Talk About Teaching ------------------- Making the Right Things Happen: Research and the Undergraduate Nursing Student ====================================================================== By Linda P. Brown and Lorraine J. Tulman At a research university, what is the typical undergraduate student's involvement in research? What should it be? And what could it be for a student who desires more than the typical experience? At the School of Nursing, the core courses in the undergraduate curriculum include statistics (including using computers to analyze a data set from a faculty research study funded by the NIH) and research methodology. The knowledge gained from these courses is then applied to nursing practice in the undergraduate core clinical courses. Not all students desire individualized research experiences, nor could (probably) all students be accommodated if that were the case. In considering the type of student who might gain from more extensive involvement in research, we usually seek out those students who can increase their academic load over the required plan of study-academic standing is certainly a consideration but also a high level of persistence, tolerance of ambiguity, and maturity is needed as well. In addition, building individualized research experiences for the undergraduate student requires both student and faculty creativity, planning, and perseverance. The University offers various opportunities for the undergraduate student that can be combined in creative ways to expand the contact between faculty and student for intellectually meaningful work. The Nassau Fund Award, the University Scholars program, and independent study courses can be combined as a means of pooling both time and money, and offer both prestige and academic credit for a unique experience. Unfortunately, many faculty may view incorporating the undergraduate student into their research team as having a net effect of slowing down their research productivity. However, if complementary agendas can be achieved, incorporating an undergraduate into a faculty's research team can enhance the faculty's program of research and provide an opportunity for the student to acquire hands-on experiences in that discipline's research process. An example of how this can work follows. One of us (L.B.) and colleagues were investigating jaundice in healthy breast-fed infants during the first month of life using a transcutaneous bilirubinometer (TcB; Air Shields/Minolta Inc.), a non-invasive instrument for the measurement of serum bilirubin. Because the reliability of the TcB varies with skin pigment, the first funded study focused on Caucasian infants, as the TcB was most reliable in this population. When second stage funding was requested from the National Institute for Nursing Research at the NIH to expand the sample, the reviewers suggested that the study population be expanded to include breast-feeding infants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This required that the TcB be normed on such infants. The first step was to calibrate the instrument on non-white breast-fed infants. This posed a serious problem, as few non-white breast-fed infants were available at our study site. However, it also created an opportunity for student involvement in a circumscribed research project appropriate for an undergraduate student. At this time, one of our students expressed an interest in working on faculty research projects. Additionally, the School had recently initiated a faculty exchange program with the Kamuzu College of Nursing in Malawi, Africa. The time was ripe, the question immediate-would this student consider traveling to Malawi to obtain TcB calibration data on a population of Malawian infants? Her response was also immediate-show me the way. With only nine months until departure for Malawi, preparations needed to move quickly. Undergraduate research dollars were obtained through the Nassau Fund and through the University Scholars Program. The School of Nursing faculty liaison to Kamuzu College assisted the student in obtaining Malawian Ministry of Health approval for the proposed study, which involved four months of intensive negotiation. Laboratory equipment was purchased and the student was trained in the research protocols. Upon arrival in Malawi, the student spent a productive month identifying subjects, obtaining informed consent from study participants, implementing the research protocol to collect the data and handling equipment emergencies. For example, one of the TcB's internal battery failed and the student was able to find one of the few electrical engineers in Malawi who happened to have familiarity with the TcB and who was able to repair the meter. The outcome of all of this: a jointly authored (faculty and student) manuscript reporting the findings of this study is currently under review. In addition, the findings of this work were included in the proposal resubmitted to the NIH by the faculty. We have an immense intellectual resource at the University-the undergraduate student population. Involving undergraduate students in faculty research not only can further faculty research but assist in the recruitment of the best and brightest, bolster the intellectual atmosphere of the university, and may entice a few young minds to consider research as a career goal. This article is the fifth in a series developed by the Lindback Society and the College of Arts and Sciences. Drs. Brown and Tulman are Associate Professors in the School of Nursing. Dr. Brown is also a Lindback Award Recipient. (Artwork by Dr. Brown's 12-year-old daughter, Julie, accompanied this article.)
Almanac
Volume 41, Number 20
February 7, 1995
Return to Almanac's homepage.