Social predictors of doctoral student mental health and well-being.

Graduate students' mental health and well-being is a prominent concern across various disciplines. However, early predictors of mental health and well-being in graduate education, specifically doctoral education, have rarely been studied. The present study evaluated both the underlying latent classification of individuals' mental well-being and predictors of those classifications. Results estimated two latent classes of students' mental health and well-being: one class with generally high levels of mental well-being and one with lower levels of mental well-being. Regression analyses showed that mentoring in the second year of doctoral study, certainty of choice in the third year, and both academic development and sense of belonging in the fourth year were positive predictors of membership in the higher mental well-being class. In contrast to some prior studies, demographic variables were not related to the identified well-being classifications. Regression analyses further showed that mental well-being was negatively related to participants' number of publications and research self-efficacy, indicating a problematic relationship between scholarly productivity and confidence and well-being. These findings may be used to identify and provide targeted support for students who are at-risk for having or developing lower levels of mental well-being in their graduate programs.

Online simulation-based education in graduate education: Initial implementation and content revision description.

Treating those with mental illness frequently requires collaboration among health care providers from different disciplines as well as easy access to care. Neither interprofessional collaboration (IPC) nor accessible care can be assumed to automatically occur or be available in the busy health care environment. Early and deliberate exposure of graduate students in health care disciplines to interprofessional educational activities is imperative to strengthen IPC. Empirical evidence supports the linkage between interprofessional education (IPE) early-on in training and IPC. Additionally, early and focused training of graduate students in health care disciplines to telebehavioral health (TBH) can help promote care access. The current literature supports TBH as an effective treatment approach that enhances access to care. Thus, the creation of educational activities for graduate students in health care disciplines that use early exposure and training in both: IPE and TBH approaches to enhance IPC can position future providers to provide quality patient care, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic implications on health care and education. This article describes the authors' experience in implementing and evaluating an interprofessional, simulation-based educational activity in psychopharmacology using a TBH approach in graduate nursing and psychology students. This quality improvement process used the plan-do-study-act cycle of continuous quality improvement to establish the initial implementation and the 11 steps of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning standards of best practice to then refine this educational activity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A Virtual World: New Graduate Education in the Era of COVID-19.

In this article, the authors share strategies of adult learning principles for successful transition to virtual learning for new graduate clinical nurses. Knowles' theory was used to redesign a simulation-based education approach to fulfill the diverse learning needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The delivery of efficient, effective, and meaningful education was achieved by leveraging technology. This evidence-based strategy was delivered via a cost-effective virtual platform that offered improved accessibility and convenience of education without compromising the quality of the educational outcomes, participant engagement, or learner satisfaction. This virtual platform incorporating a variety of active learning strategies exhibited effective practices, engaging the new graduate clinical nurses and enhancing their acquiring, retaining, and applying knowledge in providing high-quality and safe patient care. It demonstrated the promise that virtual education holds for future programs to enhance professional development and build the nursing workforce. Nurse educators can be instrumental in advancing this virtual agenda. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2022;53(7):307-311.].

From classroom training to e-learning: a journey through the quality of learning life of nurse students in post-graduate education - A longitudinal qualitative study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: recent studies regarding COVID-19 experiences of nursing students highlighted the effect of the transition from face-to-face to online education, rather than the complexity of the overall quality of educational life. This study aim investigating of how the students perceive the quality of educational life in the forced online training, searching for any shift of meanings concerning the students learning experience, from the first phase of the sudden transition to online and the online stabilization phase. METHODS: a longitudinal qualitative study, carried during two moments of the online teaching activity forced by COVID-19, the first one in May-June 2020 and the second six months later in January -February 2021. A convenience sample of 24 students attending post-graduate courses for health professions recruited at University of Parma, answered in-depth interviews, videotaped, verbatim transcribed and analyzed using the Braun and Clarke model. RESULTS: five themes emerged from meaning shift of data collection: reactions to change in educational life; factors favoring a new quality of educational life; factors hindering the perception of the quality of educational life; adaptation strategies to the new educational life; tools and strategies to facilitate communication and the absence of the classroom. CONCLUSIONS: participants perceive advantages of online teaching, on quality of their educational life. The issue of how to create opportunities for internship period remains open. Further research to understand online internship and exploring what extent it is essential to propose it in face-to-face modality.

