TRINITY COLLEGE
HEALTH FELLOWS PROGRAM
SPRING, 2004
Overview
The
Trinity College Health Fellows Program is designed for those undergraduates
who wish to observe and participate in a variety of health-related
activities. These activities take place at one of these five sites:
Hartford Hospital, Institute of Living, Connecticut Children's Medical
Center, University of Connecticut Health Center, and various community based
sites. The program will provide students with a valuable experience in a
health care setting as well as help guide their future career choices. For
students interested in a career in medicine, medical colleges are more
commonly accepting those who have had relevant experience. This type of
intensive participation would certainly make the Trinity student stand out.
For students interested in a career in research, this program would also
make them much more desirable to graduate schools. In addition, they will
have learned important research skills that, although specific to the
placement, will most often generalize across disciplines. For three
credits, the Fellow works 30 hours a week at the hospital in addition to
attending the on-campus seminar, Topics in Health Care.
Placements are carefully screened to insure that they offer students a
stimulating learning experience. All supervisors will be required to
provide opportunities to participate in research as well as to observe
clinical services. Students are interviewed and selected based upon a
number of factors including their academic profile, maturity,
responsibility, good communicative skills, and the ability to work
independently as well as be a team player. Each student and supervisor will
be matched appropriately.
Interested students should contact the Health Fellows Administrator in
September. Matches between accepted students and supervisors will be
completed by November and work begins at the hospital with the start of
classes in January. Those who participate in their junior year should bear
in mind the option of remaining on site to complete a senior thesis.
Health Fellows Administration
Dr. Sarah Raskin, a Ph.D
graduate of CUNY: The Graduate School and University Center, is the Director
of the Neuroscience Program and Co-Director of the Health Fellows Program.
She is a Neuropscyhologist with ongoing research projects in her laboratory
that are related to the cognitive rehabilitation in traumatic brain injury
and dementing illness, the use of quanitified EEG to measure efficacy of
cognitive rehabilitation, prospective memory, the cognitive effect of
neurotoxins, and mild traumatic brain injury. She will co-teach the
twice-weekly campus seminar for Health Fellows.
Dr. Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven,
the Luce Professor of Health and Human Rights as well as a Medical Doctor,
is a Co-Director of the Health Fellows Program. She completed her medical
degree at McGill University and specializes in Family Medicine. She will
co-teach the twice-weekly campus seminar for Health Fellows.
Kathy Mallinson is the Health
Fellows Administrator, coordinating all aspects of the program on campus and
at the hospital sites. If necessary, she will make prearranged visits to
each internship site during the semester as well as meet with student
interns and supervisors together. Progress, projects, concerns, and
questions can be discussed. Additional meetings can be arranged at the
request of the supervisor or student intern.
Please feel free to contact
Dr. Raskin at 297-2342, Dr. Baldwin-Ragaven at 297-4030 or Kathy Mallinson
at 297-4014, at any time during the semester. The mailing address to reach
us is: Trinity College, Health and Human Rights, 71 Vernon Street, Hartford,
CT 06106, and fax number is (860) 297-4136.
Goals and Student Requirements/Responsibilities
The Health Fellows program constitutes a 13-week fellowship at one of 4
sites (Institute of Living, Hartford Hospital, Connecticut Children’s
Medical Center, University of Connecticut Health Center) and
a twice-weekly class on Trinity’s campus addressing topics in health
care.
Fellows may do both clinical as well as research-related work. Duties
may include attending bedside rounds, grand rounds and seminars,
OBSERVING clinical interviews, diagnostic procedures, treatments, and
patient care, designing research tests, collecting and inputting data,
performing literature reviews, reviewing patient charts and clerical work.
However, the Fellow’s work is determined mainly by the needs of the
supervisor and the student’s interests.
Keep in mind that the main focus of the
program is to successfully complete a research project and that any clinical
time received should be considered as a benefit that may vary across
placements.
Fellows are expected to be at their respective hospitals up to 30 hours per
week, which may include spending time off-site (i.e. library) doing various
research duties. With the exception of official Trinity College breaks as
indicated on the calendar, Health Fellows should be at their internship site
unless their supervisor excuses them.
Participation in the Health Fellows Program offers the student a total of 3
course credits for the semester. The seminar is valued at one course credit
and the research experience at two, each of which receives a separate
grade. In some cases one of these course credits will count towards a
major, but the individual major departments decide this. Students will
also take one other course at Trinity.
