Students report more positive attitudes toward older adults following an interprofessional service-learning course

The aim of this study was to assess undergraduate students' perceptions of older adults over the semester in an interprofessional service-learning course that implemented a health promotion program called Bingocize® at community facilities for older adults. Students were surveyed at the beginning of the semester, at midterm, and at the conclusion of the course. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to assess the students' perceptions and experiences. Results suggest that a course on aging that includes interprofessional service-learning in geriatric settings is associated with a significant increase in positive perceptions of the older adult population. Further research, however, is warranted to validate the findings.

"Biomedical Workforce Diversity: The Context for Mentoring to Develop Talents and Foster Success Within the 'Pipeline'"

Like all biomedical research fields, AIDS research needs the broadest diversity of experiences and perspectives among researchers in the field if creative advancements are to be achieved. Mentors and mentoring are the most important vehicles by which the talents of young scientists are developed. However, mentoring as a teaching and learning paradigm is very complex and idiosyncratic, and often inadvertently fails to provide the same quality and quantity of opportunity to aspiring scientists who are 'different' from those doing the mentoring. This article provides a theoretical and practical framework for understanding how differences of race, ethnicity, gender, skin color, social status and other identifiable characteristics can play into scientific development during mentoring 'within the pipeline'. It also serves as a foundation upon which mentoring in AIDS is considered by subsequent papers in this series. Finally, it goes beyond mentoring to propose systematic coaching as an effective complement to research mentoring to promote success, especially for individuals from underrepresented groups.