Summer - Would you volunteer in research?

[brady23]

As a medical student who's looking for stuff to do in the summer, I'm of the opinion that I wouldn't want to work for free in research, especially because there's no guarantee that something tangible will come out of it. 

I'm curious to know if anyone else has opinions on this?  

 

[Lactic Folly]

As a medical student, I assume you are not looking at "washing test tubes" to use the common phrase, but a suitable summer project for someone at your stage.

A well-designed project is an opportunity that a supervisor provides a student to build their CV, make connections, become familiar with a specialty, and learn new skills.

What the student gets out of the experience is largely is up to them - if they are on the ball, funding can be applied for in advance. Regardless of the status of the project, writing up a review article or case report should almost always be a possibility as an add-on. But if the student is just 'looking for something to do', they may not be sufficiently motivated to pursue this. 

 

[robclem21]

I have had two separate research projects since starting medical school. One has been a paid research summer position and the other has been unpaid volunteer. I can definitely say the paid summer position was more formal, held expectations from my supervisor, and I was more motivated to do the work. That being said I will likely end up with more tangible research outcomes from the volunteer position. (paid = 1 poster at int'l conference, 1 publication vs. volunteer = multiple publications/conferences). 

What you get out of it will be (as above) the type and nature of the research project, the support of your supervisor, and most importantly your motivation. I would typically think that being paid would be a better option, but at this stage of your career is a couple thousand dollars really gonna make or break you down the road. You are probably better off choosing something that will benefit you in your career for CARMs or for your CV (in the form of specialty and actual contributions, not cleaning test tubes). If that happens to be a volunteer opportunity with more tangible CV outcomes then who cares. The connections you make are also equally as important.

Feel free to msg me if you have more questions.

[goleafsgochris]

On ‎2018‎-‎04‎-‎05 at 10:09 PM, brady23 said:

As a medical student who's looking for stuff to do in the summer, I'm of the opinion that I wouldn't want to work for free in research, especially because there's no guarantee that something tangible will come out of it. 

I'm curious to know if anyone else has opinions on this?  

 

If you are gunning for something, consider doing it in the specialty youre gunning for.

Otherwise, no benefit.  If youre going for family or something else non-competitive, likely no benefit.

[brady23]

Thanks everyone! The tricky part about volunteer positions is that you never know what you'll end up getting from them - is it really worth spending 3 months doing chart review if there's no guarantee that something tangible will come out of it?

 

[1D7]

All my research was paid work, but ultimately if it's a good project it shouldn't matter if it's paid or not IMO. If you know what you want to do and it's a competitive field, whatever research you can do will help. No one expects you to publish in high impact journals (though that would of course be beneficial); it's mostly to show that you're interested in the field and you're willing to do research if you have to.

I would advise exercising some caution around this area though. It's easy for medical students to be taken advantage of for free/cheap labour without the benefit of authorship.

[Lactic Folly]

1 hour ago, brady23 said:

Thanks everyone! The tricky part about volunteer positions is that you never know what you'll end up getting from them - is it really worth spending 3 months doing chart review if there's no guarantee that something tangible will come out of it?

 

The scope of the project should be defined upfront (e.g. review X number of charts over 3 months, with the expectation that you would analyze the data and write up the project by the end of the summer). I wouldn't expect a student to be asked to volunteer as an unpaid research assistant contributing to a larger project, to receive acknowledgment when it is written up later at some undefined date, if that's what you're proposing.