Research Dilemma

[RNtoPhysician]

Hello All!

I am a newly accepted student to medical school. I have a current dilemma with my research experience. In March of this year, when I was finishing my prereqs, I took a biochemistry class and thought it would interesting to try out research since I have not previously done any research. The professor that taught the class does research and I joined his laboratory. I have been able to work with him since June but I found out that he does mostly teaching now and is really only 10-20% research. I am currently doing the research on a volunteer basis as he does not have any funding currently to pay me.

I am just wondering if I should look for other research opportunities where I could be getting paid? I had read on other threads that there are plenty of places to go and get research and get paid for it. The other reason why it is a dilemma is that I am non-traditional as I have worked as a registered nurse these last two years. The pay I would get would be much less than what I get paid as a nurse.

What do you guys think or what suggestions do you have or what questions do you have?

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[Hzreio]

Lol so obviously if you’re expecting to paid to do research you’re gonna be in for a rude awakening. Most students volunteer their time to do research with the aim of getting published.

Paid research is rare but not impossible, but I wouldn’t make that a top priority during med school. Get research that aligns with your specialty interests. Any pay is a drop in the bucket when compared to attending salary.

 

[Styrene]

I have been doing research for years throughout undergrad, medical school, and now residency. I have never been paid for it and do it in my own time. In fact, I expect not to be paid for it until I'm an attending.

Stick with this if you like it.

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Have also done research in undergrad, med school, and residency, and while yes a lot of research work is on your own time prior to your attending job where you can negotiate a bit, you absolutely can love research and expect to be paid for your contributions some of the time before then. I have been paid at each stop in training, and my first job is about 80% paid time for research (20% clinical).


That said - you need to be bringing something to the table or bring your own money (via grants).

In undergrad, I was paid to “research” but really I was paid to do lab tasks (wash glasswear, etc) and in exchange got to help with some research projects. My skill was menial labor.

In med school I had statistical training and applied for and got grants, which is where my salary came from.

In residency, it took until 3rd year to make connections with a group that offered to pay me to “moonlight” in their group - my value-add was I was then competent at coding, which they needed. I now had a skill to market that overlapped with the research process itself.

This is to say, you’ll be hard-pressed to just jump into a lab or research group and have them pay you if what you’re mostly doing is learning from them. What you can do is start by getting paid to do tasks that help your research group out (but that are not the fun sexy skillful parts of research - like washing dishes), do the actual research on the side and learn from your mentors, and eventually parlay that experience into actually getting paid to do the research parts down the road (whether by getting your own grants that allow you to take some of the money for salary support or getting others to pay you for a service).

Based on your situation, working in a lab where the PI has no money and doesn’t do that much research anyway likely means you’re getting suboptimal research exposure and no pay for doing a lot of menial tasks. I’d say at the very least you could probably look around for a group that has some money.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I basically agree with the above. Unless you bring something to the table, you are getting paid by being given the Experience and the opportunity to publish.

 

[Dr Meow]

You're not an employee. You're a volunteer.
They have no obligation to put you on their publications either.

 

[Meerkat_Initiate]

In residency, it took until 3rd year to make connections with a group that offered to pay me to “moonlight” in their group - my value-add was I was then competent at coding, which they needed. I now had a skill to market that overlapped with the research process itself.

Could you elaborate a little bit on this? What exactly do you mean by coding? R? Python?

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Could you elaborate a little bit on this? What exactly do you mean by coding? R? Python?

Yes - R for the type of work and collaborators I’m with. But knowing any stats language works. Despite it being a powerful language, python, in my experience, still isn’t as widely used among labor health services researchers.