Workforce Development & Training

CPDE has extensive experience collaborating with partners to support and evaluate workforce development and training. Programs focus on building knowledge and skills, strengthening networks, installing new policies and procedures, and enhancing infrastructure within and across organizations.

Workforce Development and Training projects include:

IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (New Hampshire & Rhode Island)

The INBRE program (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) supports collaboration between research-intensive institutions and primarily undergraduate institutions and/or community colleges. These programs aim to expand the science and technology capacity and infrastructure in their state by providing increased opportunities for students and faculty to experience and lead original biomedical research. CPDE is responsible for assessing impact on students, faculty, undergraduate research culture, and science research infrastructure at partner institutions in each state. Our evaluation plans include online and in-person surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, direct observation, and longitudinal follow-up and tracking using direct outreach and social media resources. (Funder: National Institutes of Health)

Program for Oncology Workforce Education and Research Experience at Dartmouth (POWERED)

Dartmouth’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) received a five-year training grant from the National Cancer Institute to increase the underrepresented minority (URM) workforce in cancer research. First and second year students from colleges and universities in New Hampshire who meet the NIH qualifications for designation as an underrepresented minority are eligible to be a POWERED scholar, giving them two summers in residence at NCCC as paid full-time researchers and four semesters paid part time working in labs with their mentors at their home institutions. CPDE’s non-experimental, longitudinal evaluation plan is designed to collect qualitative and quantitative data at multiple time points during a student cohort’s two-year engagement. We use formative evaluation to monitor, refine, and re-examine program implementation during the active project period, and summative evaluation at the end of the project period to determine overall effectiveness and impact, and to describe the extent to which the program has met its stated goals and objectives. (Funder: National Cancer Institute)

Rivier Registered Nurse Enhanced Education for Primary Care (Project REEP)

The Project REEP initiative is a multi-component project aiming to increase training for the primary care nursing workforce serving the vulnerable and medically underserved communities (MUCs). A key component of the REEP intervention involves a revised and enhanced curriculum. Other aspects of the REEP program include stipends, educational workshops, a preceptor fellowship, faculty shadowing, and collaborations with primary health care organizations to provide 150 hours of clinical experience for students. The REEP program is offered to students in the Division of Nursing undergraduate BSN program. CPDE is the external evaluator for this 4-year project. Recent evaluation activities have included collecting survey data from students, preceptors, and advisory board members and conducting focus groups with students. (Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration)

Project REEP Telehealth Program

The Project REEP Telehealth Program is funded by the CARES Act Supplemental Funding for the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention Programs (NEPQR) at Rivier University. The goal of the Project REEP Telehealth Program is to promote the use of telehealth technologies to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and to prepare nursing students by enhancing their readiness to respond to COVID-19 through telehealth technologies. Courses and simulations will be revised to integrate telehealth concepts and to use telehealth equipment. Learning modules will be developed summarizing the important aspects of telehealth across several nursing specializations (e.g., pediatrics, mental health/psychiatry, family medicine). Telehealth supplies were purchased for REEP students to use with clinical partners in remote and underserved areas that treat multicultural and diverse populations. CPDE is the external evaluator for this 1-year project. Evaluation activities include demonstrating the effectiveness of the enhanced curriculum and telehealth training experiences. (Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration)