Brian Barney

URC Undergraduate Research Reflective Essay

My first foray into academic research was definitely an eye-opening and rewarding
learning experience. During May and June of 2013, I served as a research assistant in the lab of
professors Pierce Boyne and Dr. Kari Dunning from the Rehabilitation Sciences department of
the College of Allied Health Sciences. Their research was focused on studying the effectiveness
of high-intensity interval training (HIT) on the cardiovascular health of persons with chronic
stroke (more than 6 months after suffering from a stroke). As a research assistant, I was actively
involved in the day-to-day tasks of the lab such as setting up our designated room for the
exercise sessions or even simply washing the masks used to collect gas exchange analysis data.
Although many of my tasks may have seemed mundane, working on this project was still very
interesting because of the action-packed nature of the study.
During my time in the lab, my relatively menial tasks were balanced out with assisting in
the execution of the subjects training, which required a significant amount of focus and energy.
I was the youngest member in the lab and the new member to the research team, so I had a rather
large learning curve to overcome in my first couple of weeks. I spent those weeks mostly
watching how everything was done in the study. I observed how Pierce would explain the study
to potential subjects and would then test their motor abilities and examine their cardiovascular
health to ultimately determine whether the person could be included in the study. I observed how
closely the hospitals cardiac technicians would monitor a subjects vitals during a stress test. I
observed the proper protocol for how a VO2-peak test was supposed to be run and how to know
when a subject should cease exercise. I observed how fast-paced the 20 minute HIT training
sessions were. After observing all of the different components of the study, I was then allowed to
participate in executing certain portions of a VO2-peak test or a HIT session. By and large,
assisting in the HIT session was my favorite duty as a research assistant. Most times, my job was
to either record in a subjects blood pressure data or Rating of Perceived Exertion score at
designated intervals to ensure their cardiovascular safety or to monitor the exercise timer so that
I could inform the patients how much longer they had to exercise or how much rest they had
before their next interval. This job was particularly fun because we were able verbally encourage
the patients and push them to their limits. Many of them were able to walk much quicker than I
anticipated, which provided great joy to their caretakers who may not have been able to get them
to exercise very often. The opportunity for me to be hands-on and assist in the operations of the
study was definitely an enjoyable learning experience, but the most significant piece of this study
was interacting with the subjects.
The intimate nature of the study ultimately resulted in the lab team members building
personal relationships with the patients, and the forming of these bonds was not something that I
expected to occur in formal research. When I first started in the lab, I noticed how much Pierce
knew about certain subjects personal lives and how they would joke around in spite of their
subject-investigator relationship. At first I was surprised that they were so open with each other,
but as my time in the lab continued, I began to build these relationships as well. The subjects and
their caretakers (who were often members of their immediate family) would ask me questions
about what I was studying in school or what I planned to do after graduation, and I would ask
them about how their day was going or about what exciting events were going on in their lives. I
now realize that we built a bond because we had a mutually beneficial relationship; we were
helping the subjects improve their cardiovascular health while they were providing us the data
necessary to be able to complete the study and further the knowledge in our field. For me,
learning that subject-researcher relationships can be both professional and personal was the most
valuable lesson that I gained from my summer experience. I now know that research in physical
therapy is not boring, sterile, and static, but can be dynamic, exciting, and gratifying. Becoming
involved in the daily operations of my research lab has helped to solidify my interest in the field
of physical therapy, and the knowledge gained from my work is shown in my learning outcomes.
I am confident that I have made significant progression towards my learning outcomes
because I am now much better prepared address the problems outlined in the outcomes. My first
learning outcome is the ability to frame and develop the research project question or problem.
When I was first working on the grant proposal this research, my mentor had to basically tell me
what to write for my proposal because I was uneducated on the subject and inexperienced in
scientific writing. I didnt know the different components of a peer-reviewed journal article of
and what was supposed to go in each section. Thankfully for me, my mentor gave me a very
thorough explanation on most of the specifics of scientific writing so that I could begin
practicing my skills. He constantly edited my research proposal until he deemed it good enough
for submission, and I was ultimately one of the few persons that the Undergraduate Research
Council decided to fund. This initial experience at grant writing gave me the skills to not only
know how to write a research problem statement, but to also search for other research that will
define the significance of the problem statement. When it was time to write the abstract for my
