Feasability of Paid Research Position as MS1

[Silac]

I recently began looking for research oppurtunities and the first faculty member I reached out to happened to offer me a paid research position. I don't have all of the details yet but the position seems to basically be a clinical research assistant. I was told that it would require 10-15 hours per week. For context my school is P/F and I have done well on all of our exams so far.

I am concerned that I may be biting off more than I can chew if I take this position, but I am interested in what others may have to say.

I am also curious how beneficial such a position would be for my career looking forward. Initially I would be involved in the actual completion of the study. After the study is complete (June '21 timeline) then I would be included in putting together the manuscript.

I don't have any expierence with research while in medical school so any advice would be appreciated!

Edit: June 2021 not June 2023 timeline

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[AzBasRad]

The most important aspect of research in medical school is research productivity, i.e. number of pubs/abstracts/posters etc. The ultracompetitive specialities like derm, plastics, neurosurg, ortho will want to see field specific research.

I would say that the position is worth it if its in your field of interest and you can walk out with multiple pubs. Otherwise, money from the position may not be worth your time.

 

[Silac]

The most important aspect of research in medical school is research productivity, i.e. number of pubs/abstracts/posters etc. The ultracompetitive specialities like derm, plastics, neurosurg, ortho will want to see field specific research.

I would say that the position is worth it if its in your field of interest and you can walk out with multiple pubs. Otherwise, money from the position may not be worth your time.

I should've added that it is in a field that I am interested in that is one of the most competitive. It sounds like I will be involved in the papers that are produced as a result of the study but I assume it's going to take a bit of time as opposed to doing case studies or something of the sort.

I also don't particuarly care about the money. It will be nice but it is not a priority.

 

[Phloston]

I recently began looking for research oppurtunities and the first faculty member I reached out to happened to offer me a paid research position. I don't have all of the details yet but the position seems to basically be a clinical research assistant. I was told that it would require 10-15 hours per week. For context my school is P/F and I have done well on all of our exams so far.

I am concerned that I may be biting off more than I can chew if I take this position, but I am interested in what others may have to say.

I am also curious how beneficial such a position would be for my career looking forward. Initially I would be involved in the actual completion of the study. After the study is complete (June '23 timeline) then I would be included in putting together the manuscript.

I don't have any expierence with research while in medical school so any advice would be appreciated!

If you don't get your name on any papers, would you still want to do it? If the answer is no, then spend your time elsewhere.

 

[Silac]

If you don't get your name on any papers, would you still want to do it? If the answer is no, then spend your time elsewhere.

I probably would not be interested in that case. Why do you put it like that though? Should I go in with the expectation that a paper will not result from the study?

 

[FalconSlice]

I probably would not be interested in that case. Why do you put it like that though? Should I go in with the expectation that a paper will not result from the study?

Preemptive apology for seeming brusque, but have you heard the adage "beggars can't be choosers"? It is rather self-entitled to go in with the mindset of solely expecting publications.

Now if you work your a$$ off and are productive in other ways, that's great... but when first-year med students ask for any research connection, he/she should be grateful to get any chance at working with faculty in a field... going in expecting things to happen just to get pubs (i.e., to check boxes) to apply to a certain specialty, etc. is not a good look... and people take note and that's not good.

Getting a paid research opportunity as a first year is extremely rare. Be grateful and don't be self-entitled.

 

[Silac]

Preemptive apology for seeming brusque, but have you heard the adage "beggars can't be choosers"? It is rather self-entitled to go in with the mindset of solely expecting publications.

Now if you work your a$$ off and are productive in other ways, that's great... but when first-year med students ask for any research connection, he/she should be grateful to get any chance at working with faculty in a field... going in expecting things to happen just to get pubs (i.e., to check boxes) to apply to a certain specialty, etc. is not a good look... and people take note and that's not good.

Getting a paid research opportunity as a first year is extremely rare. Be grateful and don't be self-entitled.

I can see why I gave you this impression and it is understandable. I am grateful for this oppurtunity, but I don't think that means I should ignore the potential downsides of devoting such a large amount of my time and effort on a project that will do little to help my career (not saying that is the case here but just in general). Being productive in research seems to be a rather important component of residency applications especially for the more competitive residencies. It would foolish of me to ignore this fact.

