(NEWARK, N.J., Sept. 9, 2008) – Rutgers College of Nursing faculty members, Elise Lev and Lucille Sanzero Eller, are conducting a study to test assumptions regarding interventions intended to increase students' preparedness for careers in biomedical and behavior research.
Funded by a four-year $1.2 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the focus of the study is to evaluate the mentoring experience and how this experience may affect students' choice to become researchers.
Lev, associate professor, pointed out that there is a particular interest in interventions specifically designed to increase the number of underrepresented minority students entering careers in biomedical and behavioral research. The NIH has funded programs to address the significant under-representation of minority scientists to address this disparity.
"We are conducting the study because there is an assumption that mentoring experiences increase students' choice of biomedical and behavioral research-oriented careers," said Eller, associate professor at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. "One way to understand the influence of a mentor is to study the mentoring experience," said Eller, a Cedar Grove, N.J. resident.
The researchers will invite university mentors and their protégés to participate in different groups providing mentoring experiences. "We'll compare information from these groups to evaluate whether mentoring makes a difference in students' career choices," said Lev, a Stamford, CT resident. "We're hoping to discover what an effective research mentoring relationship is and to develop a model of effective strategies that encourage students to become successful researchers."
From its headquarters in Newark, Rutgers College of Nursing offers a broad range of academic programs on all three Rutgers campuses. The college offers a master's program with unique practitioner specialties, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, and was the first to offer a Ph.D. nursing degree in New Jersey.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A photo of Lucille Sanzero Eller, a Cedar Grove, NJ resident, is available at http://nursing.rutgers.edu/files/ELLER-web.jpg . A photo of Elise Lev, a Stamford, CT resident, is available at http://nursing.rutgers.edu/files/LEV-web.jpg .
