Recommendations for the College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM) trainee research project: A modified Delphi study

Objective: To determine the perceived barriers and enablers to efficient completion of the College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM) of Australia and New Zealand Formal Project - a trainee research project mandated for award of CICM Fellowship - and to develop consensus-based recommendations to support Intensive Care trainees and supervisors.

Design: A two-stage modified Delphi study was conducted. In stage one, an anonymous electronic survey was distributed with three targeted open-ended questions relating to perceived key steps, barriers to, and improvements for efficient completion of the Formal Project. A thematic analysis used the survey results to generate a list of close-ended questions.In stage two, a consensus panel comprising of 30 panellists including CICM trainees, Formal Project supervisors and assessors, and critical care researchers, underwent a Delphi process with two rounds of voting and discussion to generate consensus-based recommendations.

Setting: Surveys were distributed to Intensive Care Units across Australia and New Zealand. The consensus panel convened at the Queensland Critical Care Research Network Annual Scientific Meeting in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia, on 9 June 2023.

Participants: CICM trainees, Formal Project supervisors and assessors, and critical care researchers in Australia and New Zealand.

Main outcome measures: Consensus-based recommendations for the CICM Formal Project.

Results: We received 88 responses from the stage one survey. Stage two finalised 22 consensus-based recommendations, centring on key steps of the research process, resources for trainees, and support and training for supervisors.

Conclusions: Twenty-two recommendations were developed aiming to make the process of completing the mandatory CICM research project more efficient, and to improve the quality of research produced from these projects.