Da iniciação científica à formação médica: narrativa reflexiva sobre a produção científica durante a graduação

Abstract

This study presents a reflective narrative about the author’s undergraduate research experience during medical school at the Federal University of São Carlos. The experience was centered on the project “Wrist circumference and body mass index in elementary schoolchildren: determination of wrist circumference cut-off points for identifying obesity”, developed from a database of 286 six- and seven-year-old students from public schools in São Carlos, Brazil. The aim is to reflect on how participation in the different stages of the research process contributed to the student’s scientific, academic, and professional development. The trajectory was reconstructed from autobiographical memory, the final research project, and the final undergraduate research report, in dialogue with scientific literature on undergraduate medical research, reflective practice, and Evidence-Based Medicine. The experience included preparing and submitting the project for a scholarship, reviewing the literature, scientific writing, self-directed study of medical statistics, organizing and checking the database, using statistical software, and interpreting correlations and ROC curves. A particularly formative moment occurred when initially incongruent results led to a detailed review of the database and the identification of inconsistencies, reinforcing the understanding that scientific rigor requires questioning, checking, and repeating steps when necessary. Promising findings, presentation of the work at scientific meetings, and academic recognition increased the author’s confidence in his ability to contribute to knowledge production. By the end of the experience, undergraduate research was recognized as having changed not only the understanding of research methods, but also the way scientific papers were critically read, Evidence-Based Medicine discussions were approached, and research was envisioned as part of a professional future. The main transformation was moving from seeing scientific production as something reserved for other people to recognizing it as a personal possibility as well.