advice on gaining research experience

[martini]

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I'm still new with posting on the boards, but I've been lurking here for ages and have found an enormous amount of really useful material here. I'm hoping that you'll be able to apply your collective wisdom to another (long!) newbie question...

Are there any non-trads who can provide some advice on gaining research experience?

My situation is pretty straightforward. I'm at the tail end of a PhD program in the social sciences (plan on defending in April 2010) and have been contemplating a career change into medicine for a few years. I just started volunteering at the local hospital and the experience has been amazing. It's phenomenal - the people, the environment, the work - and I feel a level of passion and engagement that I haven't experienced in years.

In other words, I am starting to trust my intuition that medicine may really be right for me.

The next thing that I'd like to do is get some research experience but I'm running into a few problems.

1) I have no science coursework. I took two biology classes (for non-majors) as an undergrad and took them both pass/fail. In other words, I have no lab experience and no science GPA.

2) I'm 34. I've casually met people who have their own labs and all of their assistants are 19-year old undergrads. I'd have asked for their advice, but the topic didn't come up organically and I didn't want to be impolite (and in the situations I'm thinking of it wouldn't have been diplomatic to go from "hi nice to meet you" to "can you tell me how to get a lab job"). I've used my grad student financial aid status to apply for about 15 student work-study jobs and have gotten absolutely no responses.

I'm at one of the top 20 universities for medicine in the nation - the resources are all around me. How can I work around my age and the absence of a science background to get the research experience I'd like to have?

Just as an fyi... I'm planning on beginning my pre-med coursework in the 2009/10 academic year (my dissertation will be in the revision stages, so this is reasonable) and applying for medical schools in the spring of 2011 for admission in fall 2012. My undergrad gpa is a 3.6, but that doesn't include any science courses. I'm hoping if all goes will with my post-bac work, I stand a fighting chance of getting into a good med school.

 

[DrMidlife]

If you're looking to publish a research paper within a couple years, starting from working as a lab aide with no science background, yes, it can be done. But in my experience it's a completely random and low-odds endeavor to find a lab and a PI who will help vs. hinder your efforts. From what I saw, it's only human nature for a PI to collect a flock of undergrad underlings without really taking responsibility for why they're in the PI's lab. If you really want to do lab research, your 19 year old classmates are the people you need to talk to: find out which PIs are hiring and whether they're worth working for.

Let me suggest, instead, that you look for overlap between clinical studies and social sciences. In other words, public health. Where I live, there are a fair number of behavioral studies around trauma - seatbelt use, carseat use, 911 use, etc. You don't want to be too far out in patient education or perception of care, etc: try to find a study that has a solid clinical aspect.

And/or, work your way down the medicine faculty pages and see what folks are working on that interest you. You might need to work for somebody for free for a while, or use one gig to find a better gig.

Lastly, don't let the 19 year olds intimidate you, and don't let them define the experiences that you know are between you and a successful app year. Plus, some of them are truly exceptional and inspiring - those are the ones to watch.

Best of luck to you.