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BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field

A common perception of biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates is that they struggle to find industry jobs upon graduation. While some statistics support this concern, students continue to pursue and persist through BME degrees. This persistence may relate to graduates’ other career interests, t...

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Autores principales: Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen, Wang, Annie AnMeng, Huang-Saad, Aileen, Daly, Shanna R., Lattuca, Lisa R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8553099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34729553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43683-021-00059-8
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author Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen
Wang, Annie AnMeng
Huang-Saad, Aileen
Daly, Shanna R.
Lattuca, Lisa R.
author_facet Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen
Wang, Annie AnMeng
Huang-Saad, Aileen
Daly, Shanna R.
Lattuca, Lisa R.
author_sort Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen
collection PubMed
description A common perception of biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates is that they struggle to find industry jobs upon graduation. While some statistics support this concern, students continue to pursue and persist through BME degrees. This persistence may relate to graduates’ other career interests, though limited research examines where BME students go and why. Scholars are also pushing for research that examines engineering careers in a broader context, beyond traditional industry positions. This study adds to that conversation by asking: How do BME students describe their career interests and perceived job prospects in relation to why they pursue a BME degree? A qualitative study of BME students was performed at a public, R1 institution using semi-structured interviews at three timepoints across an academic year. An open coding data analysis approach explored careerperceptions of students nearing completion of a BME undergraduate degree. Findings indicated that students pursued a BME degree for reasons beyond BME career aspirations, most interestingly as a means to complete an engineering degree that they felt would have interesting enough content to keep them engaged. Participants also discussed the unique career-relevant skills they developed as a BME student, and the career-placement tradeoffs they associated with getting a BME undergraduate degree. Based on these results, we propose research that explores how students move through a BME degree into a career and how career-relevant competencies are communicated in job searches. Additionally, we suggest strategies for BME departments to consider for supporting students through the degree into a career.
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spelling pubmed-85530992021-10-29 BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen Wang, Annie AnMeng Huang-Saad, Aileen Daly, Shanna R. Lattuca, Lisa R. Biomed Eng Educ Research Article A common perception of biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduates is that they struggle to find industry jobs upon graduation. While some statistics support this concern, students continue to pursue and persist through BME degrees. This persistence may relate to graduates’ other career interests, though limited research examines where BME students go and why. Scholars are also pushing for research that examines engineering careers in a broader context, beyond traditional industry positions. This study adds to that conversation by asking: How do BME students describe their career interests and perceived job prospects in relation to why they pursue a BME degree? A qualitative study of BME students was performed at a public, R1 institution using semi-structured interviews at three timepoints across an academic year. An open coding data analysis approach explored careerperceptions of students nearing completion of a BME undergraduate degree. Findings indicated that students pursued a BME degree for reasons beyond BME career aspirations, most interestingly as a means to complete an engineering degree that they felt would have interesting enough content to keep them engaged. Participants also discussed the unique career-relevant skills they developed as a BME student, and the career-placement tradeoffs they associated with getting a BME undergraduate degree. Based on these results, we propose research that explores how students move through a BME degree into a career and how career-relevant competencies are communicated in job searches. Additionally, we suggest strategies for BME departments to consider for supporting students through the degree into a career. Springer International Publishing 2021-10-28 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8553099/ /pubmed/34729553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43683-021-00059-8 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Biomedical Engineering Society 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jamison, Cassandra Sue Ellen
Wang, Annie AnMeng
Huang-Saad, Aileen
Daly, Shanna R.
Lattuca, Lisa R.
BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title_full BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title_fullStr BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title_full_unstemmed BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title_short BME Career Exploration: Examining Students’ Connection with the Field
title_sort bme career exploration: examining students’ connection with the field
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8553099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34729553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43683-021-00059-8
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