Addressing the Nation's Changing Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists (2000) / Chapter Skim
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5. Crosscutting Issues in Research Training
5. Crosscutting Issues in Research Training
Pages 53-62
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From page 53... ...
None of the many initiatives undertaken by these agencies to date either within or outside the NRSA program appear to have had a major impact on the diversity of the health research workforce. A 1993 report on NIH's programs found "a modest effect" on the number of underrepresented minorities among the agency's grant recipients.2 That analysis, ~ Williams, David R., Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, and Rueben C
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From page 54... ...
Since then the NIH has completed a follow-up study of undergraduates who participated in the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program, an NRSA initiative and the NIH's largest program devoted to building the diversity of the research workforce.3 Still, like the agency-wide assessment before it, the MARC program evaluation found little change in the number of science Ph.D.s earned by graduates of colleges that received MARC training grants.
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From page 55... ...
In addition to actively recruiting minority students, medical schools today are increasingly mindful that all their students must be prepared to treat patients from a wide variety of backgrounds. In fact, such training will become a mandatory component of the medical curriculum before the end of the 1999-2000 academic year, with the adoption of new accreditation standards requiring that medical school faculty and students "demonstrate an understanding of the manner in which people of diverse cultures and belief systems perceive health and illness and respond to various symptoms, diseases, and treatments."~ The 1994 federal requirement that minority groups be adequately represented in clinical studies funded by the NIH and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is another compelling reason for clinical research training programs to prepare trainees and fellows to work with diverse populations of patients.~2 THE NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARD PROGRAM AND OTHER FORMS OF RESEARCH TRAINING SUPPORT In drafting the NRSA Act of 1974, Congress sought to strengthen the NIH's capacity to conduct research ll Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
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From page 56... ...
would enable resources to be flexibly adjusted each year to respond to the specific needs for the training of biomedical reseachers."~3 In its early years, the NRSA program functioned much as Congress intended, but as other NIH funding mechanisms have come to be more widely employed for training and related activities, the relative influence and effectiveness of the NRSA program have waned. Instead of "the major element" of NIH research training, the NRSA program is now one of a number of such activities that the agency supports.
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From page 57... ...
Yet almost all universities also appoint first-year graduate students to research assistantships, a practice that can create disparities among entering students unless the institution subsidizes NRSA stipends to ensure that all students are compensated equally. At the postdoctoral level, universities often synchronize salary levels with the NRSA stipend scale to ensure that postdoctoral fellows are treated equally throughout the institution.
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From page 58... ...
On a related note, the committee was troubled that, although career development awards routinely cover family health insurance, the NRSA program provides only individual health insurance to participating graduate students and postdoctorates. The committee believes that the NIH, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Health Resources and Services Administration should require that family health insurance be provided to all eligible NRSA participants.
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From page 59... ...
. ~1975 Predoctoral stipend, adjusted for inflation 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ,~9 ,~9 ,~9 ,~9 ~9~ ADO ADO If If Id ~9O<3 If 9~ TOO Aria 99° 9~ 9~ Fib ~ 9~ ~ i\ 0 Year FIGURE 5-1 NRSA stipends for graduate students and first-year postdoctorates, actual and adjusted for inflation.
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From page 60... ...
Yet over the years the NRSA program has had difficulty accommodating its system of predoctoral and postdoctoral training grants and fellowships to such challenges as the nation's increasing diversity, the growing demand for research support personnel, and the mounting indebtedness of health care professionals. As a result, research administrators and investigators have increasingly turned to funding mechanisms outside the NRSA program: research grant supplements and bridge grants for the training of underrepresented minorities, graduate research assistantships and postdoctoral appointments to fill the needs for research support staff, and career development awards for clinical investigator training.
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From page 61... ...
The committee believes that the criteria of education and experience that determine NRSA stipend levels should guide compensation levels for training-related activities outside the NRSA program as well. The committee welcomes the recent increases in NRSA stipends, yet notes that even the new stipend levels remain unduly low in view of the high levels of education and professional skills involved.
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