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Reaching New Heights: Strengthening Health Professions Research at a Majority Hispanic-Serving Institution is an interdisciplinary initiative to strengthen biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences (collectively termed “biomedical”) research within health professions at UTRGV.
The project is funded by a grant award (1UC2AI188568-01) from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) STrengthening Research Opportunities for NIH Grants (STRONG): Structured Institutional Needs Assessment and Action Plan Development for Resource Limited Institutions (RLIs).
The STRONG initiative is led by the College of Health Professions (Michael Lehker, PI) and is in collaboration with the School of Nursing, School of Social Work, and the Department of Psychological Science.
For more information about the STRONG initiative and its components, click on the related links on the left or contact us at STRONG@utrgv.edu.
Although health professions (HP) – allied health, nursing, social work, clinical psychology – represent more than 80% of the healthcare workforce, rigorous research within these fields, a cornerstone of evidence-based practice, is often trailing behind that of other medical professions. The urgency of closing this gap is amplified for health professionals practicing in communities characterized by poverty, low educational attainment, health care access challenges and, consequently, poor health outcomes. Thus, building and strengthening HP biomedical research capacity is vital to improving health and addressing health disparities.
The long-term goal of the STRONG initiative is to foster a robust HP research environment conducive to high-quality, cutting-edge biomedical research.
Guided by a conceptual framework that integrates multiple levels and domains of influence, our aims are:
- Engage the UTRGV HP community in a structured, comprehensive research needs assessment that delineates the interactions and feedback loops among levels and domains of research capacity and productivity.
- Develop a corresponding action plan characterized by clear, feasible, measurable, sustainable, and institutionally championed action items that support high-quality, cutting-edge biomedical research.
Our team will conduct a structured and comprehensive research needs assessment to inform the development of an action plan that will meet these needs and strengthen health professions research capacity. The needs assessment includes five components.
- Environmental scan
- Analysis of research-related policies and procedures
- Faculty research capacity & needs assessment
- Institutional research support
- Student research support
Our team, informed by the findings of the needs assessment and guided by various stakeholders, will develop an action plan to strengthen the research productivity of health professions faculty, with a focus on health research in the context of Hispanic/Latino culture.
Guiding Principles
- Responsiveness to identified needs
- Institutional commitment
- Feasibility
- Alignment with institutional mission and existing research capacity
- Sustainability
- Flexibility
- “From bench to bedside to community” research in the context of Hispanic/Latino culture
Action Plan Development Process
