Intern Experiences Within a Chiropractic Clinical Trial

Objective: Experience within clinical research during the final stages of medical education may positively affect students’ future utilization of evidence based practice. There are very few articles looking at research training during medical residencies, and none were found regarding CAM internships or residencies. The objective of our survey was to determine if chiropractic and naturopathic intern involvement within a chiropractic clinical trial was seen as beneficial to the interns and what barriers they experienced.

Methods: Participating interns evaluated subjects during baseline exams and assisted during treatments. Anonymous, IRB-approved surveys were emailed twice through Survey Monkey to inquire about the students’ experience within the clinical trial.

Results: Trimester 8 and 9 interns currently in the clinic (n=11) and graduates (n=10) who participated as research interns completed the survey. Of these current interns and graduates, 36% and 60% respectively felt satisfied or very satisfied with their experience. The majority believed that their experience improved their understanding of clinical research (60%, 80%) and developed their ability to complete a low back exam (70%, 70%). Fewer current interns than graduates felt that the experience stimulated their interest in reading research (0%, 50%) and doing research (20% , 40%), something that might develop over time.

Conclusion: Intern participation in clinical trials is a good way to develop an interest in and understanding of clinical research. Even though intern inclusion leads to logistical issues for the researcher and time constraints for the students, future clinical trials at CAM institutions should consider involvement of student interns.