JacksonLane Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Hey everyone, I am currently a 2nd year PA student who is interested in pursuing research in addition to practicing medicine. I graduate this Spring but I have no idea what I can reasonably expect as a new graduate. I was hoping someone with more experience could inform me what has worked for them and perhaps share with me any advice on how to approach finding a good home for a new graduate who likes to do research. I have considered academic hospital centers my area, but I am uncertain how I should approach my job hunt. Should I sell myself as a PA or a researcher? Or both? Which one is more important? How valuable would a person like me be to these institutions? What about salary, would I make less money if I were doing less research and more clinical work? A little background on myself, I am in the DC area and have several primary authorships to my name in medium impact journals all on antibiotic resistance. I’ve also won an award for my writing. I am interested in ID but finding the right work environment is more important to me than finding the exact field in which I have expertise. Pay isn't a high priority for me.The most important thing to me is having the right mentor/team that will allow me to learn medicine while also developing my own research projects. Ideally I would like to work 2-4 days in the wards/clinic and 1-2 days on research (35-45 hours/wk). Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physasst Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Hey everyone,I am currently a 2nd year PA student who is interested in pursuing research in addition to practicing medicine. I graduate this Spring but I have no idea what I can reasonably expect as a new graduate. I was hoping someone with more experience could inform me what has worked for them and perhaps share with me any advice on how to approach finding a good home for a new graduate who likes to do research. I have considered academic hospital centers my area, but I am uncertain how I should approach my job hunt. Should I sell myself as a PA or a researcher? Or both? Which one is more important? How valuable would a person like me be to these institutions? What about salary, would I make less money if I were doing less research and more clinical work? A little background on myself, I am in the DC area and have several primary authorships to my name in medium impact journals all on antibiotic resistance. I’ve also won an award for my writing. I am interested in ID but finding the right work environment is more important to me than finding the exact field in which I have expertise. Pay isn't a high priority for me.The most important thing to me is having the right mentor/team that will allow me to learn medicine while also developing my own research projects. Ideally I would like to work 2-4 days in the wards/clinic and 1-2 days on research (35-45 hours/wk). Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration! Congrats. My advice, being someone who has protected time for research, and truthfully, spending more time and effort on research now, than on clinical practice, is that you definitely need to be in an academic center. The resources are important and helpful, especially when you are trying to balance the demands of a busy clinical career as well. For example. I don't do literature searches anymore. We have a medical librarian who is top notch and does it for us. I send her a topic, we discuss exactly what I am looking for, and she sends me an endnote library a few days later with all the available literature in it. I read them, keep the ones I need, and discard the others. Having IRB and statistical help is huge too. We have a resource here, where if you need help with stats (that is, you do not have money to pay for a statistician to actually do them for you) you can meet with the stats folks up to 5 times per year for free, and they will give you instruction and help to complete your project....These kinds of resources are huge... Also, being around physicians and scientists who are constantly engaged in research is so stimulative that you will be more productive in that environment. The biggest thing you have to realize is, that this is not a normal part of most PAs practice, so when you interview, you need to spell out the fact that you want to conduct research...In an academic center that may be met with enthusiasm. Outside of an academic center, it might be met with skepticism.....The important part is, that if you want this to be part of your career, you must be very honest in your interview about that. Be prepared to discuss your prior research, what your domain interests are, and where you want to go. If your honest, and they are open to research, you'll be golden.. One important note. I have some protected time for now, but it was really "seed" time granted to me by the department with the expectation that I will have that time paid for with grant monies within 12 months. That's the way it works for physicians too. They don't just "get" protected time. Most institutions will require you to buy that time with grant money. Just some friendly advice. Now, I'm in the middle of 3 grant applications......so I will return to that. Good Luck.... Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azucardulce Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I was wondering the same. I have a PhD in bioengineering and have done 4 years of a postdoc at the same medical center where I will be startling PA school this summer. I have told my PI yet that I'm leaving, he's a new guy from an Ivy League and is highly dependent on me. I'd like to work something out with him to where I can still do research part time with him. Also, I'm NIH funded an will be ending my support one hear early, which leaves me with a payback obligation that is usually fulfilled by doing a second year of research. I'm in the cardiovascular regeneration field, which is well funded at our center, but I'm not sure how to best go about keeping up with the research and not drowning in information in PA school. Also, I'd be interested more in clinical research in the long run--perhaps even starting a clinical research practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azucardulce Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Whoops...haven't