Rehabilitation in practice: Learning about research--how can trainees in rehabilitation medicine become competent in appraising and conducting research?

This series of articles for rehabilitation in practice aims to cover a knowledge element of the rehabilitation medicine curriculum. Nevertheless they are intended to be of interest to a multidisciplinary audience. The competency addressed in this article is 'The trainee is able to critically appraise scientific, clinical and sociological research literature' and 'The trainee is able to complete a clinical audit study from the planning to final report stage'.