VCU BEST (Broadening Experiences for Scientific Training) and Professional and Personal Development

BACKGROUND

Graduate education in the biomedical sciences, historically designed to train future academicians, has not changed significantly despite an evolving job market and job trends for biomedical scientists. The NIH Advisory Committee to the NIH Working Group on the Future of Biomedical Research Workforce recently published a report that confirms that a growing fraction of scientists, approximately 30% in 2008, work in non-research- or even non-science-related jobs. Only 43% of all biomedical scientists are employed in academia1, and many of these individuals are primarily in teaching positions with little or no involvement in research. Respondents to the NIH Advisory Committee’s Request for Information expressed a need for self- assessment and self-examination 1-3. This perceived need for enhanced career counseling and development for young biomedical scientists is echoed by others in the graduate education literature, workforce reports from the pharmaceutical industry, and is summarized in our recent publication 4.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of BEST, a university-wide career development program, is to transform the culture of biomedical scientist training at VCU by developing AEGDS, a training platform that broadens student awareness of potential careers, provides opportunities to experience career paths, provides guidance for career path(s) selection, allows students to develop the skills sets necessary to be successful, and encourages students to share their experiences, thereby broadening exposure of others in the community (Figure 1).

Susanna Wu-Pong, Ph.D.1, Suzanne Barbour2, Victoria Shivy3, Joseph Testani4, Rosalyn Hobson5, Joyce Lloyd2, William Korzun6, Mark Schaefermeyer,7 Aron Lichtman2, Ann Nichols-Casebolt8, VCU Schools of Pharmacy1, Medicine,2 College of Humanities and Sciences3, University Career Center4, Schools of Engineering and Education5, Allied Health Professions6, Graduate School7 and Office of the Vice-President for Health Sciences8, Richmond VA, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Partners

Experience

Aware

Develop

Guide

Share

Project

student

mentors

website

seminar

career course

shadowing

PPDP

Voc counseling

Alumni mentor

Skill dev courses

Service learning

monthly meetings

Figure 1: Conceptual Schematic of VCU BEST

Table 1: Summary of VCU BEST Certificate of Completion

REQUIREMENT

PILLAR

TimelineCourse

workMen-toring

Experi-ential

Partnerships

Assessment

(pgrm/prsnl)

Professional and Personal Development, GRAD611

1st semester

(mentoring both yrs)

X X

4 schools and UCC contribute;

unit coordinators

X /X

Biomedical Science Careers Seminar

2nd semester

XX (Alumni

Assoc)X /-

Biomedical Project Course - ENGR591 or GRAD691

3rd semester

elective

X

X (School of Engineering & community

partners)

X /-

Supplemental Career Skills - VCU elective or 2 Career Skill Courses

4th semester

elective

XX (Graduate School and other units)

X/-

Vocational counselingAll 4

semestersX X (UCC) X /X

Shadowing2nd

semester

Part of semina

r course

X

X (Alumni Assoc and corporate partners)

X/-

Monthly meetingAll 4

semesters

X w/ peer

mentori

ng

X/-

Table 2. VCU BEST Partners

BEST Component Partner

BEST investigators/steering committee

Schools of Pharmacy, Allied Health, Medicine, Education, College of Humanities and Sciences, Office of Vice President for Research, Graduate School, University Career Center (UCC)

Unit Coordinators Schools of Pharmacy, Allied Health, Medicine, Education, Dentistry, Engineering, Nursing, College of Humanities and Sciences, VCU Life Sciences

Experiential Learning Office of Community Engagement; participating VCU units, participating community partners

Vocational counseling UCC, College of Humanities and Sciences

Elective offerings Graduate School (will also involve many units in course creation such as Technology Transfer), University Career Center, da Vinci Center and affiliated partners all academic units at VCU

Career Mentors Alumni Association

Shadowing Alumni Association; Shadowing host sites

Core curriculum Graduate School, Biomedical science units (contribute and identify seminar speakers),

BEST administration Office of Vice President for Research, Graduate School, BEST investigators, VCU Development Office (resources)

Advisor/program director training

VCU Global Education Office

BEST Advisory Committees

Participating VCU units, alumni representing non-academic careers, PSGP Graduate Advisory Board

Team projects Any unit at VCUMETHOD

BEST is an optional 5-6 credit certificate program (transcript notation) offered over 3-4 semesters. The program was built around the School of Pharmacy’s Professional and Personal Development course (now GRAD611) and Pharmacy’s Career Mentor Network programs (Table 1). BEST includes an array of partners (Table 2), approaches (Table 1, Figure 1) and learning objectives (Table 3) to provide comprehensive career and professional development opportunities.

