Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Student-centered Pipeline to Advance Research in Cancer Careers (SPARCC): Diversifying the Clinical Cancer Research Workforce

  • Published:
Journal of Cancer Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A lack of diversity in the clinical cancer workforce causes undue burden limiting research and patient care advancements. Recruitment and retention of individuals underrepresented in medicine/research can enhance patient-provider concordance. The Student-centered Pipeline to Advance Research in Cancer Careers (SPARCC) uniquely prepares underrepresented minority students to quickly transition into the clinical research workforce and seek advanced graduate degrees. Experiential learning theory and culturally responsive pedagogy ground SPARCC’s rigorous competency-based curriculum incorporating cancer care, clinical trial development, social supports, and mentored research experiences. Concurrent mixed-methods analysis includes evaluations of workshops, clinical-practicums, and pre-, post-, and 6-month-post-knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Analysis of data included stepwise multivariate regression analysis, Spearman’s rho correlations, and assessments of inter-item reliability via Cronbach’s alpha (IBM® SPSS® 24.0). Inductive content analysis coded phrases and analytic patterns were distilled enhancing descriptions of experiences. From January 2019 to March 2019, 62% of applications came from underrepresented minorities. Ten students were accepted, 90% identified as underrepresented minority. All ten students completed the pre-, post-, and 6-month-post-evaluations. Overall scores increased significantly from pre-evaluation to 6-month-post-evaluation. Evaluation data came from 431 responses of 60 workshops, with a mean score of 9.1 (10-point scale). Students completed three clinical practicums, which received an overall mean score of 8.2 (10-point scale). A robust curriculum, structured recruitment, diverse faculty, and comprehensive evaluations made SPARCC a compelling strategy for supporting underrepresented minority students to seek immediate employment as clinical research professionals or application to advanced graduate degree programs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Not applicable.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

References

  1. Frierson GM, Pinto BM, Denman DC, Leon PA, Jaffe AD (2019) Bridging the gap: racial concordance as a strategy to increase African American participation in breast cancer research. J Health Psychol 24(11):1548–1561. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105317740736

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Cooper LA, Roter DL, Johnson RL, Ford DE, Steinwachs DM, Powe NR (2003) Patient-centered communication, ratings of care, and concordance of patient and physician race. Ann Intern Med 139(11):907–916. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-139-11-200312020-00009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Durant RW, Wenzel JA, Scarinci IC, Paterniti DA, Fouad MN, Hurd TC et al (2014) Perspectives on barriers and facilitators to minority recruitment for clinical trials among cancer center leaders, investigators, research staff, and referring clinicians: enhancing minority participation in clinical trials (EMPaCT). Cancer 120(Suppl):1097–1105. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.28574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Diehl KM, Green EM, Weinberg A, Fredrick WA, Holmes DR, Green B et al (2011) Features associated with successful recruitment of diverse patients onto cancer clinical trials: report from the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group. Ann Surg Oncol 18(13):3544–3550. https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-011-1818-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Goode CA, Landefeld T (2018) The lack of diversity in healthcare. Journal of Best Pract Health Prof Divers 11(2):73–95

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fouad NA, Santana MC (2017) SCCT and underrepresented populations in STEM fields: moving the needle. J Career Assess 25(1):24–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072716658324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Watkins BJ, Mazur E (2013) Retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. J Coll Sci Teach 42(5):36–41. https://doi.org/10.2505/4/jcst13_042_05_36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hinton AO, Vue Z, Termini CM, Taylor BL, Shuler HD, McReynolds MR (2020) Mentoring minority trainees: minorities in academia face specific challenges that mentors should address to instill confidence. EMBO Rep 21(10):2–5. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202051269

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Estrada M, Hernandez PR, Schultz PW (2018) A longitudinal study of how quality mentorship and research experience integrate underrepresented minorities into STEM careers. CBE Life Sci Educ 17(1):1–13. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-04-0066

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Brady DC, Weeraratna AT (2020) The race toward equity: increasing racial diversity in cancer research and cancer care. Cancer Discov 10(10):1451–1454. https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.cd-20-1193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kolb D. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall; 1984.

  12. Ladson-Billings G (2014) Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a. the remix. Harv Educ Rev 84(1):74–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Sonstein S, Seltzer J, Li R, Silva H, Jones CT, Daemen E. 2014 Moving from compliance to competency. Clin Res (June):17–23. doi:https://doi.org/10.14524/CR-14-00002R1.1

  14. Murray-García JL, Harrell S, García JA, Gizzi E, Simms-Mackey P (2014) Dialogue as skill: training a health professions workforce that can talk about race and racism. Am J Orthopsychiatry 84(5):590–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Altenburger KM, De R, Frazier K, Avteniev N, Hamilton J. 2017 Are there gender differences in professional self-promotion? An empirical case study of LinkedIn profiles among recent MBA graduates. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2017.;(October):460–463.

  16. Ahmed SM, Palermo AGS (2010) Community engagement in research: frameworks for education and peer review. Am J Public Health 100(8):1380–1387. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.178137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Creswell, John W., Plano Clark, V. L. Gutmann, M.L. & Hanson WE. 2003 Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research. In: Teddle AT and C, ed. SAGE Publications, Inc.:209–240.

  18. Roche R, Manzi J (2019) Bridging the confidence gap: raising self-efficacy amongst urban high school girls through stem education. Am J Biomed Sci Res 5(6):452–454. https://doi.org/10.34297/ajbsr.2019.05.000964

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Carpi A, Ronan DM, Falconer HM, Lents NH (2017) Cultivating minority scientists: undergraduate research increases self-efficacy and career ambitions for underrepresented students in STEM. J Res Sci Teach 54(2):169–194. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Calvin-Naylor NA, Jones CT, Wartak MM et al (2017) Education and training of clinical and translational study investigators and research coordinators: a competency-based approach. J Clin Transl Sci 1(1):16–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2016.2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kesling, B, Jones C, Fritter J, Neidecker M. 2020 Navigating a career as a clinical research professional: where to begin? Clin Res J 34(6).

  22. Oh SS, Galanter J, Thakur N et al (2015) Diversity in clinical and biomedical research: a promise yet to be fulfilled. PLoS Med 12(12):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Montgomery BL. 2017 Mapping a mentoring roadmap and developing a supportive network for strategic career advancement. SAGE Open 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017710288

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center for its support of the SPARCC scholars.

Funding

Research reported in this publication was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (award number R25CA221715).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Kristina Kaljo

  2. Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Emmanuel M. Ngui

  3. Office of Academic Affairs, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Robert Treat

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Janet S. Rader

Authors
  1. Kristina Kaljo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Emmanuel M. Ngui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Robert Treat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Janet S. Rader
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristina Kaljo.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval/Human Participant Compliance Statement

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Medical College of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board (PRO00031976).

Consent to Participate

Due to the minimal risk of this study, no consent documents were required per the Institutional Review Board requirements.

Consent for Publication

Due to the minimal risk of this study, no consent documents were required per the Institutional Review Board requirements.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kaljo, K., Ngui, E.M., Treat, R. et al. Student-centered Pipeline to Advance Research in Cancer Careers (SPARCC): Diversifying the Clinical Cancer Research Workforce. J Canc Educ 38, 370–377 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02127-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02127-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation