A typical research day begins at 8 a.m. arriving in the office. When assigned to a research month we suggest you lay out an agenda for the week and create a to-do-list. Items on the agenda may include:
- Completing chart review for your primary research project
- Editing manuscripts associated with research
- Reading articles/literature related to research
- Working on posters or presentations for a conference
- Working on a personal ID board review agenda
During the week fellows should meet with their mentors at least once in person or via Zoom to discuss research progress and discuss plans going forward. These meetings are especially helpful because the mentors help troubleshoot problems and they allow fellows to bounce ideas regarding their research.
During the noon hour there is usually a conference, lecture, or board review. On research months, fellows participate in teaching by giving lectures to learners who rotate through the ID service and they have the opportunity to present interesting cases seen while on the inpatient service to the Infectious Diseases Division at Texas Children’s or to the ID community at the Citywide conference. When there is not a lecture or conference, fellows have lunch with the co-fellows.
In the afternoon there may be meetings with others for side-projects such as writing a case-report or a QI project. Fellows may use the rest of their time to finish homework or work on a presentation for a conference. The day finishes around 4:30–5 p.m.
