Research elective during clerkship

[Majestic82]

Hey everyone,

 

My medical school allows for students to complete up to 8 weeks of research electives during their clerkship period. Personally, I am interested in doing a clerkship research elective for a few weeks (say 3-5 weeks), but I have doubts as to whether this is actually feasible. Knowing that research often doesn't get completed in a few weeks, do you think that any researcher will take me on for a weeks as part of a research elective?

 

My main goal for the research elective is to just get some exposure to research and to see how much I really enjoy research. I dont necessarily feel like I have to finish the project I'ld be working on, or get a publication from it. Plus, of course, I dont expect to get paid for the research time.

 

What do you all think? Is this a realistic possibility?

[juicyprunes]

Hey,

 

I know certain schools have very specific "Research Electives" in certain areas (e.g. Mac has one in Endocrine Research for 2- 4 weeks) where it is a well-defined elective with a project that you're supposed to work on. You should check out the elective catalogues for the schools you're interested in to see what is offered.

 

Alternatively, you can do basic research in a lab and obviously, you're not going to get much done unless you've spoken to the supervisor well ahead of time to design a very specific project that can be completed in the time period.

 

Hope that helps!

[Rome]

Hey there,

 

I think most researchers are interested in taking on students who show an interest. Devoting 2-3 weeks full time during your clerkship electives might be bonus in terms of getting the foundation of the project started. One can always continue the project during clerkships (esp. when on more relaxed rotations).

 

It would be important to tell your supervisor of the commitment you are willing to make and what you hope to achieve wrt goals.

[blinknoodle]

Research electives are completely feasible. In fact, many medical schools are not allowing students to do electives in one area and research is one option to diversify your electives. Research electives are a great opportunity to explore research, especially for those short 3-year medical programs. You are also right to be hesitant about getting something done in one month. You need more planning than just 3-5 weeks of full-time work towards a project (many people don't finish a project in 4 months during a summer, nevermind 1 month).

 

I don't know what school you are at, but at UWO research electives need to be at least 4 weeks. I couldn't imagine doing anything less. In fact, to really get good use out of a research elective, you should be working on the research prior to the actual start date of your research elective. Filling out ethics approval, alone, could take over a month. If you are not planning on finishing your research, I would highly recommend reconsidering whether you should opt for a research elective. Unless you have a solid plan for someone else to continue your project, it will likely go nowhere - and thus time well wasted (sorry for the bluntness).

 

I would look for an opportunity to work with someone on a well-defined project with a specific role for yourself and an acceptable end-point (preferably with ethics approval already). Pick something in your area of interest. Chart reviews, lit reviews or systematic reviews are better suited to projects with less time. Work on it before you start and try to wrap it up by the end of the elective. It is important to show that you can start, execute and wrap up a project; not someone who just helps out peripherally and only during their alloted time.

[Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

I agree with the above post re: the approach to . I can also give you an example of a successful, two-week research elective and the steps that were taken to encourage its success.

 

During my elective time (this was pre-clerkship elective time, not clerkship elective time), I decided to try to complete some publishable clinical epidemiological research in a career field that I was exploring--Cardiology. I had two weeks to spend on-site at any given place I chose, so I sniffed around and found a centre that had huge Cardiology resources, i.e., rich databases of information. This was important as I needed to spend the lion's share of those two weeks generating hypotheses, analyzing the data and then writing the paper up rather than data gathering. I approached the director of the centre (she is the person who also established the database) and asked if I could come for the elective. To be fair, she did pre-screen before I was accepted, i.e., I was required to submit my CV as well as describe, more fully, some of the research experiences I had.

 

Prior to arrival there we ensured that ethics approval was obtained for the project and on the day of arrival, I was given free reign for one of the largest cardiovascular medicine databases out there and began to get to work. By the end of the two weeks I had completed an analysis and was part-way through the writing of the manuscript. After I departed, we continued to collaborate on the manuscript electronically and it was submitted that following month (and subsequently accepted for presentation at a large, relevant European scientific meeting and then publication in Heart).

 

A caveat: as ffp said though, it's also important, during clerkship, to make contacts and be exposed to the various programs to which you might be applying. One option that can reconcile these two goals, though, is to initiate a research project with one of the people with whom you will be doing your clinical elective. Again, this requires a good bit of advanced planning and during the elective itself you can end up being extremely busy as you're not only doing your clinical work, but often, either staying at the hospital or returning to your home base to work on your research. Again, it's possible: I tried to arrange projects with preceptors at almost all of my elective sites and one of the papers (a case report of an unusual outcome of percutaneous ethanol ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma) ended up being presented at a meeting and has just been accepted for publication.

 

In short, all of this can be done--and to great effect--but it does require some front-end elbow grease. Good luck!

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Majestic82]

Hey everyone,

 

Thank you all for your wonderful responses - they're really helpful.

 

Just to give you all some more background, I am actually a McMaster medical student and haven't begun my clerkship phase yet. I am interested in obtaining some research experience during medical school, but to be honest, I am still unsure of how much of a time commitment I can devote to research while I am engaged in my studies. Since we have no "summer's off" to do research at McMaster (we go year-round), I figured why dont I just do research while I am on clerkship during a dedicated research elective for a few weeks. This way I can obtain some basic research experience, and I will not need to be concerned about how much of a time commitment the research entails.

 

I think that I do have some options here, but just need to look around, and ensure that both my supervisor and myself are on the same page as to my goals/objectives for the research project.

[spider]

Kirsteen,

 

You're so amazing! I really admire how well you've done in your medical career. I was just reading through this thread to get an idea of what I can do during medical school with research and electives. Your advice is definitely appreciated!

 

Hi there,

 

I agree with the above post re: the approach to . I can also give you an example of a successful, two-week research elective and the steps that were taken to encourage its success.

 

During my elective time (this was pre-clerkship elective time, not clerkship elective time), I decided to try to complete some publishable clinical epidemiological research in a career field that I was exploring--Cardiology. I had two weeks to spend on-site at any given place I chose, so I sniffed around and found a centre that had huge Cardiology resources, i.e., rich databases of information. This was important as I needed to spend the lion's share of those two weeks generating hypotheses, analyzing the data and then writing the paper up rather than data gathering. I approached the director of the centre (she is the person who also established the database) and asked if I could come for the elective. To be fair, she did pre-screen before I was accepted, i.e., I was required to submit my CV as well as describe, more fully, some of the research experiences I had.

 

Prior to arrival there we ensured that ethics approval was obtained for the project and on the day of arrival, I was given free reign for one of the largest cardiovascular medicine databases out there and began to get to work. By the end of the two weeks I had completed an analysis and was part-way through the writing of the manuscript. After I departed, we continued to collaborate on the manuscript electronically and it was submitted that following month (and subsequently accepted for presentation at a large, relevant European scientific meeting and then publication in Heart).

 

A caveat: as ffp said though, it's also important, during clerkship, to make contacts and be exposed to the various programs to which you might be applying. One option that can reconcile these two goals, though, is to initiate a research project with one of the people with whom you will be doing your clinical elective. Again, this requires a good bit of advanced planning and during the elective itself you can end up being extremely busy as you're not only doing your clinical work, but often, either staying at the hospital or returning to your home base to work on your research. Again, it's possible: I tried to arrange projects with preceptors at almost all of my elective sites and one of the papers (a case report of an unusual outcome of percutaneous ethanol ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma) ended up being presented at a meeting and has just been accepted for publication.

 

In short, all of this can be done--and to great effect--but it does require some front-end elbow grease. Good luck!

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen