Guidelines for Advanced Training in Paediatrics

Advanced Training Projects

Objectives of Advanced Training Projects

Most probably you have had the opportunity to appreciate critical appraisal of the literature by attending and presenting at Journal Clubs. Many of you have a working knowledge of statistics acquired from short or long University courses, books and access to computer packages. However, you many not have had the opportunity of writing a scientific paper or report. In addition, the RACP strongly supports the practice of evidence based medicine (EBM), integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. The practice of EBM is a process of life long, self-directed learning in which patient care creates the need for clinically important information about diagnosis, prognosis and therapy.

By planning and writing a clinical or basic research paper you should achieve the following:

• ability to conduct a literature review using electronic searching techniques eg Medline, Pubmed, Cochrane Library, and to perform critical appraisal of literature
• ability to identify an important health or research question and to clearly identify specific aims of a study designed to address the question
• development of a working knowledge of study design, data collection, data storage and analysis techniques, computer skills, statistical and graphic techniques so as to be able to plan and execute a research project
• development of skills in scientific writing so as to be able to apply for grant support and publish scientific and medical papers
• acquire an understanding of how research should and could contribute to the practice of evidence-based medicine
• develop an understanding of ethics in research
• convert information needs into answerable questions
• track down, with maximum efficiency, the best evidence to answer the questions
• critically appraise the evidence for it's validity and usefulness
• apply the results of this appraisal to clinical practice
• evaluate one's performance.

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