Research Assistants
This is a course run in conjunction with Bakersfield college. It is open to premedical students. Students complete a didactic course of lectures covering research methodology, biomedical writing, data analysis, and clinical topics. The also perform four hours a week clinical research duties; these include recruitment of subjects for studies, data collection and data entry and observation of EM residents.
Research Assistants (RA) receive one lecture a week. The lectures have been generated de novo for this program. These are supported by a handbook which is updated annually, and manuals for specific databases or data collection tools they are using. These are distributed at the weekly lecture and are added to the three ring binder containing the handbook. They are also posted on the RA website.
Interested RAs can become lead RAs on a certain projects. These RAs are tasked with data entry verification and day-to-day housekeeping of ongoing research projects. Although they require a lot of supervision they do decrease the PI s workload in this regard.
The RA website is a restricted access website which acts as the primary source of communication among RAs, residents and faculty conducting research. The site contains the RA schedules and facilitates shift swapping among RAs. It also contains the handbook, study procedures, data collection forms and database manuals. These can be viewed on screen or printed. The research director maintains this and allow additional moderator status to the Head RA who verifies the identity of applications to join the site.
College credit is awarded through the Department of Biology at Bakersfield College. Interested students should in the first instance contact Dr. Joe Saldivar at BC.
Photograph Research Assistants in lecture
Results
We have enrolled 20 RAs each September since establishing the program. Performance of individual RAs is variable dependent largely on their academic ability and commitment. So far four have performed sufficiently well to present posters at the KMC Research Forum, two have presented at a regional meeting, and three have had posters on which they got co-authorship presented at a State and a National Meeting.
Photograph Research Assistants in the microbiology lab
Some have submitted their abstracts to the CSU mentored undergraduate research forum. The program is too young to be able to ascertain if it has yet helped any students obtain medical school places, however based on the progress to date it seems likely that it will. An article demonstrating the value of similar programs in helping premed students succeed in getting a place in Medical school has been published in Academic Emergency Medicine.
Tuan Anh Nguyen, Research Assistant presenting study findings.