RESULTS

Assessments from both the VCU pilot and first VCU-wide GRAD611 course demonstrate significant changes in student comfort with the learning objectives with each module (Table 4) and a strong impact of the program on at least some of the students (Table 5), especially in the area of strengths development (Figure 2). In addition, preliminary results from course evaluations (not shown) and final essays (Table 5) suggest that the course may have short- and long-term impact on career planning, improved perspective and self-efficacy.

* On a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) assessing learning objective (LO) comprehension

Table 4 Comfort With Learning Objectives (Pre- minus Post- score means) for PPDP and GRAD611 Pilots

LO Score* Combined PPD & PPDP (n = 6-23)

TOPIC Self-awareness Personal Brand Managing Relationships

Motivating Self & Others

Unit # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Post-Pre 0.60 0.96 1.87 1.39 0.96 0.84 2.34 1.25 1.00 1.28 0.93

p-value < .01 <.001 <.05 <.05 <.001 <.001 <.05 <.001 <.001 <.001 .001

Table 3 - GRAD611 - by Module and Lecture Module/Lecture Deliverables or Skill Self Awareness: Basic steps of self-awareness and self-management

Self awareness through Strengths Finders, VIA character strengths, Five Factor Model, values inventory, Strong Interest Inventory

Effective time and energy management;

Time management plan

Emotional intelligence Emotional Intelligence assessment Branding yourself Develop the message - written Branded vitae or resume Develop the message - oral Prepare an "elevator speech" Leadership presence - understand how you present yourself; improving authentic presence

Impactful presentation

Managing professional relationships Personal learning network Networking, managing online resources and

presence The Commitment-Trust model Develop and implement a list of strategies to

develop and maintain strong professional relationships

Conflict management Managing difficult relationships Motivating yourself and others Way of being Develop relationships to enable collaboration

and organizational effectiveness Workplace culture and norms Engagement and productivity - Positive psychology and authentic purpose

Use authentic purpose to fuel meaning and motivation

Personal Mission Statement - Develop a personal mission statement considering desire for impact and values (values inventory) Individual Development Plan - Develop and implement a plan with explicit goals and objectives to achieve your personal mission using strengths, flow and glimpses of excellence

Vocational Counseling – Strong Interest Inventory, Career Self-Efficacy

Figure 2. Word Cloud for Final Essays - The content of each student’s final essay was compiled into a word cloud on wordle.net.

DISCUSSION

We envision that AEGDS-trained students in VCU BEST (Tables 1-3, Figure 1) will be better prepared to select the right career paths, work in interdisciplinary teams in those careers, and mentor other aspiring biomedical scientists. The outcomes from GRAD611 suggest increased student comfort and capability with learning objectives in all topic modules: self knowledge, personal brand, motivating oneself and others and managing relationships (Table 4). In addition, GRAD611 appears to have had an impact on a number of the students in their self-management, feeling empowered and positive emotion, making change in purposeful and meaningful ways (Table 5), especially in the area of strengths development (Figure 2). Future studies will include replication of this course with a larger cohort, measuring changes in career self-efficacy and confidence, and long term impact of the program on the participant.

LITERATURE CITED

1. Advisory Committee to the NIH Director Working Group on the Future of Biomedical Research Workforce. NIH request for information: Future biomedical research workforce. Summary of contents. 2012.

2. Fuhrmann CN, Halme DG, O'Sullivan PS, Lindstaedt B. Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: Recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences. CBE Life Sci. Edu. 2011;10(3):239.

3. Stephans P. How economics shapes science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2012.

4. Wu-Pong S, Gobburu J, O'Barr S, Shah K, Huber J, Weiner D. The future of the pharmaceutical sciences and graduate education: Recommendations from the AACP graduate education special interest group. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 2013;77(4):S4.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our thanks to VCU Quest Innovation Fund, Altria Regulatory Sciences, the VCU Schools of Pharmacy, Medicine, Allied Health Professions, and the VCU Global Education Office for supporting this program.