How to make my summer research successful?

[windcolour]

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I am a M1 with a strong interest in rad on. I will start my rad on summer research very soon. I am just wondering how I could take the best advantage of this two months.

1. spent most of the time focusing on research and work with an ass for a publication and good recommendation letter.

2. except research, also spent some time on shadowing to learn a little clinic knowledge and know more people. I am just a M1 without any clinic experience. Will this make me look stupid during shadowing?

Many thanks for your input!

 

[Carotenoid]

1. Working towards a publication is essential for you (even if you don't achieve this goal!!!) - so find a mentor in the lab you are joining (may be the PI is approachable enough, or talk to a senior postdoc) and make this clear to them. Formulate this something like "working towards a publication will help me focus and be more productive, as well as give me a sense of accomplishment" - all of which are true, by the way. This will make you not sound like a mendacious creep who simply wants to show up for a couple of hours a day to buff up the resume.

2. Do you still have a choice of labs or are you set on where you are going? if it's the former, join the lab that does have a manageable project for you, as well as has a strong publishing record. Also you want a lab where you will have somebody willing to mentor you - show you the ropes and spend time teaching! But wherever you end up, be very proactive; ppl in labs are busy and unless they see that you are EAGER to learn and do the work, you will not get the help you need. Don't wait for them to offer.

3. At the end of your lab stint, make a presentation for the team - regardless of what your results are. The presentation may be about your project, about the enzyme/pathway they are studying, or even better about something new in the field that they will be interested to hear about.

4. By all means, shadow! and ask questions when appropriate! Trust me, requesting to shadow will make you look interested and proactive, and absolutely nobody expects you to know much. Best strategy would be to know what kinds of patients you will be seeing that day, and at least review that anatomical site. If you top it off with having read an article (Nature Reviews Onocology has great review articles, and NEJM has great "case presentations") will make you look like a star. Go to Google Scholar --> Advanced; there you can input your search words ("prostate cancer radiation oncology"), the journal, and the years of publication (focus on the last 5 years, as rad onc is a very fast developing field).

Best of luck

 

[Raygun77]

my advice would have been to focus on clinical research. It is much easier to put together a retrospective dataset with publishable data than to get to know a lab, all the new lab techniques you'll need to perform (which is a huge learning curve i'm implying), then to actually find something out in a 2mo timeframe (i have had friends take off years and only achieve the first two!)

But definitely let us know- what type of research is it? Clinical or lab?

 

[windcolour]

Many thanks for you two's thoughtful and constructive advice. It is very helpful.

I got a fellowship from a top program (my school does not have a home program). I think my summer research is a clinical rad on project. According to the proposal, I am supposed to interact with some patients (not a lot), collect the data, analyze and write it up.

It seems research and shadowing are both important. I can not predict how the research will go. However, it will be the optimal if I could manage to achieve both----it might be very hard.

For shadowing purpose, Carotenoid's suggestion is very practicably. Except that, are there any simple and introductory rad on book? I think I should at least know the terms used by the rad on attendings.

 

[Carotenoid]

. Except that, are there any simple and introductory rad on book? I think I should at least know the terms used by the rad on attendings.

I have found a bunch of review articles in Nature Reviews Oncology and some other major journals that give you a 4-5 page and very current overview of the field. That should be plenty sufficient for your purposes. Also, Hansen+Roach Handbook of Evidence-based Rad Onc is great, I use it all the time on my rotations.

 

[windcolour]

Many thanks. I do appreciate.

I have found a bunch of review articles in Nature Reviews Oncology and some other major journals that give you a 4-5 page and very current overview of the field. That should be plenty sufficient for your purposes. Also, Hansen+Roach Handbook of Evidence-based Rad Onc is great, I use it all the time on my rotations.