Research or not for my M1 summer?

[yodi]

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Perhaps some of you have had this dilemma: I'm an M1 debating whether or not I should do research during my summer before M2. I understand the importance of having research on your CV if you're going for more competitive specialties. For now, I am very interested in primary care, and since I really don't like the idea of doing research, period, I guess I don't really need to do it.

However, you never really know until you're in the wards, right? What if I decide that "I gotta get myself a 40 hr week dermatology job!" in my 3rd year after a disillusioning stint on the Medicine wards? I'd hate to be in the position where I came to that realization after having done no research in my last summer "off".

Hence, my dilemma. I'm thinking the wisest approach would be to keep the doors to specialties open by just biting it and doing some research that is as interesting as I can make it.

Any advice? Happy new year's by the way.

 

[mpp]

If you're like most college or young medical students you probably have had your fair share of summers just bumming around or working some crappy job to earn a few bucks. My advice would be to take advantage of the incredible opportunities you have as a medical student that you may never get again. You may be pleasantly surprised by some cool clinical or surgical hands-on type research (as opposed to any incredibly boring lab research you might have been involved in in the past). And if you can find a great primary care doctor/researcher it is a nice chance to find a good mentor and get yourself excited about primary care. There is so much other research out there besides running gels or growing cells.