secondary analysis at the end of the summer, it took me much less time and effort to write a
short, clear problem statement for my research. My experience working in the lab provided me
the skills to be able to find the purpose in the study and also gave me the specific knowledge
needed to properly explain the overall conclusions of the study to others.
The second learning outcome that I gained experience in was the dissemination of the
research results and the knowledge gained from the research. As I developed my skills through
writing my proposal, I also obtained a much greater understanding of the subject matter that I
would be studying. As the summer went on, I progressed to the point where I could rattle off the
main points of the study without even having to think about it. I was able to explain the specifics
of the study inside and out because I was actually performing the research every day; I was
assisting in HIT sessions and I was looking at data to find the ventilatory threshold data points
that my secondary analysis was based upon. However, as my summer experience came to an end,
we began to do data analysis with the use of statistics, and most of the statistics went way over
my head. My mentor provided me a basic understanding of the statistical results of my analysis
so that I could explain to others how well our actual outcomes measured up to our expected
outcomes. Now that my abstract is completely finished, I use it as my outline for disseminating
the conclusions that can be drawn from the study. On a more general level, I also explain the
basics of my research experience as much as possible so that I can help educate people on some
of the difficulties associated with having a stroke.
The academic readings and concepts that I relied upon most for my summer research
were a book on electrocardiogram (EKG) abnormalities and an article from the American
Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, and these two pieces of literature were most
important because I used the information from them on a daily basis. The EKG book provided
me the information on where to place the electrode leads for an EKG so that we could monitor
the patients heart during exercise. The book was also essential to my work as a lab assistant
because it provided examples of how various heart abnormalities would show up on an EKG so
that I would know when to stop exercise if necessary. The journal article, entitled ATS/ACCP
Statement on cardiopulmonary exercise testing, was integral to my final abstract because it
provided me with a working definition of ventilatory threshold (VO2-VT), which was the main
exercise measure that I was studying for my secondary analysis. During the second month of my
experience, I would spend time large amounts of time combing over exercise test results to find
the ventilatory threshold value for each patient. Without the proper definition of VO2-VT, I may
not have been able to find the subjects values or I may have calculated them incorrectly.
Working on this particular research project helped me learn that all scientific knowledge builds
on each other and that I can use the findings of others to assist in drawing conclusions in my own
research.
In all, my summer research experience has been beneficial to me both inside and outside
of the classroom because it has given me additional practical knowledge that I can use as a future
physical therapist and because it has given me opportunities to disseminate my research so that I
can improve my public speaking skills. One of the biggest connections that my experience has
helped me make is the connection between learning principles in the classroom and using them
in a clinical or research setting. This past year in my exercise physiology classes, we were
required to write our lab reports in the form of abstracts, and I excelled at this skill mostly
because I was introduced to it during my summer research. I hope to continue to be able to
translate the proficiency that I gained as a research assistant in my future academic endeavors.
Outside of the classroom, my work as an assistant has given me a much better perspective on the
realities of life for persons with stroke. My late grandfather suffered from a stroke a couple of
years before he died, and at the time I didnt understand why he wasnt able to do certain tasks
anymore. Now that I am well educated on the effects of stroke and why strokes occur, I can try
to educate my family better so that they reduce their chances of having a stroke and the
accompanying issues that come along with it. Finally, I have been provided a few excellent
opportunities to disseminate my research to others. In December of 2013, I was picked as the
URSC offices Undergraduate Research Student of the Month. I presented my research in front
of about 20 people, which was a good sized crowd for my first public presentation of my
findings. Next, I was picked to give a brief presentation of my research at the February UC
Board of Trustees meeting in front of about 100 people. This was truly a great experience and is
probably one my greatest accomplishments as a UC student. Lastly, I will be presenting a poster
of my abstract at the American Physical Therapy Associations NEXT Conference in Charlotte,
North Carolina in June of 2014. The opportunities afforded to me because of my first research
experience have definitely exceeded my expectations, and I couldnt be more grateful to Pierce
Boyne and Dr. Dunning for accepting me into their lab. My URC undergraduate research
learning experience has blossomed into one of my best undertakings at UC because I obtained a
valuable education that I will now be able to give to others.

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