A little over a year ago a mentor I connected with (via the DO mentoring site) introduced me to a volunteer research assistant program in the ER of my local trauma center. I immediately began pursuing a spot in the program, and after about 4 months I finally made it to the point of beginning the recruitment process. Unfortunately, I was in my third trimester of a complicated pregnancy by the time they finally called me in, and as a result I was unable to finish the process. In January of this year I attempted to get back into it, but the program wasn’t accepting applications any longer. I was pretty crushed to hear that news.
Earlier this summer I decided to get back in touch with the mentoring contact I’d made, and asked if I could shadow him without being an RA. It took a couple of months to hear back from him, but he eventually replied and put me back in touch with the RA program. Turns out they started accepting applications again!
I am thrilled to report that I have completed all of my requirements (physical exam, background check, lengthy paperwork, day-long orientation course, etc…) and got my hospital badge just recently! Yesterday afternoon was my first RA meeting where one of the ER docs presented a lecture on CT radiation risks in peds patients. I loved every minute of it! I can’t wait for Monday morning to come so I can go into the ER for my first training shift! I have two training shifts this week, then will be put into the schedule and assigned a study to work on. In the meantime, I let my mentor know that I have my badge now and can shadow any time he’s willing to let me.
It’s taken a while to get here, but I am absolutely thrilled to begin this part of my premed experience! The link to that mentoring site has been posted several times on these forums (which is how I found it), so I’d encourage any of you interested in osteopathic medicine to take advantage of it. You never know where it might lead you!
Congrats. Have fun and enjoy.
I am not sure what a RA does exactly. I truly hope that you will have a great experience.
Enjoy.
Sorry about that! I should have clarified. RA’s (research assistants) in this program help with research in the emergency department. The trauma center I’ll be working in is affiliated with several medical schools and many of the doctors in the department conduct research. I completed NIH bioethics training in order to be able to enroll patients into clinical studies at our hospital. My job will be to be on the look out in the ER for patients that would be appropriate for studies, enroll them, and also help out the docs with their research.
In the process I’ll have a chance at having my name attached to publications, get to interact with patients and get research experience. We also have weekly meetings where some of the attendings present lectures on clinical topics. Also, there are several doctors in the department that welcome shadowing, so I’ll get some shadowing time outside of my regular volunteer hours/shifts. The trauma center is the only one in a 100 mile radius, and is located in an inner city area, so I’m hoping to see lots and lots of different cases. I can hardly wait to get started!
Anyway, thank you for calling my attention to the fact that I neglected to explain…as well as for your kind words!
ETA: a link for the mentoring site:
http://www.do-online.org/iLearn/index.cfm?pageid=m…
Congrats!!
Well nnylacire
all this sounds great. Looks like you will have a big plus on your resume.
Enjoy and make the best out of it. It is really cool.