Resident Professional Development Time: When to Take it, How to Fund It, and How to Make it Count

Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

Education, Science, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Research years. Professional development time. Career exploration.
Whatever you call it, stepping out of clinical residency can feel confusing, intimidating, and oddly hard to plan for.

In this episode of Behind the Knife, our BTK Surgical Education Fellows Drs. Elizabeth Maginot, Nicole Petcka, Agnes Premkumar, Kara Button, Emma Burke, and Michelle LaBella sit down with Dr. Daniel Nussbaum, Associate Professor of Surgery at Duke University and leader in the Duke Residency Research Fellowship Program, to unpack dedicated resident profressional development time really looks like, who it helps, who it doesn’t, and how to make the most of it if you choose to step out of clinical training.

Together, the group tackles:
· Why “research years” are often better thought of as professional development time
· Whether taking time out of residency is actually necessary for fellowship or an academic career
· How to find the right mentor—and why there’s rarely a “perfect” project
· Practical advice on setting boundaries, saying yes (and no), and managing unstructured time
· A clear, resident-level overview of funding options, including:
- NIH T32 and F32 grants
- NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP)
- Society, foundation, and departmental funding
· What faculty and program leadership look for when supporting resident research
· Lessons the panel wishes they’d known before starting research time
Whether you’re a medical student curious about residency structure, a resident debating whether to step out, or faculty mentoring trainees through career development, this episode offers candid insight, real examples, and reassurance that there’s more than one “right” path.

High-Yield Takeaway: You don’t need research time to be a great surgeon—but if you want to grow skills outside the OR, this may be the rare window to do it thoughtfully (and even enjoy it).

Resources & Links Mentioned:
NIH Funding & Training Programs
· NIH RePORTER – Explore active NIH-funded grants and training programs
https://reporter.nih.gov/#/
· NIH T32 Institutional Training Grants
https://grants.nih.gov/funding/activity-codes/T32
· NIH F32 Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship
https://grants.nih.gov/funding/activity-codes/F32
· NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP)
https://grants.nih.gov/funding/funding-categories/lrp
· Foundational & Society Grants
(Not a comprehensive list; examples discussed in the episode)
· Association of Program Directors in Surgery (APDS) Job Board
https://apds.careerwebsite.com/jobs/?
· American College of Surgeons (ACS) – Resident research funding
https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/professional-growth-and-wellness/scholarships-fellowships-and-awards/resident/resident-research/
· Association for Academic Surgery (AAS) – Resident research funding primer
https://www.aasurg.org/resident-research-funding-primer/
· American Surgical Association (ASA) – Research awards & fellowships
https://americansurgical.org/awards_Fellowship.cgi
· Society of University Surgeons (SUS) – Resident Research Scholar Awards
https://www.susweb.org/resident-scholar-research-awards/?
· American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) – Scholarships & grants
https://www.aast.org/professional-development/scholarships.html
· Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) – Research grants
https://www.sages.org/research/research-grants/

Helpful Application Resources
· NIH Biosketch Format & Instructions
https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory/biosketch

Sponsor Link: Medical Education master's program at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education - https://www.gse.upenn.edu/btk

Transcript

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0:00.0	Behind the Knife, The Surgery Podcast, relevant and engaging content designed to help you
0:11.6	dominate the day.
0:26.5	Hello and welcome to another episode of Behind the Knife. My name is Elizabeth Maginnell. I'm a general surgery resident at the University of Nebraska and Behind the Knife Fellow. Today we're going to be
0:31.5	diving into research career development time, often referred to as the research years. How to decide if it's right for you, how to fund it,
0:39.5	and how to make the most of the time if you choose to pursue it. I am joined by my co-fellows here at
0:44.4	Behind the Knife, as well as Dr. Daniel Nussbaum, Associate Professor of Surgery at Duke University.
0:50.3	Dr. Nussbaum is an HPB surgical oncologist, clinical trialists, and transitional researcher,
0:56.3	and he's bringing the faculty perspective, especially when it comes to funding opportunities,
1:00.4	mentorship, and career development. Let's start off by introducing each of our Behind the Knife
1:05.4	Surgical Education Fellows. Nicole, would you like to start?
1:09.7	Sure. So I'm Nicole Petka. I'm a second year research resident at Emmer University, and I went out after my second year.
1:17.2	And I'm currently working in a bariatric patient reported outcome measures lab.
1:22.1	I can go next. My name is Agnes. I went out after my third year. I'm at Creighton University in Phoenix. And interestingly,
1:28.2	we don't go out for research. Most of the residences, like, geared towards going out into general
1:33.3	surgery. So it was like a bit of a transition for me to go out. And I had to find funding myself. So
1:39.2	my program right now is a T-32 program, and I'm focused on basic science and colon cancer and mismatch
1:44.1	repair proteins. Hey guys, I'm Emma program and I'm focused on basic science and colon cancer and mismatch repair proteins.
1:45.9	Hey guys, I'm Emma Burke. I'm in my second year research at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
1:51.0	I went out after my second clinical year and I'm doing surgical education and trauma clinical research.
1:56.7	Hey guys, I'm Michelle Abella. I'm a resident at UNC. I'm currently in my second year of research and we go out after our third year and I do wet bench, Pankerous Cancer Research.
2:06.3	Hi, everyone. I'm Karen. I'm a resident at Maine Medical Center, but I'm doing my research time at Tufts Medical Center. I went out for research after my third year and my research focuses on computer vision and they have applications in surgery.
2:18.7	Very cool. So we got a diversity of perspectives, what we're doing with our time. So that's
	...

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