Writing Skills Development for Graduate Studies and Career Readiness in Science and Aging Fields: A Case Study Approach.

Increasing the number of racially and ethnically underrepresented students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on science and aging offers an opportunity to increase the number of aging specialists while simultaneously promoting diversity in the research labor market and supporting new ideas. This case study aims to better understand how students participating in an academic preparatory program experience a writing class contextualized within (1) students' writing background and (2) students' future ambitions related to science and aging. The individually-tailored writing class was taught as a critical component of a comprehensive educational program that targets underrepresented racial and ethnic minority undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing scientific graduate studies in fields related to aging. The researchers conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with students (n = 4) enrolled in the 24-month fellowship training program, which included participation in the writing course during the summer prior to their senior year of undergraduate education. All participants were young adult college students who identified as Black or African American and female. Using thematic coding, statements about professional writing skills were divided into four primary themes: (1) prior experiences, (2) class experiences, (3) future goals and ambitions, and (4) structural considerations. These themes suggest potential implications for effective interventions aimed to advance the writing skills and academic and career readiness of racially and ethnically diverse students entering fields of science and aging.

COVID-19 threatens faculty diversity: postdoctoral scholars call for action.

Despite substantial investment and effort by federal agencies and institutions to improve the diversity of the professoriate, progress is excruciatingly slow. One program that aims to enhance faculty diversity is the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences. IRACDA supports the training of a diverse cohort of postdoctoral scholars who will seek academic research and teaching careers. The San Diego IRACDA program has trained 109 postdoctoral scholars since its inception in 2003; 59% are women and 63% are underrepresented (UR) Black/African-American, Latinx/Mexican-American, and Indigenous scientists. Sixty-four percent obtained tenure-track faculty positions, including a substantial 32% at research-intensive institutions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis threatens to upend IRACDA efforts to improve faculty diversity, and academia is at risk of losing a generation of diverse, talented scholars. Here, a group of San Diego IRACDA postdoctoral scholars reflects on these issues and discusses recommendations to enhance the retention of UR scientists to avoid a "lost generation" of promising UR faculty scholars.

Positioning Africa's public health doctoral students to lead societal transformation and development.

The public health context is becoming increasingly more complex requiring highly trained professionals equipped with knowledge, competencies and tools to address or transform current and future challenges. Doctoral degree training offers an opportunity to build the capacity to detect and respond to such dynamic health challenges. In this paper, we discuss how Africa's public health doctoral students can be better positioned for the different career pathways to provide leadership on complex health and development challenges. Public health PhD graduates can take up careers in academia, civil service, private sector and civil society, among others. To thrive in these pathways, PhD training should equip them with knowledge, skills and competencies in leadership, creativity and social competence among others. To produce career-ready PhD graduates, there is need to rethink training curricula to build critical skills for diverse career pathways, introduce students to entrepreneurship, and enhance linkages between universities and industry. Experiential learning, exposure to networks and partnerships, postdoctoral programmes and mentorship and exchange programmes can further equip PhD students with key knowledge, skills and competencies. For students to position themselves for the different careers, they ought to plan their careers early, albeit with flexibility. Students should build their soft skills and embrace technology among other transferable competencies. By identifying potential career pathways and being positioned for these early, Africa can produce transformative PhD students on a path for success not just for themselves but for society at large, including in new environments such as that created by COVID-19.

An integrated model for interdisciplinary graduate education: Computation and mathematics for biological networks.

