Research blocks?

[TheMightyAngus]

---

Members do not see this ad.

For those of you who have research time structured into your curriculum, what are you planning to do? Lab or clinical?

Clinical is higher yield as far as publication goes, but the day-to-day activities (chart review, questionnaire, etc) are boring as hell. I can't imagine spending several months doing this.

I'm leaning toward doing something basic science, even though its hard to accomplish anything in a short amount of time. Anyone have an opinion?

 

[LadyWolverine]

Clinical is higher yield as far as publication goes, but the day-to-day activities (chart review, questionnaire, etc) are boring as hell. I can't imagine spending several months doing this.

Have you ever spent several months sitting at a lab bench pipetting into ELISA plates or performing endless tissue culture?

😴 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

🙂

 

[Ashers]

Have you ever spent several months sitting at a lab bench pipetting into ELISA plates or performing endless tissue culture?

😴 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

🙂

I'd rather do that than chart review. Not that I'd want to do research as a ginormous part of my career though. I don't mind bench work on a temporary basis.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Chart review = vacation

 

[LadyWolverine]

I learned more medically-relevant material from 2 months of chart review than my entire first year of medical school. Try getting that from a culture dish full of cells.

 

[MSKalltheway]

I learned more medically-relevant material from 2 months of chart review than my entire first year of medical school. Try getting that from a culture dish full of cells.

👍 Agreed. With a lot of Wikipedia, eMedicine, and Stedman's, I get my learn on real good. Charts mean H&P's, labs, and possibly imaging to read up on too.

 

[Blade28]

I'd rather do that than chart review. Not that I'd want to do research as a ginormous part of my career though. I don't mind bench work on a temporary basis.

I do both now. 🙂

 

[TheMightyAngus]

Chart review = vacation

True. I could easily turn my research block into an extended vacation. I could even use a project I've nearly completed. But I'm interested in a specialty where research is practically a prerequisite, so I'm questioning if it's worth it to bust my ass to complete something substantial.

Chart reviews might be educational on rare occasions if you've never read charts before. But they're tedious and mind-numbing if you're looking at hundreds of patients with the same condition. Our hospital hasn't moved to electronic records, so digging through the hand-written archives and fighting with the medical records people is an added bonus. Dealing with the IRB is another negative.

 

[MrBurns10]

I'm going to do clinical research. Clinical at least affords the possibility of seeing what the clinicians actually do. Find a field that you're interested in and see if there's a research position where you can do things other than just chart reviews...they're out there. I have had enough of PCRs and mice, personally.

 

[CCLCMer]

Have you ever spent several months sitting at a lab bench pipetting into ELISA plates or performing endless tissue culture?

😴 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

🙂

Ha ha, I was going to say that too. One summer of it was enough for me. I'm definitely going to do clinical research for my year.

 

[-Goose-]

Chart review = vacation

nice!