Broadening Experiences inScientific Training

MSU BEST: Integrated Biomedical Training for Multiple Career Options

Stephanie W. WattsJulia McAnallenJulie Rojewski

Karen Klomparens

Overview

• Challenges facing biomedical training and career outcomes

• NIH Answers the Call: BEST Program• MSU BEST• The MSU BEST Model and Your Campus

Challenges in Biomedical Training and Career Outcomes

• Only ~20% of biomedical Ph.D.s work as tenure-system PIs in academic labs.– Most of our graduate training prepares students

for this role, which most Ph.D.s will not pursue– When these Ph.D.s do get academic scientist

positions, RO1s are awarded later and later in one’s career (ave. age is 42)

Naming the Problem

• Assumptions: We want to keep attracting the best and brightest scientific minds to Ph.D. programs

• We want this highly trained biomedical workforce to stay engaged in science (in some capacity)

• We want to make sure post-docs “make sense” and are not a default pursuit

NIH BEST

17 U.S. Institutions awarded NIH BEST Grants

Vanderbilt

UCSF

Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology

University of ChicagoCU Denver|Anschutz Medical Campus

UC Davis

UC Irvine UNC

Virginia Tech

Wayne State University

MSU

Rochester

NYU

Cornell

Rutgers

UMMS

Boston University

10 awards in 2013 (orange circles)

7 in 2014 (green circles)

BEST: Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training.

www.nihbest.org

BEST is an experiment

•NIH surveys for predoctoral and postdoctoral Fellows

•Surveys are given to test group (our cohort) and control group (other trainees) in the same department as the test group)

•Surveys given to 2038!

MSU BEST

Wel

lnes

sW

elln

ess

Wel

lnes

sW

elln

ess

Wel

lnes

s

BESTIDP

Externship

Externship

Research

Research

Goal: PhD Defense, Job Placement, Faculty Growth

Foun

datio

nal S

kills

Postdoc

Graduate Fellows..

Engineering and

Biomedical

Faculty

Career Success

SoSWorkshops

First month

First year

Entry

End ofFirst year

Year 2 and on

TWO externshipswithin two years of finishing IDP

Foun

datio

nal S

kills

Foun

datio

nal S

kills

MSU BEST Timeline

MSU BEST: Program DescriptionYear 1: Professional Development

Training Workshops: Communication, Wellness, TeamworkGuest Lectures and Career Panels: Academe, Regulatory, Innovation, Legal, Government and Public Relations

Years 2-3: ExternshipsMeaningful Career ExperiencesFlexible Design2 different externships

Evaluation

• Is this working? • How do we know? • BEST Action Inventory (www.bai.msu.edu)

(quick demo)

MSU BEST Your campus

• Adapt, not adopt! • Borrow resources

– Career Success (www.careersuccess.msu.edu)– BEST Action Inventory (BAI) www.bai.msu.edu

Finding Your BEST Community

• Recruiting Students• Identifying supportive

faculty membersEngage alumni and

local leaders

Discussion

• What value do you see in building a similar program?

• What hurdles can you foresee, bringing something like this to campus?

• What might you be able to adopt/adapt from other campuses?

Resources

BEST Consortium: nihbest.org

MSU BEST: best.msu.edu

Being developedwith you in mind

MSU Graduate School: grad.msu.edu

The remaining slides were from Stephanie’s original…I don’t think we need them, as I want to have as much time for discussion as possible, but if there is information in there you would find useful to integrate, that’s good too.

Getting the Word out

•E-mails galore; use of infographics and posters

•Visits to faculty groups and student groups

•Use of T-shirts and all kinds of swag – our logo becomes in sight, in mind

•BEST COOKIES (you can’t believe how well this works)

•Our cohorts are our BEST ambassadors!

Approach for MSU BEST

•We administer all NIH surveys; collected through Qualtrics

•We develop evaluation surveys of our workshops,externship experiences and overall program

•We are developing a faculty survey/piece to understand current climate for expanded careersand whether BEST moves this

Short Term Medium Term Long Term

Affective•Openness to investigating non-academic careers•Openness to new ideas and training

Affective•Improving self confidence•Openness to the concept of wellness

Affective•Climate change in faculty accepting parallel mentoring•Culture change in support of non-academic careers•Improved trainee self confidence

Knowledge•Greater knowledge of MSU Career Services

Knowledge•Greater knowledge of what employers want skill-wise•How to work in a team•Knowledge of a career plan

Knowledge•Greater knowledge of career options for trainees•Knowledge of how to obtain a job

Skills•Self analysis

Skills•How to work in a team•How to develop an IDP

Skills•Improved oral communication (lay public, private sector)•Higher quality resume

Behavior•Completing Orientation, Career Success

Behavior•Completing MSU BEST IDP•Completing Internships•Practicing Wellness

Behavior•Proactive in search career opportunities•Choice of pursuing biomedical career made earlier

Outcomes•Website for MSU BEST

Outcomes•Completed internships

Outcomes•Decrease time in postdoctoral fellowship•Expand type of jobs obtained; success in obtaining jobs•Elevate the diversity of demographics in programs•Improve recruitment of strong students to MSU•Increase retention rate•Decrease time to degree

DATA- Creation of BAI!

•Creation of BEST Action Inventory Tool (BAI)-helps trainees keep track of what they’ve done

•activity•time•frequency

-lets mentors add in their ‘touches’-lets externship provides add in their input

•Allows us to capture a dose of BEST and reflectthis back onto the survey findings

Jump into BAI here

TraineeGuided by parallel mentoring in discipline and in career opportunities.

MentorGuidance in discipline of choice and also insight and assistance in helping trainee find a satisfying biomedical career

Career ConsultantGuidance for choices inCareers that build from aPhD in Biomedical Science.

2015 consortium list for reasons why PhD granting institutes need to have career development programs.

13. Important recruitment tool for new students

12. Important alumni engagement tool

11. Important tool for expanding diversity efforts

10. Provides leadership and guidance to all other graduate programs, increasing efficiency and reducing redundancies

9. Prepares students and postdoctoral researchers for satisfying careers

8. Opportunity for stronger academy-industry engagement

7. Attracts development money

6. Helps secure and retain grants

5. Happy students are productive students and vice versa.

4. Provides a mechanism for gathering hard data on career development

3. Can lead to enhanced interdisciplinary collaborations

2. Helps the institution contribute to a scientifically literate workforce

1. We have a moral obligation to help students and postdoctoral researchers find work

We are scientists and this is a grand experiment

How can we work togetherto test this out? Spread

Good practices?

•Share resources

•Try an experiment of taking tools developed and adaptthem such that they work for your trainees(one size does not fit all!)

•Adapt current resources