Research year gone wrong

[Enjoy Life]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello SDN world. I need some advice... I recently took a research year in between 2nd and 3rd year. I am currently 3 months into it and have 8 months remaining. I was promised an excellent project with a well respected mentor. The only problem is that my entire project has fallen through and I hate every minute of my day. I am basically a glorified lab tech doing the jobs that no one else wants to do to fill the time. I researched this decision thoroughly before agreeing to take the year but never in a million years did I see this coming. I am afraid that if I quit I will burn bridges with my PI and ruin any chance of a LOR or potential publication. I guess my question for you is should I quit and start 3rd year late or just suck it up and finish out my commitment to the lab.

Additional details:
I am getting paid and I have benefits
There is potential to publish one paper
Step 1 score 234
Interested in anesthesia

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

It sounds to me that there would be more negative implications if you were to stop now: starting 3rd year late, potential burning bridges, no abstracts, posters, pubs, or conferences from the experience.

If I were you I would stick with it, you never know, it could get better. Just be clear with your PI what your goals are and what you want out of the experience.

To me, one year of research without an authorship looks better than starting rotations late. I could be wrong considering I am just a med student, but just my 2 cents.

 

[joker2400]

It sounds to me that there would be more negative implications if you were to stop now: starting 3rd year late, potential burning bridges, no abstracts, posters, pubs, or conferences from the experience.

If I were you I would stick with it, you never know, it could get better. Just be clear with your PI what your goals are and what you want out of the experience.

To me, one year of research without an authorship looks better than starting rotations late. I could be wrong considering I am just a med student, but just my 2 cents.

I see it differently. If I were a PD and I saw someone had a research experience that was a year long and they had no pubs/presentations I'd be wondering what the hell they actually did for a year considering that many students who don't take dedicated time for research manage to put out many pubs/presentations.

To the OP: I would stick it out, but try to get on some clinical projects on the side. This way you may not get much from your time in the lab, but still have something to show for the year.

 

[235009]

My first inclination is to recommend you stick with it. At least you're getting paid and the situation isn't as dire as you make it out to be if you think you might get a publication out of it. I recommend you sit down with your PI and try to figure out how this can be most productive for both of you.

If you had come seeking advice before the research year I would've told you:
1. don't buy before you try... meaning you shouldn't have agreed to this without having worked in the lab during the school year
2. many people change their minds so it's good to build the strongest profile you can but anesthesia has become super uncompetitive for US MDs... you definitely don't need a research year to match at a desirable program

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

I see it differently. If I were a PD and I saw someone had a research experience that was a year long and they had no pubs/presentations I'd be wondering what the hell they actually did for a year considering that many students who don't take dedicated time for research manage to put out many pubs/presentations.

So would you view quitting the research experience and starting rotations late more favorably than a year of dedicated research without an authorship?

 

[Dave89]

I see it differently. If I were a PD and I saw someone had a research experience that was a year long and they had no pubs/presentations I'd be wondering what the hell they actually did for a year considering that many students who don't take dedicated time for research manage to put out many pubs/presentations.

To the OP: I would stick it out, but try to get on some clinical projects on the side. This way you may not get much from your time in the lab, but still have something to show for the year.

I will echo this - scrape together several hours/week to do some research with other Anesthesia faculty if you can.

 

[TwinsFan]

Find some fellows who are on the path to academia and like to publish and get to work with them.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Year off for lab research for matching in anesthesia? You know that's not necessary for a USMD, like, at all, right?

 

[22031 Alum]

Because you already made the commitment, I'd recommend sticking to the planned year of work. But get involved with some clinical projects as well.

 

[joker2400]

So would you view quitting the research experience and starting rotations late more favorably than a year of dedicated research without an authorship?

No, if you start 3rd year now you will either graduate in 2018 anyways or have no time for electives in 4th year to get LORs before applying. Neither of which is particularly beneficial compared to continuing the research year and aggressively trying to get as much as you can from that time. So my advice is stick out the year, get on some other projects, and push to get the most you can out of the lab and the experience.

 

[ridethecliche]

Can you find other people in the department that are also doing research? If you can stay afloat with the stuff that's required of you, I'm sure you can do some stuff on the side for pubs.

2nd the idea to link up with fellows/residents doing research, especially if your program requires them to do stuff. You might not get a bunch of first authorships but a couple of 2nds never hurt nobody.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Why are you afraid of burning the bridge with this PI? This person will be a nobody as soon as you graduate. Do you think this person will go after you? If not, they are a nobody already. Maybe it would be better to just start 3rd year and see if you can find some other research opportunity along the way.

 

[IlDestriero]

Year off for lab research for matching in anesthesia? You know that's not necessary for a USMD, like, at all, right?

It is helpful, though not necessary, if you want to have an academic career and desire to match at a superstar research program.
However, one must look at the true cost of this research year. Salary and benefits are probably worth 40k, maybe less, and a lost attending year is 3-600k. Make the most of that year, you paid more than you think for it.