told my PI yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philips Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I think it's all depend on luck, sometime you get much better then you could expect and sometimes you don't. So, i must say that, you need to apply in both ways as a researcher and as a PA also. After getting the proposals, you can go for the one which is attractive in package and most likely to complete your requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azucardulce Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Are there any PhD(or other research degree)/PA-Cs on the forum that might be able to chime in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physasst Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Are there any PhD(or other research degree)/PA-Cs on the forum that might be able to chime in? I did....SocialMedicine may reply too.... I don't know that you will be able to continue your research career while in PA school, in fact, I don't think that you will be able to.... After school, the advice is pretty much what I wrote above...you will want to find a large academic center, perhaps the one you are at, and be honest about wanting to do both.... FWIW, I practice in a spine center within a PM&R division, and out of 9 providers, there are only 3 of us involved to any degree in research, and one of the reasons I was hired....was to boost the research profile of the center within the institution.....while there are 3 of us doing research, and there is some overlay, we are actually all focused on different research domains! mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azucardulce Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Mike, thanks for the feedback. I am ending my postdoc early, and I will have some point have to pay back the NIH postdoc obligation (for those who don't complete a full two years) either in research time or in $$$! My hope was that somehow I could still accrue research hours (which NIH specifies be non-clinical) while in PA school. I have been told that there are some students in this program that still work as ER techs, nurses, etc. during non-school hours...however, I don't want to overcommit. I am also married and have two young sons, one of whom is high functioning on the autism spectrum but still requires a great deal of attention and interventional therapies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azucardulce Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 OAN...your current work sounds very interesting, are you essentially a PI on grants for the spine center? Or what is the division of labor like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physasst Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Mike, thanks for the feedback. I am ending my postdoc early, and I will have some point have to pay back the NIH postdoc obligation (for those who don't complete a full two years) either in research time or in $$$! My hope was that somehow I could still accrue research hours (which NIH specifies be non-clinical) while in PA school. I have been told that there are some students in this program that still work as ER techs, nurses, etc. during non-school hours...however, I don't want to overcommit. I am also married and have two young sons, one of whom is high functioning on the autism spectrum but still requires a great deal of attention and interventional therapies. you'll be able to commit some research time while in school, but it won't be a lot..what might make it easier is if there is some work that can be done from home...not sure how that would work with your situation, but that's a thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
physasst Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 OAN...your current work sounds very interesting, are you essentially a PI on grants for the spine center? Or what is the division of labor like? Yes, I'm a PI on a couple of Spine Center studies, but my real domain interests are in KT, specifically shared decision making, audit and feedback, inter-professional education, and clinical decision rule implementation, design, and evaluation. We have a KER unit here, and I'm pretty involved with them.....the spine center studies really revolve around patient reported outcomes.....by comparison, the two other researchers are into either basic science and translational research (1) or clinical outcomes (the other). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacksonLane Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 I did....SocialMedicine may reply too.... I don't know that you will be able to continue your research career while in PA school, in fact, I don't think that you will be able to.... After school, the advice is pretty much what I wrote above...you will want to find a large academic center, perhaps the one you are at, and be honest about wanting to do both.... FWIW, I practice in a spine center within a PM&R division, and out of 9 providers, there are only 3 of us involved to any degree in research, and one of the reasons I was hired....was to boost the research profile of the center within the institution.....while there are 3 of us doing research, and there is some overlay, we are actually all focused on different research domains! mike I was able to do a lot of research while in PA school. What worked well for me was setting aside 1 day a week to continue working on my projects/papers (Thursday mornings). Granted, as finals and midterms neared, this would slow everything to a halt. But I was still able to keep in touch with my team and move things forward. As a bonus, much of what I have done I have been able to apply to my research-based classes in my PA program. For example, my evidence-based medicine class projects have been a breeze because of my own literature reviews. Although it adds another item to your notoriously busy schedule, it was also a welcome respite from the calamity of medicine. What's more is that since I knew my time was so limited, I was VERY productive during this time slot. I always looked forward to my Thursday morning "research" ritual in the library during my didactic year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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