The seminar will cover general topics in health care, including recent
advances in research and clinical applications of basic research as well as
issues associated with managed care. Readings will be assigned to generate
class discussion and written papers. Students will be required to write
three 3-5 page reading responses, one 5-10 page paper on an ethical dilemma
involving both medical and social justice issues and propose a resolution to
that dilemma using philosophic arguments to support your position. The
students will also be required to read two biographies, take three take-home
exams, and to maintain a reflective journal. Please keep in mind that class
participation is very important and is also considered heavily, along with
the above mentioned, in determining a seminar grade. As part of the
seminar, supervisors of the student fellows may give a presentation. They
will provide appropriate readings to be completed before the talk. The
student must be prepared to discuss the issues following the presentation.
For the site-based experience, students will
be required to keep a weekly journal of experiences at the hospital which is
handed into the professor at mid-term and at the end of the semester, write
three critical incidents reports, and maintain weekly entries on Trinity’s
Blackboard site. Furthermore, based on their research project, students
will be required to produce a manuscript in the form of a scientific journal
article that is reviewed and evaluated by the site supervisor as well as the
professors. This research will also be presented as a poster at the Trinity
College Science Symposium as well as a formal oral presentation at the end
of the semester to the entire Trinity community. In addition to using the
above requirements to determine a site grade, each site supervisor will have
the opportunity to evaluate their fellow at mid-term and end-year and this
feedback as well as class participation during a guest lecture will be used
as well.
Supervisor Expectations and Benefits
All Health Fellows supervisors will have Adjunct Lecturer status at Trinity
College, which entitles them to use the library and athletic facilities,
etc. The Administrator will be in touch with them about arranging this.
Supervisors are responsible for overseeing that students fulfill the
site-based requirements of the Health Fellows Program, that is, to carry out
the research project and gain some clinical experience. Thus, at mid-term
and end of the semester, we require that each supervisor complete
evaluations on the progress and performance of their student. (Examples of
each of these forms are enclosed in this manual).
Most fellows will be taking another course simultaneously with their
fellowship; they must be allowed to work around the times necessary to
attend class.
Abstracts from some chosen projects completed by the 2000 and 2002 Health
Fellows class are enclosed as examples of research projects. A couple of
“model research papers” are also enclosed, as a model of the level of work
expected from students at this point in their academic careers.
Towards the end of the semester, supervisors
will be informed of dates when their fellow will be making oral
presentations of their research to the Trinity College community.
Supervisors are welcome and encouraged to attend any or all of the
presentations. Similarly, the annual Trinity College Science Symposium date
will be announced, but usually it is in the first week of May in the Ferris
Athletic Center on campus. Fellows will present their research project in
poster form at this Symposium, and supervisors are invited to attend.
Some supervisors and Health Fellows have
submitted their project for presentation at professional meetings. Please
keep the Health Fellows Administrator up-to-date on paper or poster
submissions, so we can pursue monetary assistance for travel for Health
Fellows to attend the meeting. Trinity College reviews each proposal for
travel to meetings on a case-by-case basis.
Supervisors will be contacted early in the semester by the Administrator of
the Health Fellows Program to schedule an optional talk as part of
the colloquium series for the Health Fellows seminar. Any topic of interest
in medicine may be presented. We ask that supervisors identify a topic in
their field that is particularly current, either in terms of being a new
breakthrough, or in terms of being controversial in some way. Several weeks
before the talk, we ask that we be sent 1 or 2 readings of relevance to the
topic. The students will read these papers in advance of the talk, and after
the lecture the class can hold a vigorous discussion. We hope, in this way,
to give students a broad overview of the types of topics relevant to health
care and to allow all students to get a feel for the work of all the
participating supervisors. Audiovisual materials (LCD projector, slide
projector, overhead projector, VCR) will be available if needed. Please let
the administrator know a full week in advance if audiovisuals will be
needed. An honorarium will be mailed to the speaker after the talk.
Orientation and Safety Information
The respective educational offices at each
hospital will be notified of the Health Fellows who will be completing
fellowships at their hospitals. Appropriate prerequisite health clearances
and policies/procedures will be addressed before the beginning of the
semester, coordinated by the Health Fellows Administrator.
back to top
