Recently, after months of spending far too long in the lab, I looked at the yeast colonies growing on my agar plate and had a result. At last! As I scampered off to tell my supervisor, I felt pretty pleased, but also fortunate to have had the opportunity to get involved in some research. As medical students, we are encouraged to spend long hours reading great tomes and memorising the latest evidence-based algorithms for managing everything under the sun. As a result, it can be easy to forget about the exciting research underpinning all of this. It can be hard to find time to get involved in research as a medical student, but - in my experience anyway - it’s great fun, and well worth doing. In addition to getting involved in projects, there are other avenues through which one can gain an appreciation of what comes under the umbrella term of ‘academic medicine’. For example, journal clubs are another good way to develop one’s ability to think critically of others’ research, but are also a way to explore topics outside of the ‘prescribed reading list’, and get a feel for research in a particular field.
In 2005, the Walport Report described “the perilous state of academic medicine in the UK”, and recommended that medical students should understand the attractions of academic medicine, and be aware of how to follow this career pathway. With the aim of tackling this problem at a national level, on November 15, 2011, the National Student Association of Medical Research (NSAMR) was launched. This is a new student-led body, supported by the Wellcome Trust, that will establish a collaborative network of student-run research societies throughout the UK. Funding and support will be made available to establish new societies and fund existing ones, that will engage in academic events, for example running journal clubs and hosting talks by enthusiastic academics.Such a model has proved very successful, for example ATRIUM in Edinburgh and CUCRS in Cambridge. The aim is to create a forum where students and their societies can pool ideas and resources and come together to hold large-scale national research-based events, centred around and driven by students.
On February 4, 2012, the NSAMR will hold its inaugural conference, at the impressive Wellcome Collection Conference Centre in London, bringing together medical students from Universities across the UK to present their research, share their enthusiasm and just generally enjoy something a bit different from ward rounds and lectures. In subsequent years, member societies will be able to bid for a generous grant to hold the prestigious annual conference at their own University. In addition, the Association’s website will be a source of information on all aspects of academic medicine for aspiring students, including a discussion of academic career pathways, a database of potential research projects, and interviews with academics at various stages of the career pathway.
My experiences of research as a student have been overwhelmingly positive, so I’m sure that whether you can’t get enough of petri dishes, or you’re more into p-values, the NSAMR will almost certainly have something for you to enjoy.
I am a fourth year medical student at the University of Edinburgh, president of ATRIUM, Edinburgh’s student academic medicine society, and secretary of the National Student Association of Medical Research.
