Extra-Curricular | School of Medicine

In addition to the research opportunities offered in continuation of the Critical Enquiry course, many Queen's medical students participate in extra-curricular research projects at Queen's and outside institutions. Participation in extra-curricular research provides students with self-directed opportunities to enrich their scholarly training and apply the skills they have learned through the formal curriculum. This may come in the form of a summer research project, projects completed in student's free time during the school year, or in the form of a research elective during clerkship. Interested students are encouraged to contact potential supervisors independently.

Summer Studentships

Summer studentships are funding opportunities to allow students to pursue an original research project during the summer after first or second year. Awards are granted by the Awards Committee on the basis of academic achievement and detail and development of the project. Students are required to arrange a research project with a researcher and submit a proposal to be assessed by the committee. If students wish to pursue the research plan outlined in their Critical Enquiry project, summer studentships offer a funded opportunity to do so.

Conferences

Queen's medical students are also encouraged to submit their research to local and international conferences in their field of enquiry. Funding is available to encourage such activities.

Additionally, Queen’s School of Medicine medical students will have the opportunity to showcase their research activities at an inter-professional Queen's Health Sciences Research Day.

Student Initiatives

The scholar competency student leads offer a number of initiatives to students in pre-clerkship to encourage extra-curricular participation in scholarly activity. This includes a bi-weekly Journal Club in which interested students select, critically appraise and present an article from the current medical literature. The Journal Club is frequently facilitated by faculty members and provides an opportunity to extend and apply the critical appraisal skills learned through the CARL course.

Students also host several sessions to interact with clinician scientists in both formal and informal settings. In the Academic Medicine Information Session, a panel of clinician scientists is assembled to talk about careers in academic medicine and field questions from students interested in pursuing research as a career. Additionally, several Grad Club mixers are facilitated each year, allowing students to interact directly with clinician scientists.