MED4301: Medical science honours research skills

- Progress report (Hurdle)
- Literature review (75%) (Hurdle)
- Department oral presentation (25%)

Alright, so this unit is code for "Medical Honours year"; it's an optional year available to students of the Monash MBBS(Hons), and in the new Monash MD, as part of the Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours). The degree can be completed any time after second year, provided you have an average above Credit and have a worthy application. Most people do the year after fourth year, but there are also a smattering of people who brave the year after second and third year too. Since 2016 there has been a limit on the number of students who can take a BMedSc(Hons), and the current limit is hovering at around 65 students; this includes both domestic and international students. Therefore, there is a little competition to get a place in this additional degree and people have been missing out. The exact criteria of who gets selected for the degree is not well known, but it's thought that marks from previous years of the medical course play an important role, as well as the strength of the written application.

Everyone has their own reason(s) for taking a year off med to do a degree like this, but I had several reasons that were important to me:

1) I had just finished my major exams for med school and I know that pretty much every year forward was going to be progressively more intense with more responsibility. That's something that I look forward to, but I felt a break from all of that was also in order. This seemed like the perfect time.

2) I hadn't had much opportunity to do research during med school. Often doing research in med school means being in the right place at the right time with the right people - that unfortunately didn't click for me during my first two clinical years. Oh well, that happens, so I decided to do so some more formal research and gain some much-needed experience.

3) Looking forwards, it seems a PhD could become almost mandatory in the fields I am becoming keen in, and I honestly wanted to test the waters and see if I could handle one research year before jumping into the deep end later in my career with ~3 years of research.

4) I was really interested in two different fields of medicine and wanted a bit more exposure (research AND clinical) to both, so I found a project that involved that, and now I have a better idea about what I want to do in life. Will that change in 6 months when I'm back in final year? Perhaps, but it's peace of mind right now

5) In the back of my mind was always getting an Intern job for 2018. In Vic we don't have random allocations for intern spots like they do in many other states (eg. NSW), so I thought having some research on my CV can't hurt

I think it's worth noting, that despite having so many reasons, I was about 0% keen on doing an Hons year for probably 3.25 years of my medical degree. I was lucky to have an awesome mentor during my Obs/Gyn rotation who talked to me a lot about the importance of doing other things. He himself did a BMedSc(Hons) during his medical degree, and even though the subject of his minor thesis was as far from Obs/Gyn as could be possible, he still found it to be a very rewarding and educational experience. It was only really after his inspirational words of wisdom that I also entertained the thought of the degree. As said, there's always a bit of luck involved with opportunities presenting themselves, and I was lucky that this doctor and I had those chats.

Before launching into the content of the unit, which mainly comprises of the literature review, I think it's worth discussing a few important things one should consider before embarking on an Hons year of any sort (even relevant to the scholarly elective offered in Melbourne and Monash MD programs!). A lot of people get hung up on 'how cool is my project', or 'will I get published', or 'is this too intense' and so forth. While those are all important questions, I believe the most important thing in a successful Hons campaign will be your supervisor.

Choosing the right supervisor is more important than choosing the right project. When I was told this by a BMedSc(Hons) alumni before I embarked on my supervisor-hunt, I was skeptical, but in hind-sight I am really glad that I heeded that advice because the supervisor can really make or break the year. So here are couple of pointers that I think are really important about finding the right supervisor in the field of your interest.

1) You don't have to know someone to do a project with them. I stumbled upon my supervisor by luck. Once while I was doing my aforementioned Obs/Gyn rotation, I got to my clinic a little early and ended up googling some of the other doctors on the same floor. I managed to find a Professor, who I had never met before, but who had been involved in some really interesting work and who has supervised students in the past. I decided then and there to start drafting an email. I was perhaps a little too fastidious, maybe to the point of obsessional, with how my email looked and what type of vibe it gave off, so I probably went through 2-3 drafts! But I was lucky to get a quick response and we arranged a face-to-face meeting in his office soon afterwards. For the record, here is a copy (de-identified to name and place) of my email for anyone interested (it almost looks creditworthy as I look back on it now haha):

Many, but only in the first week.

N/A.

5/5

No. There are some intro lectures only at the start of the unit.

None needed, although some choose to peruse statistics books as well as textbooks specific to their field of research as the year progresses.

completely varies depending on your project, but expect to be doing fairly full-on days for 5 days a week.

Semester 1, 2016