It is a long long long wait between the end of medical school and the start of housemanship. Define long? 8 months till 1 year.
A lot of things can be done during that period. For myself, I spent a good amount of my holidays watching Netflix, sleeping, eating, lazing around, travelling around different countries and volunteering in part time work that is non-medical related. (I'll leave all the juicy bits in my future posts.) Time passes really quickly when you find something interesting to do, but after a while, life tends to get slightly mundane as you no longer have a goal to look forward to.
Source: ama
Somewhere around March this year, I stumbled upon an offer to work as a Research Assistant (RA) under the Clinical Research Centre. I knew that my time would be tied down but since I was not busy with anything else....I figured, WHY NOT? The pay is pretty decent anyway. Before accepting it, I went around asking about the job scope of a RA but my queries were never properly answered. Mind you, Google was not being very helpful too.
Now, after 3.5 months into my current job, I feel that I am in a better position to give an overview of what a RA really does on a daily basis. Depending on the research that you are involved in, the job lists and responsibilities vary.
- Screening for patients - I spend a fair share of time rotating among a few community health clinics every week to screen for patients whom fit the criteria of the study. As easy as it may seem, the task could be overwhelming at times due to the huge amount of patients in each clinic. These numbers go up all the way till the thousands.
- Gaining consent - This is something emphasized and taught since Day 1 of medical school. Before signing up a patient for a study/research, it is important that he/she understands the risks and procedure of the whole shebang. Legally, you could be sued for malpractice and negligence if something unfortunate happens to the patient during the entire study duration for issues pertaining to the study. This is especially important if your research involves the testing of new drugs in the market. SO.....I'm PREEETYYY sure you want to get that part right.
Source: claudiajb - Data entry and encoding - As the RA, you basically play the role of a secretary because the investigators (usually doctors and specialists) are too busy to be bothered by secretarial work . Data collected has to be keyed into the system for safekeeping. You would not want a fire to wipe out all your study files.
- Scheduling appointments and follow-ups - Yes. You get be a phone operator too.
- Tracing blood reports - More often than not, the nurses in the department would be more than willing to get this done for you. However, as they can get quite busy carrying out orders from other doctors, it is usually faster if you pick up this task yourself.
Source: The Cartoonist Group
Contrary to popular belief, RAs do not coop up in the lab and run tests on lab rats or other tiny animals. The job scope is very diverse and you tend to be that 'odd job worker' that gets everything running smoothly when all others are unavailable. There are definitely times where you feel that you are running a one-man show; but there are times too where delegated jobs get done efficiently by the rest of the team, giving you plenty downtime to unwind.
Do consider and give this a thought if you are someone who needs to keep yourself busy during the pre-housemanship period. You still get to be in a hospital setting and could use the opportunity to familiarize the local healthcare system and the hospital protocols.
Hit me up if there are any questions! Cheers!
