Many residents at the University of Connecticut Pediatric Residency Program choose to participate in research during their training.

We offer several research rotations for our residents:

• A rotation is available for residents with little or no research experience. The purpose of this block is to teach residents the basic research process. Residents have a faculty mentor and participate in a series of workshops that guide residents through searching the literature, identifying a gap in the literature, writing a good research question, and presenting results. Residents have a completed research protocol by the end of the block.
• Residents with more experience can use one of their discretionary blocks to work on a project under the mentorship of a faculty member. Some residents elect to use two of their pathway blocks, one to develop their project and one to work on their project.
• Residents with well-developed research skills may have a mentored longitudinal experience that allows a half day per week of time for research during their six pathways rotations.

As a program that prides itself on flexibility, residents regularly learn through journal clubs, quality improvement work and individualized mentoring. We support all types of scholarly work from QI to benchwork, to advocacy. All residents participate in hospital Quality improvement and many help create and edit clinical pathways (https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/medical-professionals/clinical-pathways) Residents often present their work at national and regional meetings such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Association for Pediatric Program Directors (APPD), Eastern Society for Pediatric Research (ESPR), North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (NASPGHAN), and Pediatric Academic Societies Meetings (PAS) and frequently have residents give platform presentations at these conferences.   We also host the annual UConn Resident and Fellow Research Day where residents give grand rounds and present posters for the entire institution.  Several have obtained grant funding such as CATCH and APPD grants.  With guidance from expert faculty mentors, residents publish their studies in peer reviewed journals.

We encourage and support residents to participate in research and scholarly work. All residents get a stipend for one conference and a second conference if presenting. All residents receive medical education days over residency to allow for these scholarly opportunities.

We are very proud of our residents’ academic achievements.