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If you’re a medical student interested in Anesthesiology research, you’ll definitely notice that the Anesthesiology field is more niche than more general fields of study. With that in mind, it can be challenging to find a research mentor in the field who can help you. The goal of this article is to guide medical students with an interest in Anesthesiology research towards their future research mentors.
Explore the subspecialities of your research field of interest. As a medical student, it’s a great idea to work with an anesthesiologist who can explain to you their day-to-day workflow. Expose yourself to as many of the subspecialities of anesthesia as you can; You can find Anesthesiologists in the Critical Care Unit, the Labor & Delivery floors, Preoperative Testing Clinics, Pain Clinics, as well as the operating room. Fall in love with the field, and it will make your journey of research much more rewarding.
Ask a counselor for a list of mentors that are actively involved in research. If your medical school allows you to shadow early, or to elect for an anesthesia rotation, it’s great to meet your potential mentors in person while they work. Observe the kind of person they are and put your best foot forward as well; this will help you find out if you’re a good match for each other. After shadowing your potential mentor, pop the question, “How could I potentially get involved in research with you?” This will make it clear that you are willing to work for them and may even set you up with a letter writer in the future.
Be very clear up front what your aims are. Is it to get published? To do poster presentations at national conferences? Or is your aim just to learn basic research methodology? If you have a goal, then it’s much easier for the mentor to guide your growth as a researcher.
No one is perfect, and you cannot assume your mentor will guess your intentions. I’ve had previous mentors whom I did not communicate with clearly regarding my research goals-- As a result, I ended up shadowing when I really wanted to do research. An example of an opening question is, “My goal is to expand my research skill set by authoring case reports first, then working my way up to publishing my own research project.” If you’re starting from no research experience, a case report is a good first goal; it’s generally a lower level of commitment, and usually there are plenty of interesting cases at academic institutions. Furthermore, by asking this question, your mentor will understand that you can set a realistic goal first, before chasing after a lofty one. Your mentor will be glad to know how much work output to expect from you, based on your clearly defined goals.
Go through the list of faculty members in each home residency program at your medical school. Email the faculty members who engage in research—usually you can search them by their ResearchGate, LinkedIn, or Google Scholar. Realistically, what you will find is that you’ll need to send follow-up emails. Anesthesiologists, like all physicians, get remarkably busy. Give your mentor some grace and be persistent; if someone has not responded to your plea to get involved in research, follow up with them in a week or two. You’ll likely have to email more than one person, so you can build a template that says something to the extent of:
Dear Dr. A,
My name is BCD. I am interested in __(insert project Dr. A is doing)____ . Is there a way I can get involved and chat with you further about this?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Kind Regards,
A Hard-Working Medical Student
Do not send each mentor the exact same template, but customize it based on the mentor’s research interests, and any experiences you may have already had with them on a rotation or shadowing shift in the OR.
Prepare a solid CV. Many mentors or research departments want to know what kind of worker, volunteer or paid, they are onboarding. Highlight skills that apply in research, such as statistics, Microsoft Excel, etc. Include long-term commitments on your CV so that your mentor knows you’re the never-give-up type of student who’ll get them published more broadly.
Read up on ongoing projects or recently published articles by your potential mentor. The most logical next question for the mentor is, “What is your interest?” To prepare for this question, find a research topic that interests you, see if that mentor is actively involved in that research topic, and try to learn about how they are researching it.
Date of last update: July 8, 2024
