Serving as a Student Preceptor for MPH Projects
As a doctoral student, you may be asked to work with a MPH student
on his/her research project. This can be a great learning
experience, and highly beneficial if you are interested in academia. However,
if you agree to work with a student, you need to be aware of the
responsibilities you are assuming and mindful that this experience
has both rewards and frustrations. The following describes
what is expected of you if you say “Yes.”
- Ask the MPH student to schedule an initial meeting to include the MPH student, MPH student faculty advisor, MPH Project preceptor (if there is one) and yourself, as the doctoral student preceptor. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the project and ensure that everyone has the same expectations for process and outcomes.
- Familiarize yourself with the MPH Research Project Agreement Form that the student submitted so that you know the research question, objectives, and proposed methods that were approved by the faculty advisor, preceptor (if there is one), and the MPH Program Director.
- Be prepared to assist a student who is engaging in primary data collection with IRB submission issues.
- Plan to meet weekly for one to two hours with the student throughout the semester. This ensures that the student understands what s/he is doing and completes the work in a timely fashion. This requires patience.
- Review prior good MPH projects so that you are aware of the number and type of tables the student should include in the paper. (In order to determine which projects might be good to review, check with the MPH Program Coordinator or other faculty to see which students won Research Day awards.) If you have questions, run them by the faculty advisor and preceptor (if there is one) to be sure you are thinking about things in the same way.
- Be sure to include conversations about and analysis for interactions and confounders. Again, if you have questions, check with the faculty advisor and preceptor (if there is one).
- If you commit to helping a student with the MPH Research Project, you must work with the student until the final MPH Project report is finished and the presentation is made at Research Day.