Abstract
Nursing faculty shortage has long been a concern because the career development in the academic field is generally considered as less attractive than that in the clinical field. To overcome this, our School has developed a Guided Research Scheme (GRS) for high-caliber undergraduates to build up their capacity for scholarly inquiry. However, the coexistent supervisory roles of different programmes might have added tension between teaching and research workloads for the existing faculty members and jeopardized the student-supervisor relationship due to limited attention devoted for each student. This project attempts to launch a pilot scheme to engage MPhil-PhD students in the supervisory roles for undergraduates who joined the GRS. Two training workshops about mentorship will be provided to prepare the PhD students. It would equip MPhil-PhD students with coaching skills which are essential for their future career development. Six MPhil-PhD students will be selected and pair-matched to provide advice and support to undergraduates for developing research interest and skills, together with the faculty members as partners. The work shadowing experience would enable the MPhil-PhD students to understand research supervision from another perspective, relearn research skills through teaching and enhance their communication skills, and increase the productivity and impacts of the research works as a whole.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
This project aims to engage MPhil-PhD students in research supervisory roles for undergraduates who joined the Guided Research Scheme.
Activities, process and outcomes
Six full time MPhil-PhD students with outstanding academic performance were recruited to be mentors. Interviews for selecting undergraduates were conducted between November and December 2021. A mentorship training workshop to prepare the MPhil-PhD students was conducted in January 2022. Six MPhil-PhD students and six high caliber Bachelor of Nursing students were pair-matched.
Deliverables and evaluation
Between February and April, three manuscripts about aged care, cancer care and stroke care were under preparation for international refereed journals by the students. One poster presentation was accepted for presentation in Research Poster Exhibition organized by the CUHK in May 2022.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
The team will prepare a short article to report this project through the School website and social media platform.
Impact on teaching and learning
Through this project, the MPhil-PhD students act as role models in research development for undergraduates. They appreciated the opportunities to reflect on their research skills during the mentoring process. More importantly, the project synergizes the research works conducted by academic staff, postgraduates and undergraduates. Given the positive experience, this project will be maintained in our School to benefit more students.