The current challenges at the forefront of data-enabled science and engineering require interdisciplinary solutions. Yet most traditional doctoral programs are not structured to support successful interdisciplinary research. Here we describe the design of and students' experiences in the COMBINE (Computation and Mathematics for Biological Networks) interdisciplinary graduate program at the University of Maryland. COMBINE focuses on the development and application of network science methods to biological systems for students from three primary domains: life sciences, computational/engineering sciences, and mathematical/physical sciences. The program integrates three established models (T-shaped, pi-shaped and shield-shaped) for interdisciplinary training. The program components largely fall into three categories: (1) core coursework that provides content expertise, communication, and technical skills, (2) discipline-bridging elective courses in the two COMBINE domains that complement the student's home domain, (3) broadening activities such as workshops, symposiums, and formal peer-mentoring groups. Beyond these components, the program builds community through both formal and informal networking and social events. In addition to the interactions with other program participants, students engage with faculty in several ways beyond the conventional adviser framework, such as the requirement to select a second out-of-field advisor, listening to guest speakers, and networking with faculty through workshops. We collected data through post-program surveys, interviews and focus groups with students, alumni and faculty advisors. Overall, COMBINE students and alumni reported feeling that the program components supported their growth in the three program objectives of Network Science & Interdisciplinarity, Communication, and Career Preparation, but also recommended ways to improve the program. The value of the program can be seen not only through the student reports, but also through the students' research products in network science which include multiple publications and presentations. We believe that COMBINE offers an effective model for integrated interdisciplinary training that can be readily applied in other fields.

Undergraduate researchers' graduate school intentions during COVID-19.

There is emerging literature on the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students, but little is known about the impacts on undergraduate researchers (UGRs). On the basis of survey data collected in Summer 2020, this paper examines how less competent mentorship and COVID-19-related difficulties shaped UGRs' graduate school intentions. Results suggest that the pandemic strengthened UGRs' graduate school intentions when UGRs experienced fewer COVID-19-related difficulties. The pandemic weakened URG's graduate school intentions when they had a less competent faculty mentor. Having a more competent postgraduate mentor had a positive effect on UGRs' graduate school intentions in response to the pandemic. Those findings indicate that higher quality postgraduate mentorship may serve as an effective surrogate for lower quality faculty mentorship. Findings suggest that immediate strategies are needed to bolster graduate school aspirations among specific groups of UGRs in response to the pandemic. UGRs of particular concern include those who were highly impacted by COVID-19 with less competent mentors, were first-generation college students, had less prior research experience, had their Summer 2020 research experiences canceled, and were social/behavioral sciences majors.

Biomedical graduate student experiences during the COVID-19 university closure.

COVID-19-associated university closures moved classes online and interrupted ongoing research in universities throughout the US. In Vanderbilt University, first year biomedical sciences PhD students were in the middle of their spring semester coursework and in the process of identifying a thesis research lab, while senior students who had already completed the first year were at various stages of their graduate training and were working on their thesis research projects. To learn how the university closure and resulting interruptions impacted our students' learning and well-being, we administered two surveys, one to the first year students and the other to the senior students. Our main findings show that the university closure negatively impacted the overall psychological health of about one-third of the survey respondents, time management was the aspect of remote learning that caused the highest stress for close to 50% of the students, and interaction with their peers and in-person discussions were the aspects of on-campus learning that students missed the most during the remote learning period. Additionally, survey responses also show that students experienced positive outcomes as a result of remote learning that included spending increased time on additional learning interests, with family, on self-care, and for dissertation or manuscript writing. Though a variety of supportive resources are already available to students in our institution, results from our survey suggest enhancing these measures and identifying new ones targeted to addressing the academic and emotional needs of PhD students would be beneficial. Such support measures may be appropriate for students in other institutions as well.

Virtual flipped teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced teaching to be shifted to an online platform. Since the flipped teaching (FT) model has been shown to engage students through active learning strategies and adapt both synchronous and asynchronous components, it was a convenient choice for educators familiar with this instructional method. This study tested the effectiveness of a virtual FT method during the pandemic in a graduate-level physiology course. Besides assessing knowledge gained in the virtual FT format, student surveys were used to measure student perception of their adjustment to the new FT format, their confidence in completing the course successfully, and the usefulness of assessments and assignments in the remote FT. Students reported that they adjusted well to the remote FT method (P < 0.001), and their confidence in completing the course in this teaching mode successfully improved from the beginning to the end of the semester (P < 0.05). Students expressed a positive response to the synchronous computerized exams (90.32%) and the formative group (93.51%) and individual (80.65%) assessments. Both collaborative activities (93.55%) and in-class discussions (96.77%) were found to be effective. The course evaluations and the overall semester scores were comparable to the previous semesters of face-to-face FT. Overall, students' perceptions and performance suggested that they embraced the virtual FT method and the tested teaching method maintained the same strong outcome as before. Thus, this study presents a promising new instructional method in the teaching of future physiology courses.