I would like to learn more about the field and learn more about the process of clinical research, but I would also like to consider how it will affect my career. I think that the assumption that I wouldn't work hard in the position because I am making that consideration is unfair.

 

[frenchyn]

I can see why I gave you this impression and it is understandable. I am grateful for this oppurtunity, but I don't think that means I should ignore the potential downsides of devoting such a large amount of my time and effort on a project that will do little to help my career (not saying that is the case here but just in general). Being productive in research seems to be a rather important component of residency applications especially for the more competitive residencies. It would foolish of me to ignore this fact.

I would like to learn more about the field and learn more about the process of clinical research, but I would also like to consider how it will affect my career. I think that the assumption that I wouldn't work hard in the position because I am making that consideration is unfair.

Do you feel comfortable clarifying whether you will be considered as an author for the publication? If not, the experience will still be great and count, but if you have to put in 10-15 hours a week, you may not be able to do clinical research which usually where you can add the number, instead of quality (basic science). Also, please keep in mind the 10-15 hours a week during exam week may be rough. Also, are the hours flexible? Can you come to the lab and work on projects whenever you have 10-15 hours per week?

 

[FalconSlice]

I can see why I gave you this impression and it is understandable. I am grateful for this oppurtunity, but I don't think that means I should ignore the potential downsides of devoting such a large amount of my time and effort on a project that will do little to help my career (not saying that is the case here but just in general). Being productive in research seems to be a rather important component of residency applications especially for the more competitive residencies. It would foolish of me to ignore this fact.

I would like to learn more about the field and learn more about the process of clinical research, but I would also like to consider how it will affect my career. I think that the assumption that I wouldn't work hard in the position because I am making that consideration is unfair.

I see your concern. I think another thing to consider is that there are other important ways to have "productive" research time than just measuring via "number of publications." Examples include abstracts, external grants (e.g., HHMI fellowships, F-grants, etc.), etc. Furthermore, my personal view is that if you're getting paid for one year as MS-1, even if you have none of these, you are winning-out... i.e., you can use that income to supplement your quality of life and/or repay loans. Additionally, this will give you chance to give talks at departmental meetings, meet faculty (i.e., network), etc. so even if you "aren't productive" you actually are. You'll make a good impression on your mentor and leverage that relationship to other ventures (if you switch specialty interests/focus). It will never hurt and can only help.

Now, if you'll be miserable the whole time and are thinking in terms of delayed-gratification, my personal view on that is "hell no." Our lives are already filled with decisions deeply rooted in delayed gratification. You need to be happy doing what you're doing day-to-day as well. Having the "I'll be happy if and only if I get X publications" is a bad attitude (again, my personal biased view). I'm not accusing you of that... just that I've seen many self-entitled med students thinking they are god's gift to everyone strut around like that before being abruptly brought back down to reality.

 

[Silac]

Do you feel comfortable clarifying whether you will be considered as an author for the publication? If not, the experience will still be great and count, but if you have to put in 10-15 hours a week, you may not be able to do clinical research which usually where you can add the number, instead of quality (basic science). Also, please keep in mind the 10-15 hours a week during exam week may be rough. Also, are the hours flexible? Can you come to the lab and work on projects whenever you have 10-15 hours per week?

The faculty member explicitly told me that I would be involved in the manuscript following the study, but I have little knowledge of the proceedings of clinical research so Im not sure what that would look like. To be clear this is a clinical research position where I would be assisting with identifying, enrolling, consenting patients etc. When data collection is over I would help write the manuscript.

It seems that my role on a day to day basis would allow a good amount of flexibility as far as when I did my work, but I am less certain if I would be allowed to work fewer hours during finals. That is something that I will certainly clarify before accepting.

 

[slowthai]

The faculty member explicitly told me that I would be involved in the manuscript following the study, but I have little knowledge of the proceedings of clinical research so Im not sure what that would look like. To be clear this is a clinical research position where I would be assisting with identifying, enrolling, consenting patients etc. When data collection is over I would help write the manuscript.

Looks like a scam. Run!

