Thoughts on Opthalmic Assistant positions?

[premedbedhead]

Hello. I am applying right now and have been speaking to an MD regarding an Opthalmic Assistant position for the next few months. For those who have had a similar position in an eye doc office- would you recommend it? What was interesting about it? Obviously each position/ office will be different, but I honestly am not sure what to expect. The job description, and the description I got from the doc was very general- including "performing various office and clinic duties to help the office run well." My other options include being a research assistant/research coordinator for a larger hospital.

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[klever]

If you're looking for clinical experience and not gunning for a T10, probably the job in the opthamology office would be more beneficial. I'm no expert though.

 

[premedbedhead]

If you're looking for clinical experience and not gunning for a T10, probably the job in the opthamology office would be more beneficial. I'm no expert though.

Thank you!!!

 

[LizzyM]

You will get far more "clinical" experience with the eye doctor than in clinical research which is often a "paper pusher" position. Most research assistant/coordinator jobs in larger hospitals provide no opportunity for testing hypotheses or troubleshooting research activities and thus are not very "research" oriented. Even those that have you screening patients for invitations to participate in research are not engaging you in generating generalizable new knowledge but the clinical research equivalent of washing glassware.

 

[premedbedhead]

You will get far more "clinical" experience with the eye doctor than in clinical research which is often a "paper pusher" position. Most research assistant/coordinator jobs in larger hospitals provide no opportunity for testing hypotheses or troubleshooting research activities and thus are not very "research" oriented. Even those that have you screening patients for invitations to participate in research are not engaging you in generating generalizable new knowledge but the clinical research equivalent of washing glassware.

Thank you, I appreciate this A part of me thought that the research would be a prestigious thing to add in update letters or for next cycle. But being very involved in a clinic and helping a doctor directly sounds like the gig I will go with and learn a lot from.