Professional Training and Development

A Study of Employment Sites of Nurse Graduates

The Professional Nurse Traineeship program, sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration, funds graduate education of registered nurses. The program goal is to place 40 percent of trainee recipients in medically underserved communities. We evaluated the program with three specific aims in mind: (1) determining whether it was meeting its targets, (2) examining whether graduates from schools receiving the funding were more likely than graduates of schools not receiving it to work in medically underserved communities, and (3) understanding the characteristics of nurse graduates associated with employment in a medically underserved community. We surveyed over 5,000 graduates to provide information for maintaining and improving the program.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the National Health Service Corps

The National Health Service Corps was established in 1971 to address the lack of health personnel in underserved rural and inner-city communities. Physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other professionals who join the Corps repay loans or scholarships by serving in designated underserved settings. This evaluation addressed the multiple objectives that have been put forth for the Corps over the years and explicitly sought to contrast the current and previous effectiveness of the Corps in meeting them. Criteria for success included impact on communities, health care provided for the underserved, long-run supply of health personnel in Corps sites, and impact of the Corps in retaining primary care providers committed to working with underserved populations.

Evaluation of the NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program

Mathematica designed a model for rating applicants and participated in the selection process of scholarship recipients for the National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Program. The program seeks to attract outstanding young science students from disadvantaged backgrounds and to encourage them, through scholarships, mentoring, and summer research, to pursue careers as biomedical scientists. We designed an evaluation of the program and drafted a successful proposal for NIH One Percent Set-Aside Funding. We also conducted a process analysis study of the outreach and recruiting component and the service obligations of the scholarship program. Click here for the final report.

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