the scholarly project

The purpose of the HLPRTP scholarly project is to provide residents with the opportunity to engage in a specific area of psychiatry of their interest. Through this project, residents will learn skills to apply toward research, clinical care, and their own development as a psychiatrist. While most residents at HLPRTP already carry out some form of scholarly work during their residency, the formalization of this process will provide all residents with administrative support through mentoring, locating resources, and assistance with identifying their interests. The formal integration of the scholarly project also meets the recently amended (2006) ACGME requirement that all psychiatry residents demonstrate proficiency in research methods. All residents are expected to fulfill the scholarly project as a requirement for graduation.

The scholarly project will help personalize the experience of each resident in a longitudinal manner. As such, scholarly projects are defined broadly to allow for a diversity of interests. The HLRTP residency program is committed to helping residents pursuing their individual interests. As a result, Wednesday afternoons for the PGY II, III, and IV classes are now protected time. Additionally, the Longwood program has designated faculty members to work directly with residents to facilitate generating a scholarly project. This can take the form of brainstorming about potential projects, getting names of potential mentors, to reviewing rough drafts of projects before graduation.

Requirements of the scholarly project

  • A clearly identified project mentor (i.e. someone that the administration, resident, and mentor can all agree is the resident’s mentor).
  • Residents will choose a project that will promote individual learning
  • Work towards identifying a project or work on the project itself that is longitudinal in nature (i.e. not just a three month long course or commitment).
  • Residents will provide regular updates to the research committee and their individual mentors with their progress (see schedule below).
  • Residents will be expected to provide the research committee and their individual mentors with a plan of how they will be utilizing their protected time.
  • By graduation, residents must produce a written abstract and presentation of their project. Many residents will eventually publish their work, or present it as a poster, though these are not requirements of the scholarly project.

Scholarly project timeline

PGY I: Identify potential mentors whose interests dovetail with your own & meet to discuss potential projects. If you’re interested in using your two week PGY-2 elective blocks for scholarly project work, meet with one of the research navigators as soon as possible to get things started.

PGY II: Work with a scholar project navigator if still trying to identify a mentor or potential topics of interest. By October you’ll send out a brief update on where you are in that process. The goal is that by Spring of this year you’ll be able to summarize a potential project and mentor in a couple sentences for the scholarly project committee.

PGY III: Work on project during Wednesday (or equivalent) protected time. Submit monthly updates to the scholarly project committee and mentor.

PGY IV (PGY III for fast-tracking residents): Work on project during Wednesday (or equivalent) protected time. Submit written work and give presentation in the spring.