Attitudes and practices of postgraduate medical trainees towards research--a snapshot from Faisalabad.

OBJECTIVE To assess the attitudes and practices of postgraduate medical trainees towards research. METHODS It was a self-administered questionnaire based cross-sectional survey conducted on 55 conveniently selected trainees in Allied Hospital, Faisalabad. RESULTS Only 11 trainees read journals monthly, seven had written an article for a journal, 51 regarded reading literature important, 39 intended to engage in future research and 37 said they received inappropriate research training. The major reasons cited for poor research activity in Pakistan were poor research training and awareness. CONCLUSION Though the attitudes towards research were positive, they were deficient practically in terms of reading and writing literature. There is an immediate need to improve research training in our educational institutes to facilitate the development of the local literature both in terms of research utilization and production