Form 3 Young Faculty Moderator Guide

Form Approved

OMB Number 0925-0648

Expiration Date 1/31/2015

Moderator Guide

Young Faculty

We’re exploring how physician-scientists like you think about their research career decisions, and we’d like to ask you some questions about your experiences and the decisions you’ve made. The aggregate findings will be used to inform the deliberations of the Physician Scientist Workforce Committee at the National Institutes of Health about how to improve and support a sustainable and diverse physician-scientist workforce.

This focus group will last about 1½ hours.

A few ground rules for today’s discussion:

1. Please just use your first name in your introduction and discussion.

2. We want you to do the talking and we would like everyone to participate. I may call on you if I haven't heard from you in a while.

3. There are no right or wrong answers. Every person’s experiences and opinions are important. Please speak up whether you agree or disagree with what’s being said.

4. What is said in this conversation will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. That is, no one person’s contributions in the focus group will be identified to the Committee, and we will not provide any information from the focus group to your institution. Instead, the Committee will be provided with aggregated information to help them in their deliberations. We want you to feel comfortable sharing when sensitive issues come up.

5. We will be tape recording the group because we want to capture everything you have to say. You will not be identified by name in the report so all comments will be anonymous. The tape recordings and transcripts will be stored in a locked file cabinet until June 30, 2014 and then they will be destroyed. If anyone objects to being taped, now is the time to remove yourself from the group.

Any questions before we get started?

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Then let’s begin. First, let’s go around and briefly introduce ourselves. Can you share with us three pieces of information?:

1. Your first name

2. Your current family situation: single, married or in a committed relationship, parent (how many children and their ages)?

3. Your primary area of research

Past Influences

4. What were the most important factors that made you originally think about pursuing a career in research? (PROBE FOR: Exposure to research – family member/friend in research, Mentor, Internship/summer fellowship program, college major; college vs. university setting)

5. Approximately when in your academic career did you make the decision that research might be a good career choice for you? (PROBE FOR: approximate time if they tie the decision to an event.)

6. Have you ever had a mentor/role model in research? If so, who? How did you find your mentor?

Current Considerations

7. Just as you were making the decision to build a research career, what do you remember as appealing to you most about it?

8. Now that you have a research career in an academic center, what appeals to you most about it?

9. What are the current challenges you face in your career? (PROBE FOR: uncertainty of funding, balancing the demands of strong science and other professional demands; salary; work/family balance)

10. What would make it easier for you to continue to pursue a bio-medical research career? (PROBE for: policy changes; changes in financial support)

11. When you observe physician-scientists around you at school or in the workplace, what do you admire about them? What turns you off? (PROBE: How much would you like your career to emulate theirs? What, if anything, would you choose to do differently or would have chosen to do differently in the past?)

12. What formal activities does your school provide to encourage promising students to pursue a research career? (PROBE for: Research track? Formal mentoring program? Preceptor programs? Internships? Technological approach? If programs exist, please describe them)

Future

13. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 20 years?

14. What kinds of things would you suggest to the Physician-Scientist Workforce Committee that would help strengthen the physician-scientist workforce?

Thank you very much!

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