Hannah George

My APE not only had flexible scheduling but was also very applicable to my interests of infectious disease while learning more about how to practically use SAS (a statistical software suite) and develop research goals with collected data.

Most days consisted of organizing crude data that had been collected in Excel into data that could be uploaded correctly into REDcap (an application for building and managing online surveys and databases) for more efficient use. I would use SAS to recode variables into binary or categorical variables to match the codebook my preceptor had already created.

About halfway through the summer, I started on patient chart reviews to collect new data to expand the data we had already collected. My preceptor and I were able to use the data…to develop an abstract (and then a paper) that was recently accepted into a conference in Washington, D.C. that I’ll use for my integrated learning experience next semester.

My preceptor oversees Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals and research approvals for all the other researchers in the department, so I got to shadow some of her work and learn about IRB and funding as well. I was also able to attend the research showcase that Wexner’s surgical department hosts and learn about the other projects happening throughout the medical center.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for shadowing opportunities. I was able to attend a research conference and see a lot of the “behind the scenes” work involved in applying for grants, IRB proposals, etc.