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Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes

A doctoral-level internship program was developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the intent to create customizable experiential learning opportunities for biomedical trainees to support career exploration, preparation, and transition into their post-graduate professional rol...

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Autores principales: Brandt, Patrick D., Whittington, Dawayne, Wood, Kimberley D., Holmquist, Chris, Nogueira, Ana T., Gaines, Christiann H., Brennwald, Patrick J., Layton, Rebekah L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370053/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37503296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.13.548912
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author Brandt, Patrick D.
Whittington, Dawayne
Wood, Kimberley D.
Holmquist, Chris
Nogueira, Ana T.
Gaines, Christiann H.
Brennwald, Patrick J.
Layton, Rebekah L.
author_facet Brandt, Patrick D.
Whittington, Dawayne
Wood, Kimberley D.
Holmquist, Chris
Nogueira, Ana T.
Gaines, Christiann H.
Brennwald, Patrick J.
Layton, Rebekah L.
author_sort Brandt, Patrick D.
collection PubMed
description A doctoral-level internship program was developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the intent to create customizable experiential learning opportunities for biomedical trainees to support career exploration, preparation, and transition into their post-graduate professional roles. We report the outcomes of this program over a five-year period. During that 5-year period, 123 internships took place at over 70 partner sites, representing at least 20 academic, for-profit, and non-profit career paths in the life sciences. A major goal of the program was to enhance trainees’ skill development and expertise in careers of interest. The benefits of the internship program for interns, host/employer, and supervisor/principal investigator were assessed using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys with closed- and open-ended responses as well as focus group interviews. Balancing stakeholder interests is key to creating a sustainable program with widespread support; hence, the level of support from internship hosts and faculty members were key metrics analyzed throughout. We hypothesized that once a successful internship program was implemented, faculty culture might shift to be more accepting of internships; indeed, the data quantifying faculty attitudes support this. Furthermore, host motivation and performance expectations of interns were compared with results achieved, and this data revealed both expected and surprising benefits to hosts. Data suggests a myriad of benefits for each stakeholder group, and themes are cataloged and discussed. Program outcomes, evaluation data, policies, resources, and best practices developed through the implementation of this program are shared to provide resources that facilitate the creation of similar internship programs at other institutions. Program development was initially spurred by National Institutes of Health pilot funding, thereafter, successfully transitioning from a grant-supported model, to an institutionally supported funding model to achieve long-term programmatic sustainability.
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spelling pubmed-103700532023-07-27 Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes Brandt, Patrick D. Whittington, Dawayne Wood, Kimberley D. Holmquist, Chris Nogueira, Ana T. Gaines, Christiann H. Brennwald, Patrick J. Layton, Rebekah L. bioRxiv Article A doctoral-level internship program was developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the intent to create customizable experiential learning opportunities for biomedical trainees to support career exploration, preparation, and transition into their post-graduate professional roles. We report the outcomes of this program over a five-year period. During that 5-year period, 123 internships took place at over 70 partner sites, representing at least 20 academic, for-profit, and non-profit career paths in the life sciences. A major goal of the program was to enhance trainees’ skill development and expertise in careers of interest. The benefits of the internship program for interns, host/employer, and supervisor/principal investigator were assessed using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys with closed- and open-ended responses as well as focus group interviews. Balancing stakeholder interests is key to creating a sustainable program with widespread support; hence, the level of support from internship hosts and faculty members were key metrics analyzed throughout. We hypothesized that once a successful internship program was implemented, faculty culture might shift to be more accepting of internships; indeed, the data quantifying faculty attitudes support this. Furthermore, host motivation and performance expectations of interns were compared with results achieved, and this data revealed both expected and surprising benefits to hosts. Data suggests a myriad of benefits for each stakeholder group, and themes are cataloged and discussed. Program outcomes, evaluation data, policies, resources, and best practices developed through the implementation of this program are shared to provide resources that facilitate the creation of similar internship programs at other institutions. Program development was initially spurred by National Institutes of Health pilot funding, thereafter, successfully transitioning from a grant-supported model, to an institutionally supported funding model to achieve long-term programmatic sustainability. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2023-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10370053/ /pubmed/37503296 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.13.548912 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/) , which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
spellingShingle Article
Brandt, Patrick D.
Whittington, Dawayne
Wood, Kimberley D.
Holmquist, Chris
Nogueira, Ana T.
Gaines, Christiann H.
Brennwald, Patrick J.
Layton, Rebekah L.
Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title_full Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title_fullStr Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title_full_unstemmed Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title_short Development and Assessment of a Sustainable PhD Internship Program Supporting Diverse Biomedical Career Outcomes
title_sort development and assessment of a sustainable phd internship program supporting diverse biomedical career outcomes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370053/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37503296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.13.548912
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