CNA or Research?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>I will be a third-year undergraduate student in the fall. My major is Human Physiology.
I am still undecided as to what exact career pathway I want to commit to, but medicine is what I'm leaning towards.</p>

<p>During this summer, I plan to take part in a CNA program at my local community college.
My reasons for this: 1) gives me an opportunity to get involved while working in the hospital setting [a step up from simply volunteering] 2) gives me a lot of hands-on experience 3) looks good on resume, etc. An important note here is that I'm not at all interested in nursing. I just chose CNA because it pertains to healthcare and some colleagues said it was a good avenue into hospital employment and experience. </p>

<p>The other option is to get connected to do some research in a lab or observation opportunities (shadowing). I have been working with a well-known doctor in Korea, writing research papers regarding the effects of certain drugs on sleep disturbance in patients with epilepsy, RLS, insomnia, FM, etc. He assured me he could get me connected with professors and doctors at GWU and JHU. </p>

<p>Without rambling too much, I guess my predicament is: what carries more value for me at this stage? Investing this summer to get the CNA certificate and work at a hospital during the academic year? Or conducting research for a few weeks (or months) that won't continue into the fall?</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

2

<p>Would you be able to do both, since you are currently unsure of which path you want to take career-wise? You could try to work per-diem, which means telling your employer when you’re available to work and essentially choosing your own schedule (meaning you could do one weekend a month, once a week, etc.). </p>

<p>The research experience may be more valuable if you are pursing graduate study, but if your goal is medical school then I’m not sure which will be more beneficial for those admissions. Both are technically jobs to list on a resume (even if the research is unpaid), but CNA would be more practical if you’re looking to work in a hospital/healthcare facility and not pursue a research career.</p>