title: An Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program to Prepare Nursing Students for Future Workforce Roles.
abstract: It is important for nurses today and for those joining the workforce in the future to have familiarity and training with respect to interprofessional research, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement. In an effort to address this need, we describe a 10-week summer research program that immerses undergraduate nursing students in a broad spectrum of clinical and translational research projects as part of their exposure to advanced nursing roles. In doing so, the program increases the ability of the students to participate in research, effectively interact with academic medical center researchers, and incorporate elements of evidence-based practice into future nursing interventions. Their mentors are nurses practicing in roles as nurse researcher, advanced practice nurses involved in evidence-based practice or quality improvement, and clinical trials research nurses. Each student is matched with 3 of these mentors and involved in 3 different projects. Through this exposure, the students benefit from observing multiple nursing roles, taking an active role in research-related activities participating in interdisciplinary learning experiences. Overall, the program provides benefits to the students, who demonstrate measured improvement with respect to the program objectives, and to their mentors and each of the participating organizations.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Program Coordinator for Nursing Research, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Mary Jo
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Slattery
authors.affiliation: Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH; Instructor, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Bridget Linehan
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Logan
authors.affiliation: Clinical Specialist, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH. Electronic address: bridget.logan@hitchcock.org.
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mudge
authors.affiliation: Instructor, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH; Nurse Practitioner, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Epilepsy Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Secore
authors.affiliation: Chief Nursing Officer, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: von Reyn
authors.affiliation: Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Maue
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing / Q000379:methods; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D006801:Humans; D008611:Mentors; D015399:Nursing Research; D013338:Students, Nursing
keywords: Evidence-based practice; Nursing workforce; Research fellowship; Research training; Translational research; Undergraduate education