Continue current research or do research at Med school?

[BooRadley85]

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I will be starting medical school in August and have always been interested in ortho. After many hours of shadowing and being an ortho patient myself on various occasions, it seems like something I could potentially enjoy. I know I am VERY young in this process but any insight would be very helpful.

I will be going to school in Virginia but would love to eventually come back closer to where my wife and I grew up in AZ for residency/future career. I recently got an internship in Arizona with a well-renowned spine surgery center as a research assistant where I could potentially publish a few papers.
Also, several of the orthopods that research here are attendings at the only ortho residency in Phoenix.

When talking to the research coordinator at the center, she said that other medical students that have interned there have continued doing off-site research throughout med school.

My question is this, if I keep on this path towards wanting to pursue an ortho residency, would it be better to continue doing research with this surgical center or should I try to get in with one of the orthopedists in VA where I will actually be attending school and will have closer day-to-day interaction?

 

[DoctaJay]

Getting a publication is hard to do as a student, so if this research job will put you in a position to publish, then stick with it. Doing research at your home institution is a great way to get to know the residents and attendings by helping them with their projects. For that alone I would say to get involved with a project at your home program not matter what. But don't go crazy with it. Meaningful research is just a checkbox on your application...do you have it? can you talk about it intelligently?...check, and then they move on. Don't let this research take so much of your time that you suck at step 1 or your 3rd year clinical rotations. So I guess what I am trying to say is be balanced, because its not all about how many research projects you have.