Children’s National Medical Center - Clinical Research Academic Associate

 Academic Associate Description

Location: Children’s National Medical Center, Washington DC

Position: Clinical Research AA

Hours:  Day evening and weekend hours required

Pay: Unpaid

Spring 2014 Submission Deadline:  December 15, 2013

Program Begins:  January 13, 2014

Eligibility:

Attendance is very important to this program. Interns are expected to commit no less than 10 hours per week.  Interns must complete the entire 12week program to receive a letter of recommendation.

All undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to apply, provided they:

                Are enrolled full-time in an accredited college or university

                Have competitive grades and a strong interest in research or healthcare

                Are a U.S. citizen or have legal status to work in the US

Interns must participate in the entire 12-week program, attend all mandatory events, and abide by all guidelines of Children’s National Medical Center.

Background:

Center for Prehospital Pediatrics and Emergency Research (CPPER)

Located within the Division of Emergency Medicine at Children's National Medical Center, The Center  for Prehospital Pediatrics and Emergency Research (IPPER) serves as an advocate for Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC). The Institute was conceived in order to better meet the unique needs of children. During its tenure, the Institute has developed several programs and products and implemented several initiatives to improve the care of critically ill and injured children and provide resources to the national EMSC community. In so doing the Institute has worked to promote better care for children in the emergency setting not only in the region, but also nationwide.

 WBCARN/PECARN

The Washington Boston Chicago Applied Research Node (WBCARN) based at Children’s National Medical Center is one of six nodes that comprise the organizational structure of the national Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) PECARN is the first federally- funded pediatric emergency medicine research network, consisting of 18 hospital emergency departments dedicated to rigorous, multi-institutional research on the prevention, management  and rehabilitation of acute illness and injury in children.  The goal of this network is to provide a framework for conducting meaningful and rigorous pediatric research. Since its inception in 2001, PECARN has demonstrated high quality pediatric emergency medicine research. PECARN has implemented seven full projects; including over 10 federally funded studies that include 4 randomized controlled trials. The resources of the network include a well-established infrastructure, which encompass 18 funded site investigators collectively representing 76 specialties, and areas of expertise that range the spectrum of EMSC research, including bioethics, biostatistics and epidemiology.  Included among the resources offered by PECARN is a dedicated governance structure that maintains stringent project oversight and management to monitor quality assurance and provide additional data management and analysis support.

 The WBCARN node is made up of 1 research node center, 2 regional hospital emergency department affiliates (HEDAs). Children’s National Medical Center serves as the research node center for the following HEDAs- Boston Children’s Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.  WBCARN’s hospitals include urban and suburban, academic and non-academic institutions, dedicated children’s emergency departments  as well as pediatric emergency departments embedded in adult centers. WBCARN hospitals collectively serve over 200,000   patients per year. Patients served by these hospitals represent a broad range of racial and ethnic as well as socio-economic diversity.

Academic Associate Program

The program is meant to represent a unique opportunity for students to directly participate in the performance of clinical research, while also observing overall ED operations and interacting with physicians, nurses, and other health care personnel.

• Students will gain research experience working in the emergency department that will serve them in their decision-making in developing a career in public health and/or medicine

• Students will be exposed to the practical application of research to provide critical context and texture to research theory they may have received in the classroom.

• The CNMC ED (CPPER and WBCARN) offers a broad diversity of research from basic observational studies to complex randomized controlled trials thereby exposing students to the full spectrum of research applications in a single clinical setting.

• It has been shown that students involved in research activities during training are more likely to continue a career in research when mentorship has been established. Motivated students will have the opportunity to develop mentor/mentee relationship with faculty and clinical staff which, given appropriate motivation on the part of each individual student, could result in graduate school/professional recommendation letters from faculty and the opportunity to develop an individual research project and/or work in an externship capacity with an individual faculty member on an existing research protocol.

Research Experience

The individual will work directly with a project coordinator and research assistant to manage the day to day activities of the various studies. These include, but are not limited to:

Administrative Tasks:

·         Filing

·         Photocopying

·         Literature Reviews

Research Development:

·         Data entry

·         Abstracting medical records

·         Conducting telephone follow-up calls

·         Conducting interviews of families

·         Real time enrollment of families into research studies

·         Data Collection

·         Data Entry

·         Study promotion and awareness in the emergency department

Professional Development:

·         Will receive letter of recommendation from mentor (if attendance expectations are met)

·         Shadowing physicians during their ED shift

·         Biweekly meetings with clinical mentor (Attending Physician)

·         Opportunities for clinical observation in designated areas of the Hospital for all students

·         Monthly luncheons with all ED/PECARN interns and participating faculty

·         Formal training in:

·         Human subjects and protections

·         Laboratory safety

·         Responsible conduct of research

Attendance is very important to this program. Interns are expected to commit no less than 10 hours per week.  Interns must complete the entire 12 week program to receive recommendation letter.

Interested students should send their resume, unofficial transcripts, two reference letters, and cover letter to Bobbe Thomas.

Bobbe Thomas

Clinical Research Manager, Washington Boston Chicago Applied Research Node (WBCARN)

202 476 3731 (office)

tbthomas@cnmc.org

To learn more about our research network, please visit www.pecarn.org