Advice for getting involved with neurosurgery residents and getting on research

[Stressbeaker]

I'm a second year medical student interested in neurosurgery and I have slowly been getting more involved my institution's neurosurgery department over my first year. I have been told that I need to get involved with the residents to get on more projects, but so far I have had a hard time getting to know the residents since they already have other students they know and send projects to. Do you guys have any advice on how you have managed to make connections with residents in various departments if you don't already have connections? I work hard and I am willing to do anything they will throw my way.

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[operaman]

Start with the student interest group and upperclassmen. There are always projects left unfinished by students who graduate and move on and they could probably facilitate some introductions.

You can also ask any faculty mentors you have to make an introduction if they have a resident working on something.

 

[operaman]

One more thing to add:

The best kind of projects I’ve found for students:

1) retrospective chart reviews - usually require some tedious chart reviews and data mining, but doable and a great way to get your toe in the door

2) case reports - easy pubs. Just keep your eyes open for anything interesting and offer to write it up and then get a rough draft turned around in 48 hours. Also a nice way to demonstrate you can deliver and may lead to better stuff

3) old posters and oral presentations or old manuscripts that languished. These are great especially when talking to residents. Offer to write it up in exchange for being second author. They get a nice first author pub, and you get a nice stripe on the CV for a project that’s basically already been done. Sometimes old rejected manuscripts can be freshened up and resubmitted - one of my highest impact publications is from something I did as a Med student that got rejected and someone else came along a couple years later and added a few more patients and resubmitted and kept me on it. Talk about a win win!

 

[NeuResurgens]

Echo the above, I got involved with the interest basically upon starting school. This led to introductions to the PD, some residents and the senior medical students who were able to get me involved with a lot of projects.