I plan to travel to Neuchâtel, Switzerland in October of this year to job shadow an individual in a scientific field and specific research domain I am eager to learn more about.  Dr. Tschan is a full professor at University of Neuchâtel who conducts human factors research in medicine at the front lines of care, in collaboration with the University Hospital of Basel, University Hospital of Berne, and the University of Berne in Switzerland.

The role that Dr. Tschan encompasses as liaison between the researcher and practitioner is a specific niche, and represents a career that I could very feasibly pursue myself, given my current field of research. Before preparing myself to enter such a unique position, however, I would greatly benefit from seeing this job in action.  I have reservations about entering the healthcare industry and playing an active role in hospitals, but I am very much in love with the work I’m doing.  This opportunity in Switzerland is integral in gaining the first-hand experience to know whether I can overcome these reservations and continue doing what I love in the applied setting my research directly impacts, or whether I should consider alternatives.  The world that Dr. Tschan operates in is a world I write manuscripts about, present about at conferences, and conduct basic research on, but I need to know if it is a world in which I can function on a daily basis. I simply do not yet know enough about working in this industry to know definitively if it is a job I could enjoy and excel in, and I’ve never truly been exposed to it before.

While my own advisor plays a similar role as a hospital liaison, shadowing Dr. Tschan would afford me the otherwise unreachable opportunity of witnessing this research in its most applied form.   In addition, there are very few researcher/practitioner senior level professionals in this field, Dr. Tschan representing someone with an active and successful research lab as well as significant experience in front-line hospital based interventions. There is an unmistakable difference between conducting this work in lab-based settings, as my work primarily does, in simulation, as I have with Dr. Parker, and conducting it during live, intraoperative surgeries. Dr. Tschan works very closely with surgeons in the operating room, representing the cutting edge of application of my research, and an area of application which I am unfamiliar with at the present time.

Dr. Tschan is one of the few academics in the world holding such a unique position and carrying out such unique research.  Her research and publication record is impressive, and indicative of her expertise and prominence in this field.  If a job such as hers is one I would like to learn more about first-hand, then she is undoubtedly the individual to shadow. To ensure that this experience is comprehensive, I plan to partake in activities representative of the job I am shadowing. Such activities include: meeting with Dr. Tschan at least twice during my ten day stay; presenting my work to her lab and getting appropriate feedback; meeting with her graduate students and post-docs to gain further insight into the necessary skills of being a researcher in a highly applied clinical setting; meeting with the surgical teams Dr. Tschan works with; and joining her in any meetings that would be appropriate for my learning experience. 

This trip would involve approximately $800 of travel round-trip, and would not require registration fee since my purpose is to job shadow.  I would also not require accommodations, as Dr. Tschan has arranged for that on my behalf and has offered a spare room in her own home.