Introduction:

“Frank País” Student Teachers Movement is a valuable pool of researchers. However, these potentialities do not always produce such outcomes; therefore, systematic monitoring of this activity is necessary.

Objective:

To characterize the research activity of student teachers at Facultad de Ciencias Médicas “Victoria de Girón”.

Methods:

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with a stratified probabilistic sample of 131 subjects. The statistical analysis was descriptive. Pearson’s chi-squared test and Cramer’s V coefficient were used.

Results:

Of the 12 explored research skills, fifth academic year students expressed that they mastered 8 of them, in which they reached the highest figures. The clinical area received the main interest in research (50.4 %); this variable was associated with the type of specialty of the student teachers (p<0.001; V=0.710). 53.4 % of the students reported that they were involved in scientific research, a condition statistically associated (p<0.001; 0.6≤V<0.8) with the variables service time in the student teachers movement, perception of its importance in self-professional training, self-assessment of training for it, recent involvement into a research project, membership in the students' scientific group, and interest in practicing the specialty during the postgraduate stage. Few of them were involved in research projects (n=22), the students’ scientific group (n=37), or participated in scientific publication (n=22).

Conclusions:

Insufficient activity in scientific research is observed among the student teachers of this medical school.