Understanding quantitative research: part 2

"Bridging The Gap" Medical Degree Preparatory Program (EMDP2) Military Students Provide Leadership and Mentorship to Classmates

INTRODUCTION

The lack of adequate diverse representation (racially, socioeconomically, gender, second career applicants, student parents, etc.) within secondary education in the United States has proven to be a challenging and complex, multifaceted problem, and despite ongoing efforts, one that continues to remain unsolved. These disparities are well known and documented at all levels of education. The Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences is the nation's only fully federally funded medical school and capitalizes on the preexisting diversity and exceptional training already existing within the U.S. military's enlisted force through the Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program (EMDP2). This study aims to investigate how a novel program at a unique military medical school influences medical school class cohorts.

METHODS

This study used a traditional thematic qualitative analysis format. Thematic qualitative analysis is a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing, and reporting themes found within survey responses. One hundred nine surveys via SurveyMonkey© were sent to EMDP2 students. Thirty-six surveys were returned for a response rate of 33%. Two co-investigators carefully read each participant response and coded independently line-by-line with constant comparison of each quote. NVivo© software was used to store the data as the counts progressed.

RESULTS

After completion of data collection, results identified the following themes among survey responses being accepted, bridging the gap, feeling valued, gratitude, prior experiences, and professionalism.

CONCLUSIONS

Students with prior military experience have a significant impact on our institutions medical school classes. These students provide mentorship and professionalism to their fellow classmates. This study helps educators understand the perspectives and challenges faced by prior-service medical students and appreciate how to use the prior experience of these unique prior-service members to benefit the entire class.

Part three: The quantitative approach

The previous articles in this series have explored the need for perioperative practitioners to select a research approach that supports the aims of the study to be undertaken (Quick & Hall 2015a,b). The quantitative approach is considered by some authors to be 'the epitome of the scientific approach' (Meadows 2003) and this article, the third in a series, aims to give an overview of this model.

Scholarly Productivity in Rehabilitation Counseling

As with most disciplinary areas in the realm of academe, the prestige of rehabilitation counseling has always been assessed by a faculty’s research productivity, which is determined by the frequency of publications in the leading peer-reviewed journals. The purpose of the present study was to appraise peer-reviewed publication venues, order of authorship, article types, research productivity of scholars, and their affiliated programs in the field of rehabilitation counseling. A total of 1,855 peer-reviewed articles from seven major rehabilitation-related journals over a 10-year period (2000 to 2009) were investigated. Results revealed disparities in research productivity between minority-serving institutions and White-dominant institutions, and also between teaching-oriented institutions and research-oriented institutions. The authors also found a positive correlation between an institution’s research productivity ranking and its U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools ranking. Toward the conclusion, suggestions for future research on scholarly productivity are provided.