Traumatic injuries are a leading cause of death and disability, and underrepresented minorities are disproportionately affected. The Pediatric Injury Prevention Student Internship Training (INSIGHT) program is an innovative, and intensive, eight-week undergraduate summer program at the University of Washington's Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center. INSIGHT introduces students to professional development and scientific communication through interactive seminars, public speaking practice, and scientific presentation. The INSIGHT program provides students the necessary background and experiences to successfully compete for higher educational opportunities for medical or graduate school. Leveraging diverse partnerships with community and research organizations, INSIGHT increases the number of minority, first generation, or otherwise underrepresented students exposed to the field of medicine, pediatric injury prevention and injury control. Over the past three years, INSIGHT has received four fold more applications, from diverse backgrounds.
The Specific Aims are: 1) To provide an immersive mentored research experience in pediatric injury control, 2) To impart critical professional development capacity building skills, and 3) To increase recruitment of underrepresented and disadvantaged students to the field of pediatric injury control. The Pediatric INSIGHT program will have broad impact because it addresses a major public health concern, program demand is high, and there is organizational readiness to enrich this interdisciplinary and unique student summer program focused on the field of pediatric injury prevention and control.
The Pediatric Injury Prevention Student Internship Training Program (INSIGHT) is an intensive, eight-week interdisciplinary and experiential mentored summer internship which provides research experience, clinical observerships, outreach exposure, and career development. Students are matched to research faculty experts in pediatric trauma and injury control. Research areas include elucidating the risk factors and causes of pediatric injuries, injury prevention, acute and chronic care of injured patients, trauma outcomes, and interventions to return the injured child and adolescent to full potential.