This is exactly what you don't want to be doing. This is a tremendous amount of legwork for a questionable return. You need to get with a PI with a high output and hop on some projects.

 

[Silac]

Looks like a scam. Run!

This is exactly what you don't want to be doing. This is a tremendous amount of legwork for a questionable return. You need to get with a PI with a high output and hop on some projects.

Haha Im not sure it is a scam but I had some concern about spending my time with that sort of work...which is why I made this post. I should've added those details earlier.

 

[frenchyn]

Looks like a scam. Run!

This is exactly what you don't want to be doing. This is a tremendous amount of legwork for a questionable return. You need to get with a PI with a high output and hop on some projects.

Lol wth scammed student like this? Med students do these tasks most of the time without pay especially in competitive specialties where students need pub.

OP: try to find out if it is a multi-center study or how many people are involved to get an idea of where you will be on the author list. Either way, get experience and get pay is a good thing.

 

[Silac]

Lol wth scammed student like this? Med students do these tasks most of the time without pay especially in competitive specialties where students need pub.

OP: try to find out if it is a multi-center study. Sometimes, these have a very long list of authors.

The project is for a rather small niche within the speciality. I've looked at the PI's previous publications on the subject and they seem to typically have 3-4 authors. But I will look more into it

 

[Lawpy]

Preemptive apology for seeming brusque, but have you heard the adage "beggars can't be choosers"? It is rather self-entitled to go in with the mindset of solely expecting publications.

Now if you work your a$$ off and are productive in other ways, that's great... but when first-year med students ask for any research connection, he/she should be grateful to get any chance at working with faculty in a field... going in expecting things to happen just to get pubs (i.e., to check boxes) to apply to a certain specialty, etc. is not a good look... and people take note and that's not good.

Getting a paid research opportunity as a first year is extremely rare. Be grateful and don't be self-entitled.

I agree but just to clarify, the faculty doing the research usually wants to be productive and get the work done. Going in with the mindset of checking boxes is a bad idea but OP should be useful in any way they can and show conclusively they can get the work done. Papers are great since they're the ultimate form of productivity and i think it's ok to go in with the incentive to publish something as long as it's for the sincere interest of the work that's being done.

 

[FalconSlice]

I agree but just to clarify, the faculty doing the research usually wants to be productive and get the work done. Going in with the mindset of checking boxes is a bad idea but OP should be useful in any way they can and show conclusively they can get the work done. Papers are great since they're the ultimate form of productivity and i think it's ok to go in with the incentive to publish something as long as it's for the sincere interest of the work that's being done.

I concur

 

[slowthai]

Lol wth scammed student like this? Med students do these tasks most of the time without pay especially in competitive specialties where students need pub.

I've never heard of med students doing this stuff. If you're a med student doing research, your time should be spent doing strictly research-specific stuff (literature search, data mining, running stats, writing the manuscript, etc). Time is a precious commodity.

OP, I'd avoid resource intensive projects unless you're comfortable with research and can manage to balance multiple projects to still show your ability to produce. That's what some people gunning for nsg do. They start a long term basic science project and work on other smaller projects to pump up their numbers along the way. That long term project is published in time for ERAS, and shazam, you've proved that you can do basic science successfully and that you can produce at the same time.

 

[Detailsmatter]

OP, so Im an MS2 and I do something similar in terms of recruitment for big clinical trials. Its paid and I can do it from wherever (its just chart review) and do about 10 hours a week and have been since MS1. I do it a bit for the money and more-so out of respect/as a favor for the PI which is a very close mentor to me. I wanna go into neurosurgery and the clinical research is in Hepatology so that's unfortunate. Usually for clinical trials (depending on how big they are) no med students or residents are on the paper. its usually all the PI's from the different sites. Its a type of "research" that isn't really gonna get you pubs (which is all that matters as a med student. no one care you worked x hours on stuff if you didn't get your name on it). I have to carve out time to study for step, classes, and my "real" research in nsg and it can be a lot so time management is critical. I personally think you should pass up on this opportunity and focus on projects like lit reviews they need, chart reviews for retrospective/prospective studies etc. those are things you'll actually get your name on and will have a good ROI