HERSHEY, Pa. — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ (NIGMS) has awarded the Penn State Medical Scientist Training Program supplemental funding to provide professional development training for MD/PhD students.
“We plan to use these supplemental funds for the implementation of curricular and training activities aimed at providing our trainees with an enhanced skill set to become successful physician-scientists,” said Robert Levenson, co-director of the program. “The supplement will allow us to augment the professional development training we normally provide our students with new training sessions designed to promote resilience, grit, wellness, leadership, teamwork and a stronger sense of community.”
Using the funds from the grant, the program plans to hold three retreats focused on fostering characteristics that will prepare students to identify symptoms of burnout, develop qualities of resilience, foster perseverance during challenging situations and enhance their leadership skills.
The goal of the grant is for students to learn how to build resiliency through the professional development programs, an important characteristic for physician-scientists who often balance seeing patients in the clinic while conducting research in the laboratory.
“We want to prepare students for success as the next generation of biomedical researchers and physician-scientists,” Levenson said.
The MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program is an eight-year program that integrates medical and graduate education to train future physician-scientists who wish to pursue a combined clinical/research career in academic medicine. The grant, which runs through June 2021, provides partial support to six eligible students in the program per year. The program is funded in part through a T32 training award from the NIH-NIGMS. Visit the MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program website for more information.