physicians demonstrate a lifelong commitment to excellence in practice through: continuous learning and teaching others; gathering, combining, and evaluating evidence; and contributing to the creation and dissemination of knowledge” (Shaw E, Oandasan I, Fowler N, eds. 2017). In the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster, we take a broad view of scholarship, and consider any rigorous form of inquiry, knowledge application, or education to be scholarly.

All residents in the McMaster Family Medicine residency program will acquire core competencies in scholarship via the InQuiry Curriculum and by appraising and incorporating the scientific literature into their medical practice across all residency rotations. Some residents want to engage in scholarship beyond the core curriculum.

If residents are interested in exploring additional research and scholarship activities, we work with them one-on-one to explore their interests and goals and identify ways to facilitate scholarly learning and contributions. We can provide residents with support and mentorship to grow their scholarship skills, capacity, and output. Some residents join a faculty-led project, while others plan and lead their own project. Some residents engage in primary data collection and analysis, while others engage in secondary data analysis or knowledge translation activities.

Some examples of areas of focus for research and scholarly work you might wish to pursue include:

• An area of clinical interest
• Population or geography and determinants of health
• Health equity, justice, and advocacy
• Health policy
• Health humanities, narrative, art, spirituality and healing
• Medical education, e.g. curriculum development
• Information technology
• Effective use of social media for scholarly activity

Visit the Research Programs and Projects webpages to see the research underway at DFM.

For any area of interest, you could develop research and scholarship through activities such as:

• Participate in a series of seminars/modules on research and scholarship skills
• Enroll in a research course
• Complete an independent research project
• Work with a faculty member on one of their projects
• Write an article, book chapter, PBSG module, teaching module, app, or online offering
• Attend and present at research conferences
• Have impact on practice and policy locally or abroad
• Part time or full time enhanced skills training (PGY3) in research and scholarship with the McMaster Department of Family Medicine

Supports for residents include:

• One-on-one meeting with the Postgraduate Research and Scholarship Director to identify specific opportunities and resources for the resident
• Dedicated research awards from McMaster Postgraduate Medical Education
• TRAction: A Toolkit for Research in Action – a curated collection of resources mapped to the steps of the research process from project design to implementation to knowledge translation
• DFM Research Knowledge and Skill Builder Library
• If you have a clear research question in mind, you can book a free 30-60 minute virtual consultation with a McMaster Health Sciences Librarian