Creating a collaborative peer writing group during residency

ABSTRACT

Residency training principally aims to educate trainees on the clinical care of patients. This arduous period of training also offers access to mentorship and institutional resources for research; however, the demands of rigorous clinical training present barriers to conducting meaningful research during this time. Peer writing groups have been shown to be effective means to increase scholarly output among faculty but have not been well described as models to increase scholarly output among residents. The authors established a collaborative peer writing group during residency that resulted in several peer-reviewed publications along with national and international conference presentations. Based on their experience and a review of the literature, the authors present practical tips on establishing and implementing a resident peer writing group.

KEYWORDS:

• Residency
• tips
• research
• peer writing group
• collaboration

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the following individuals for their mentorship and review of an earlier version of the manuscript: Gordon Schutze, Teri Turner, Michael B. Pitt, Stephanie A. Marton, Peter N. Kazembe, Edith Mohapi, Adeodata Kekitiinwa, Joseph Lubega, Parth Mehta, Jeremy Slone, and Michael Scheurer.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.