(no subject)
Mar. 16th, 2011 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaLast week and this I've been settling into my new life in the Psychiatry Department. Biggest change: people are glad to see me. In Infectious Disease I drifted through the day doing my own thing, sometimes not speaking to anyone else all day. In Psychiatry, people say "Hey, Rebecca! You should come to this meeting and possibly get involved in Thing X. And maybe we can help you with Y and Z."
Infectious Disease was probably like this for the docs and virologists, but I don't think it would ever have been that way for me. Even if there hadn't been complications related to my former supervisor, there just weren't enough points of convergence.
The other big difference is that Psychiatry has systems and resources and personnel to do all of the things I am used to doing myself or having ad hoc arrangements for. So, for example, instead of writing a position description and hiring a research assistant, I'll be meeting with the person who coordinates RA assignments and contracting with her for parts of various existing RAs who have the skill sets I need. And when I start enrolling participants, there's someone who is in charge of ensuring IRB compliance, making sure that all my consent forms are properly filled out and storing them for me in a HIPAA-compliant way. "Because the investigators really need time to write and think."
I used to do all of that stuff for my former boss, Lydia: all the day-to-day arrangements and regulatory details and organization, so that she could write and think. Then when I was promoted to faculty level and became a PI, I still did those things for myself. It'll require a huge mental shift to be able to delegate those things to other people - especially, without forgetting about them. But I can see how it gives faculty a much fairer chance to succeed.
Infectious Disease was probably like this for the docs and virologists, but I don't think it would ever have been that way for me. Even if there hadn't been complications related to my former supervisor, there just weren't enough points of convergence.
The other big difference is that Psychiatry has systems and resources and personnel to do all of the things I am used to doing myself or having ad hoc arrangements for. So, for example, instead of writing a position description and hiring a research assistant, I'll be meeting with the person who coordinates RA assignments and contracting with her for parts of various existing RAs who have the skill sets I need. And when I start enrolling participants, there's someone who is in charge of ensuring IRB compliance, making sure that all my consent forms are properly filled out and storing them for me in a HIPAA-compliant way. "Because the investigators really need time to write and think."
I used to do all of that stuff for my former boss, Lydia: all the day-to-day arrangements and regulatory details and organization, so that she could write and think. Then when I was promoted to faculty level and became a PI, I still did those things for myself. It'll require a huge mental shift to be able to delegate those things to other people - especially, without forgetting about them. But I can see how it gives faculty a much fairer chance to succeed.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 08:31 pm (UTC)During one of my first days as a professor, our departmental assistant was horrified to see me making my own copies. "We have work-studies for that!" and could not understand that I was just so *thrilled* to have access to the copy machine for myself instead of having to fill out forms in triplicate and have long jobs be refused.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 11:15 pm (UTC)That's fantastic!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 06:26 am (UTC)