We at PRIME-RU are keen to support students develop their research skills. Below you can read about Health Psychology Master’s student, Lucy, talk about her two week placement in our research unit.
“My name is Lucy, and I am a Health Psychology Master’s student at the University of Manchester with aspirations of completing a PhD and working in academic research. Therefore, when I saw the opportunity to work at PRIME-RU, I was eager to take it.
PRIME-RU had launched in October 2020, only 5 months before I applied for the position of research support officer. Previously, I had worked on many individual research projects, however I had never worked within a research unit and was interested to learn and experience how such a multidisciplinary work environment would operate. I knew this opportunity was invaluable to me as a young researcher and its launch seemed exciting and unique to me. Ideally, I hoped to hone my existing abilities, learn new skills, diversify my portfolio of projects, and network with as many researchers as possible. Now, at the end of my internship, I can proudly say that I was right: my time working here at PRIME-RU was invaluable and I will greatly miss working here.
A significant highlight of my time here was my first day. My first assignment was to assist Dr Emily Eisner with a grant application. I was tasked to find out how many women gave birth per year in Manchester and in the UK as a whole. From face value you would think that a quick Google search would provide you with the answer – but this was not the case. It took me 3 hours and 5 different national statistics websites to find enough data to calculate a rough average (which was 7270 births per year in Manchester and around 747,167 births per year in the UK for anyone interested!). I greatly enjoyed this assignment, felt a sense of achievement once I had finished, and I still felt proud of my contribution and hard work. . This task significantly boosted my confidence in both my skills as a researcher (through collecting, analysing, and interpreting data) and personally reassured me that I genuinely enjoy the ‘busy-work’ aspects of a research career.
Another highlight of my placement was getting to assist on a systematic review. Prior to this placement, the only experience I have had working on a systematic review is through my Master’s degree. Over 3 weeks, I identified parenting interventions and input them into a table which collated information about the individual interventions. It quickly became clear that the table was not readable on a Word document, and having all the information squished onto an A4 page was an ineffective way to present a large amount of data. Therefore, I took initiative and reformatted the information table in Excel with unlimited space. I believe this change will benefit the researchers who work on this systematic review in the future. Suggesting something new in a work environment always feels a bit uncertain. However, PRIME-RU has been very committed to helping me grow as a young researcher and has always listened to my suggestions. Throughout this task, I continued systematically searching for randomised control trials. Reflecting on this experience I was worried of missing an article or dismissing one too early.
Throughout this task, I continued systematically searching for randomised control trials. Reflecting on this experience I was worried about missing an article or dismissing one too early. However, through practice and support from PRIME-RU, I now feel confident that the systematic searching I completed is of good quality and am I excited to put my new skills to use in my Master’s. Overall, I feel that my skill regarding database searching has grown and I know these skills will be transferable to other opportunities I pursue in the future.
Overall, my time working at PRIME-RU had given me invaluable research experience that has helped me grow both academically and in confidence, and I am extremely grateful to have had the chance to work at such an interesting research unit with so many remarkable researchers.”
Are you student feeling inspired by Lucy’s experience? Please get in touch (prime@gmmh.nhs.uk) if you are interested in a placement/internship or volunteering.