Gap Year for Research: Is It Worth It?

For those who aspire to become a clinician-investigator, the holistic model supports exploration of a research career without placing undue pressure on those whose clinical interests emphasize other areas such as education, global health, or entrepreneurship. As he explains, “that way, research years remain available and supported for those with an interest in scholarship or innovation.”

He also noted that lengthening the on-ramp workforce entry across applicants can have undesirable downstream consequences, including creating hurdles to entry, increased educational debt, and a reduction of overall years in clinical practice. Over time, such trends could affect the diversity of the specialty and overall access to otolaryngology care.

M. Boyd Gillespie, MD, MSc, professor and chair in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck cancer at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tenn., is not a big fan of the trend in increasing research among medical students, as he sees it mostly as a new metric to make an applicant competitive that doesn’t really distinguish who will potentially be the best doctor. He noted that although the volume of research has gone up, the quality hasn’t. “In the past, people did research out of an organic interest and out of a desire for discovery,” he said.

“Now, because research has become a metric for competitiveness, it is a lot more about checking a box, and I don’t see a lot of joy in discovery in many of the students who are now doing research,” he said, adding that he sees it as unfortunate that students feel pressure to do research.

Dr. Gillespie would like to see assessment of trainees return to a more composite evaluation based on grades, board scores, clinical performance, interview, and research if involved. He says research, unfortunately, has become a proxy for intellectual ability.

He also said the pressure to add a research year during medical school puts an extra financial burden on an already hefty debt load. As more people delay entering the workforce with an increased financial burden, he thinks that may make people more focused on financial concerns than they should be for their first job, given that they feel they need to maximize income sooner.

Perspectives from the Applicants

Nneoma Wamkpah, MD, MSCI, assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Stanford Medicine, in San Jose, Calif., who just started her first position as a facial plastic surgeon, chose to do a two-year research program during residency to enhance her chances of getting a fellowship in the subspecialty of facial plastic surgery—a career goal she had since medical school. “From the beginning, I had a plan of what I wanted to do,” she said. “I think it was helpful to do the research for matching, but there are plenty of people who don’t do research and have successful matching as well.”