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