Publications by authors named "Heather D Wathington"

Do summer laboratory research apprenticeships during high school have an impact on entry into MD/PhD programs? Apart from the nearly decade-long span of time between high school and matriculation into an MD/PhD program, young people have many life-shaping experiences that presumably impact their education and career trajectories. This quantitative study ( = 236,432) examines the connection between early laboratory research apprenticeship experiences at the high school level and matriculation into one of the more rigorous educational programs for scientific research training. The span of time covered by this analysis reaches across more than a decade, examining the potential importance of research experiences during the precollege years in the educational trajectory of young people.

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Context: The average retention rate for students enrolled in undergraduate athletic training programs (ATPs) nationwide has been reported to be 81%, and slightly more than half of program directors (PDs) have indicated that retention of athletic training students (ATSs) is a problem. However, why PDs do or do not believe ATS retention is problematic is unknown.

Objective: To determine why PDs do or do not believe ATS retention is problematic.

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Purpose: MD-PhD scientists are a successful, but small and fairly homogenous group of biomedical researchers. The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study to identify predictors of MD-PhD program enrollment to inform evidence-based strategies to increase the size and diversity of the biomedical research workforce.

Method: Using deidentified data from all 2001-2006 Pre-Medical College Admission Test Questionnaire (PMQ) respondents, they developed multivariate logistic regression models to identify demographic, experiential, and attitudinal variables associated with MD-PhD program enrollment at matriculation compared with all other MD program enrollment at matriculation and with not enrolling in medical school by August 2012.

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Purpose: To describe educational outcomes for a national cohort of students who enrolled in MD-PhD programs at medical school matriculation (MD-PhD matriculants).

Method: The authors used multivariate logistic regression to identify factors independently associated with overall MD-PhD program attrition (MD-only graduation or medical school withdrawal/dismissal) compared with MD-PhD program graduation among the 1995-2000 national cohort of MD-PhD matriculants at medical schools with and without Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) support.

Results: Of 2,582 MD-PhD matriculants, 1,885 (73.

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This exploratory qualitative study investigated how doctoral students reported their personal and professional interaction experiences that they believed might facilitate or impede their academic pursuits in biomedical research. We collected 19 in-depth interviews with doctoral students in biomedical research from eight universities, and we based our qualitative analytic approach on the work of Miles and Huberman. The results indicated that among different sources and types of interaction, academic and emotional interactions from family and teachers in various stages essentially affected students' persistence in the biomedical science field.

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