NRMN Two-Day Training Event in November at UPR Medical Sciences Campus

NRMN will be holding a two-day in-person training event at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus November 17 – 18, 2016.

Applicants from Puerto Rico and the continental U.S. will come together for multi-faceted training for early career investigators and experienced faculty. The event will offer sessions based on several of NRMN's existing training programs, including the following:

Grantwriting

In an intensive grant writing coaching group, aspiring scientists will work with NRMN professional development coaches and peers to develop competitive NIH grant funding proposals. Well-established investigators will be participating as coaches-in-training and will be offering training to scientists on how to write grant proposals in rhetorical patterns and for multiple audiences.

Mentor Training

Faculty already mentoring postdocs and entry level faculty looking to hone their mentoring skills will participate in the Mentor Training event on November 17. The session was developed by scientists affiliated with the Entering Mentoring series, which has been successfully tested via a multi-site Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) and is now being used as a framework for training across NRMN. The session uses a case-based approach to explore an intellectual framework for research mentoring, providing opportunities for reflection on mentoring skills and a forum to solve mentoring dilemmas and share strategies for success.

Findings from the RCT include:

• Trained mentors reported significantly higher learning gains as compared to the control. They also reported they had implemented more changes in their mentoring practice.
• 88 of seminar participants reported that the eight-hour seminar was a valuable use of their time and 90 percent said they would recommend it to a colleague.
• Mentees of Trained Mentors noted a greater number of positive changes in their mentoring relationship over the study period.

Facilitator Training

The Facilitator Processing Training will be a half-day session hosted on November 18, 2016. It was specifically designed for those that have previously attended a train-the-trainer event (Facilitating Mentor or Mentee Training) led by members of the UW-Madison Entering Mentoring team.

In this Advancing Implementation session, participants will discuss the progress that has been made to implement mentor training, the barriers faced, and how we can support institutional change that will build on the efforts of trainees to date. Participants will complete a survey providing details of their efforts to implement mentor training since prior training sessions.

Find out more by emailing Dr. Adriana Baez, NRMN Associate Director at adriana.baez@upr.edu.