Blog Post Focus
This post explores collaboration for scholarly activity as a resident. Scholarly work encompasses tons of activities, each one valuable for fellowship applications or a future focused on academics. Collaboration is helpful for each member of the scholarly activity.
Personal story—Starting Scholarly Activity Late
I had not participated in much scholarly activity until my second year of residency. I had tried working up some cases and such, but felt overwhelmed with all that was going on in my life, so those efforts in medical school and intern year fizzled out. Additionally, I had asked some residents and fellows and attendings on rotation as a medical student about being part of some research, but only one had invited me to a project and then that person did not follow through.
Then, as an intern I tried to get on to some projects with co-residents, but no one wanted to include me on their ongoing projects. I was getting ready to give a poster presentation on my own, but around that time personal stuff came up and I wasn’t able to meet the deadline.
Lost On My Own—Time to Take Initiative
So, up to my PGY-2 year I had written up some cases, but never submitted them or published them. I had felt lost on my own, and had wanted to see how others did the work to have an example to follow. However, at this time I knew it was time to take initiative. I needed to take action on my own to complete scholarly activity.
I discussed with a senior resident about making a quality improvement project and soon enough that was underway. I started recognizing many cases that seemed unique or unusual so I wrote these cases down throughout the year.
Putting Time Aside for Scholarly Activity
Then, during a research block PGY-2 year I looked online and spent a long time learning what different scholarly work activities really were available. I realized poster presentations could be easier to start and complete than journal submissions so I focused on these. I looked into the cases I had written down to this point and found many of them to be worth writing up.
Getting Others Involved in Scholarly Activity
I discussed with some of my juniors and cohort who had been part of the cases and asked if they wanted to be part of the projects. Once I shared with them that I had started the work and identified the professional societies I wanted to submit to they were very happy to be part of the projects. They reviewed the cases, added literature review, and helped with posters once the cases were accepted. Since I included others, others were happy to include me in their projects too.
In a relatively short time, I had several published scholarly works and several worthwhile additions to my CV.
Scholarly Activity Is Important for CV Building
Scholarly work is very important for fellowship applications and some project may be required to complete your residency program. There are several ways to start or be included in scholarly activities. Some are easier and less work than others.
The Easiest Scholarly Activities
The easiest way to get scholarly work completed is to join projects that are already started. Find these projects and find a way to make yourself useful so you can be included. Case reports and submissions to professional societies are very quick and easy compared to most research activities.
Take Action
It can feel overwhelming to do projects on your own, especially if you area perfectionist, but often this is the first step to something great. Identify interesting cases and write them up. Then, ask colleagues to help you improve the write up and identify professional societies or journals to submit the case.
If you have done work and laid the groundwork, others will want to jump on. Identify quality improvement projects and get a template going – others will want to join you. Once you get started you can be part of a large amount of projects and build up your scholarly works.
Concluding Thoughts—Take Action. Get Started.
Get started and get searching. You have to be proactive. If you do find projects and find a way to make yourself useful then people will want to invite you to the projects. If you start projects then others will want to join.
Starting is the hardest part, but once you have experience the next opportunity is easier. You find more ways to make yourself useful. By starting your own projects you break down the barrier of difficulty and make something accessible to anyone else you invite into the project.
Once you invite others to work with you, others will want to collaborate with you. They will want to collaborate with you to pay you back for including them, but also because they know you do good work.
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