Research Opporutinities – HelMSIC Greece

Name of the activity: Research Opporutinities

Country/NMO: HelMSIC Greece

Program: Teaching Medical Skills

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: Continuous Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Research skills for medical practitioners, from basic to more advanced based on the year of the student and the duration of the activity

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION

General description:

Research Opportunities concerns a record of research programs in academic laboratories and Institutes of the country, where Medical students can participate voluntarily. Each Researcher in charge of a program determines the duration of the program, the criteria and the number of students who can be admitted to their lab. In addition, the Research Database in which research opportunities are shared contains research material education as well as available programs abroad and training resources.

Problem statement:

In the majority of medical Faculties in Greece, student internships in research programs are not accessible, nor are they curriculum requirements. Students are only able to informally pursue their voluntary participation in a research project, after communicating with the professors. Gaining research experience is achieved to some extent through programs such as Research Exchanges or corresponding initiatives of various bodies and institutes.

Target groups:

Medical students

Beneficiaries:

Medical students, Doctors

Objectives:

1. To ensure that most of our external partners, will want to host students again, one year after they first agreed to accept students in their labs
   2. To educate medical students on the research process throughout their internship on
   a. The use of laboratory equipment
   b. Basic research techniques
   c. The use of Data Databases

Indicators of Success:

70% of external partners to answer “Yes” to the question “Would you accept students again in your lab?”
70% of participants will answer >4 to the question “I know the parts of a research paper protocol?”
70% of participants will answer >4 to the question “I know how to use laboratory equipment to perform a technique”
70% of participants will answer >4 to the question “I know how to use database data”

Methodology:

The program starts in October by educating the LOREs on the program. Then they contact Laboratories in the Universities and the NORE is contacting Laboratories in Institutes, for positions from January to May. The Research Database is then being updated with the new Research opportunities and the applications open in late November. In December the applications open for one week and then the LOREs are evaluating the applications and distribute the opportunities to the students. Then the responsible researchers are contacted and sent the CV, motivation, and other documents they may have asked for the applicants. If the Tutor agrees to accept the student, the student is informed and the Logbook is being sent to them with the contact information of the Tutor. We work the same way for the next semester, by starting to contact the Researchers in February since there is bigger availability and more opportunities for the next period; July to November, with the applications opening in May.

Plans for evaluation:

The evaluation of the program is being done by the students and the Researchers in charge. The students have to fill out a Logbook during the months of the program, similar to the one used in Research Exchanges and modified based on the duration of the project. There is also an online evaluation form, smaller and easier to fill out, which will be filled out after the end of the program by the participants. Both documents are made by the NORE and given input by the Research Institutes we are collaborating with. The evaluation from the researchers is mostly being done verbally, or by email, since we have observed that there is no correspondence in online evaluation forms. Since they are not much in number, we can still collect useful data with other methods.

External collaborations:

Apart from University Laboratories, we are collaborating with Fleming Institute, which gave the opportunity for students to apply to 5 different Research fields, and is helping improve the evaluation methods (both the form and Logbook) with Pasteur Institute. Also, we built a collaboration with the National Bioethics & Technoethics Commission of Greece, who will accept students in their internship program, online and in person, giving the opportunity to students from all around Greece to join.