Mackert Michael, Donovan Erin E, Bernhardt Jay M
a Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations , University of Texas at Austin.
b Center for Health Communication University of Texas at Austin.
Health Commun. 2017 Feb;32(2):247-252. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2015.1110686. Epub 2016 May 18.
Health communication faculty face increasing expectations regarding their academic productivity, including the expectation to seek and secure external funding. Doctoral training in health communication that does not fully prepare students for the challenges of securing external funding is doing them a disservice that will make them less competitive for academic positions and less likely to succeed in the academic positions they assume. The purpose of this study is to share the evaluation of a program, the Health Communication Scholars Program (HCSP), designed to train future health communication researchers in the pursuit of external funding. The HCSP includes a grant-writing workshop, requires interdisciplinary graduate student teams to submit applications, and awards funding to top proposals. HCSP participants responding to an evaluation survey (N = 25) had overwhelmingly positive experiences; respondents felt the program provided great value, improved their writing skills, gave them skills to pursue funding in the future, and helped them secure tenure-track faculty positions. The results of this formal evaluation suggest the HCSP is an experience that builds crucial skills and prepares graduate students for the demands they will face as faculty. It is a relatively low-cost, replicable model that merits consideration and adoption at other institutions that hope to provide professional development for doctoral students interested in health communication.
健康传播领域的教师面临着对其学术产出越来越高的期望,包括寻求并获得外部资金的期望。健康传播领域的博士培养若不能让学生充分做好应对获得外部资金挑战的准备,那就是在害他们,这会使他们在学术职位竞争中缺乏竞争力,并且在他们所担任的学术职位上取得成功的可能性降低。本研究的目的是分享对一个项目——健康传播学者项目(HCSP)的评估,该项目旨在培养未来的健康传播研究人员争取获得外部资金。HCSP包括一个资助申请书撰写工作坊,要求跨学科的研究生团队提交申请,并向顶尖提案授予资金。对评估调查做出回应的HCSP参与者(N = 25)有着压倒性的积极体验;受访者认为该项目提供了巨大价值,提高了他们的写作技能,赋予了他们未来争取资金的技能,并帮助他们获得了终身教职岗位。这一正式评估的结果表明,HCSP是一种能培养关键技能并让研究生为未来作为教师将面临的要求做好准备的经历。它是一个成本相对较低、可复制的模式,值得其他希望为对健康传播感兴趣的博士生提供专业发展机会的机构考虑并采用。