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Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences.

ABSTRACT: Today's doctoral programs continue to prepare students for a traditional academic career path despite the inadequate supply of research-focused faculty positions. We advocate for a broader doctoral curriculum that prepares trainees for a wide range of science-related career paths. In support of this argument, we describe data from our survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Midway through graduate training, UCSF students are already considering a broad range of career options, with one-third intending to pursue a non-research career path. To better support this branching career pipeline, we recommend that national standards for training and mentoring include emphasis on career planning and professional skills development to ensure the success of PhD-level scientists as they contribute to a broadly defined global scientific enterprise.

SUBMITTER: Fuhrmann CN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3164563 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences.

Fuhrmann C N CN Halme D G DG O'Sullivan P S PS Lindstaedt B B

CBE life sciences education 20110101 3

Today's doctoral programs continue to prepare students for a traditional academic career path despite the inadequate supply of research-focused faculty positions. We advocate for a broader doctoral curriculum that prepares trainees for a wide range of science-related career paths. In support of this argument, we describe data from our survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Midway through graduate training, UCSF students are ...[more]

PMID: 21885820

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Project description:BackgroundAnalysis of the biomedical workforce and graduate education have produced recommendations for modifications of pre-doctoral training to broadly prepare trainees for wider ranging scientific careers. Development of training in professional skills is widely recommended, but details of implementation are not widely available. In alignment with these recommendations, we have incorporated professional skills training into the biomedical science graduate curriculum at West Virginia University. An important component of the training is developing conflict resolution and negotiation skills. This training will provide useful skills for academic careers, non-academic careers and life situations outside of the workplace. Conflict resolution/negotiation skills are also relevant in managing issues in diversity, equity and inclusivity. We report our experience in developing this component of the training program, provide an overview of the approach to delivery and practice of skills, and provide an analysis of the reception and effectiveness of the training.MethodsEvaluation of effectiveness of training used the principals of the Kirkpatrick Four Level Model of Evaluation. At the end of the course, students completed a questionnaire about their perceptions of training and were asked how they would respond to different scenarios requiring conflict resolution/negotiation skills. Several months later, students were surveyed to determine if they used some of these skills and/or witnessed situations where these skills would be useful.ResultsWe report our experience in developing conflict resolution/negotiation training in our graduate curriculum, provide an overview of the approach to delivery and practice of skills, and provide an analysis of the reception and effectiveness of the training. The results suggest this training meets a need and is effective. Importantly, these materials provide a template for others wishing to implement similar training in their curricula.ConclusionsConflict resolution and negotiation training meets a need in graduate education. A mixed approach using didactic and interactive components spaced out over time appears to be an effective method of training.

Dataset Information

Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences.

Publications

Improving graduate education to support a branching career pipeline: recommendations based on a survey of doctoral students in the basic biomedical sciences.

Similar Datasets

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