 

[CatFactorial]

Dang I thought this thread was about a horrible lab experiment gone awry and unleashing a monster on society.

OP stick it out. Quitting will burn bridges (though probably save you from lab monsters that chase you). If you have enough time in a day see if you can work with any other faculty doing chart reviews and such.

 

[Dr.Tao]

considering that many students who don't take dedicated time for research manage to put out many pubs/presentations..

I've seen MANY people get pubs who barely did anything and folks who busted their a***s get squat! So I'd be more inclined to think to OP just ended up working for one of the may a**holes in academia than assuming the student did anything wrong.

OP, gut it out this is simply one of many times you'll have to in your career.

 

[ExcaliburPrime1]

I'd recommend that you speak to your PI about how your project is going and ask what you could do to get things back on track. It's really tough to get a publication in a basic science lab, as so many things can go wrong, but 4 months in is a good time to take stock of the situation and see what your PI thinks can be done.

Take it from there.

 

[collegestud2013]

It is helpful, though not necessary, if you want to have an academic career and desire to match at a superstar research program.
However, one must look at the true cost of this research year. Salary and benefits are probably worth 40k, maybe less, and a lost attending year is 3-600k. Make the most of that year, you paid more than you think for it.

This. A US MD with a 234 Step 1 should generally have no problems matching into a decent anesthesiology program without any research at all (national average is about a 230, and match chance for 234 is around 98-99% assuming you're willing to go anywhere in the country). And as mentioned many people manage to still crunch out a few pubs without a research year (though the ones done during med school without a gap year will more often be clinically oriented research rather than basic science). And if OP wants to do academic medicine and was looking to match at a desirable academic training center, the research year would be of little help if he got no pubs out of it, which seems like a good possibility of happening given the lack of progress so far. So it seems like he could've just gave up a year worth of anesthesiology attending salary for an entry level research tech salary. If that's the case I'd quit right now and start M3 rotations a bit lit and still graduate in time (assuming your research is being done at the same institution where you go to school so there's no moving involved). It may burn bridges with the PI, but as long as he/she is not the department chair at your school it should be fine if you're not dead set on matching to the same institution (since most residency programs ask for rec letter from the department chair at your school for that specialty).

 

[Donald Juan]

OP, why did you decide to do a research year in the first place? How did you think it would help your goals? Like others have said above, you could probably match anesthesia without issues already, and you could also have gotten publications during 3rd year without taking a year off.

Your answer also depends on what you could accomplish this year in research vs how badly starting 3rd year will set you back. At my school, and many others, starting 3rd year this late would mean that you were still in 3rd year after applications go out and you potentially wouldn't even have a single anesthesia rotation to get a LOR from. You say you'll just be a glorified lab tech for the rest of the year, but why can't you adjust your project to something a little smaller that could still produce in the time you have left? If you're being so unproductive in the lab, couldn't you get on some clinical research on the side like others have suggested?

 

[Enjoy Life]

Thank you for the advice. I originally thought I wanted to have a career in academia and that was originally why I accepted the year. Also, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I thought it would be best to accept anything that would make me a stronger applicant. Another factor that went into my decision was that I rotated in this lab last summer and was very successful during that time. I was awarded a couple grants and presented my summer work at a national conference.

I am scheduled to sit down and discuss this year with my PI and hopefully get a publication. I also spoke with the dean at my school and he said I would still graduate in 2018 regardless so I am going to stick it out.

Does anyone have any advice on how to start networking with the anesthesia program. Networking is not my strong suit but I want to make sure this year is as productive as possible.

Thank you SDN

 

[youngman1234]

I think you're between two not so hot options.
1. quit, and then explain the situation.
2. stick with it, and potentially have nothing to show for it.

I want to +1 the option of picking up clinical research on the side, during the year, so you can have pubs.

 

[medicalstadent]

this is why I always say you have to define your role in the lab from the beginning and set expectations ... it goes both ways

 

[Arden_28]

if there is a potential to get a publication, figure out if the work is worth the time

 

[MassTransit]

Crazy how much trouble research concerns are causing medical students. Seems like every thread in allo at the moment is about research.

 

[FlowRate]

Thank you for the advice. I originally thought I wanted to have a career in academia and that was originally why I accepted the year. Also, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I thought it would be best to accept anything that would make me a stronger applicant. Another factor that went into my decision was that I rotated in this lab last summer and was very successful during that time. I was awarded a couple grants and presented my summer work at a national conference.

I am scheduled to sit down and discuss this year with my PI and hopefully get a publication. I also spoke with the dean at my school and he said I would still graduate in 2018 regardless so I am going to stick it out.

Does anyone have any advice on how to start networking with the anesthesia program. Networking is not my strong suit but I want to make sure this year is as productive as possible.

Thank you SDN

It's a little unclear what changed from your prior experience to now.

Crazy how much trouble research concerns are causing medical students. Seems like every thread in allo at the moment is about research.

It's the time of year when people applying next year are thinking about how competitive they will be for residency, now that they have some handle on how 3rd year works.