This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.One of the major aims of the ND INBRE is to effectively engage the State's Native American community to encourage participation in the Nation's research enterprise, including effective competition and participation in the portfolio of available grants and contracts. The Native American community's long-standing, deep distrust of the Federal government and its sponsored research programs hinders Native American participation in the Nation's research portfolio. Thus, effective engagement of the Native American population in the Nation's research portfolio must first address and develop methods to overcome past distrust and establish new comfort levels for participation in the research enterprise. The ND INBRE has been proactive in the effort to re-establish trust and understanding of the research enterprise. As will be detailed, the ND INBRE has launched a pilot project at the Cankdeska Cikana Community College on the Spirit Lake reservation to introduce Native American community college students to the research enterprise through a series of courses taught by Native Americans. The course entails a teaching and research partnership between Native American academicians, Dr. Jacqueline Gray of the UND Center for Rural Health and Dr. Russ McDonald of the Cankdeska Cikana Community College. The series includes a 3 credit course on the Introduction to Research and 4 credits on Research Practice I and II with practical experience gained by participation in a pilot project on mental health and suicide prevention in tribal communities. Evaluation of the recently completed initial course indicates excellent enthusiasm by the students and their increased appreciation of the role of biomedical research in health promotion. This effort, on the student level, will be maintained and expanded through INBRE support to other Tribal Colleges located within North Dakota. A.
Specific Aims1. To inform the Native American community regarding the advantages of participation in the National Institutes of Health initiative on community based research.2. To develop a cohort of Native American students that are proficient in their understanding of human research, the IRB, and the methods necessary to collect data in the community based setting. 3. To empower the Tribal College to serve as an agent that initiates research partnerships to develop, deliver, and analyze community based research efforts that involve Native American communities. The long range goal of the project is to initiate a Center for Native American Community Based Research at CCCC that will serve tribal nations in the State of North Dakota. B. Studies and Results. The ND INBRE, Drs. Jacqueline Gay and Russ McDonald recently formed a collaboration to engage tribal college students at the Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) in the research enterprise. It was hypothesized to use Native American students as the initial target audience and to allow student enthusiasm for the process to naturally filter into the overall community, taking advantage of the strong family ties that exist within the reservations. The CCCC Pilot Research Training Program was designed to provide three instructional modules: Part I -Introduction to Research; Part II - Research Practice I and II, and Part III - Active Participation in The Mental Health Pilot Research Project. The training program was designed and taught by Leander (Russ) McDonald, Ph.D., CCCC/Spirit Lake Planning and Jacqueline (Jacque) Gray, Ph.D., UND Center for Rural Health. Dr. McDonald is an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Tribe and has been conducting research among American Indian and Alaska Natives for 10 years. He is adjunct professor at the UND School of Medicine and Sociology Departments and continues to serve on thesis and doctorate committees as graduate faculty. Dr. Gray an assistant professor at the UND School of Medicine and adjunct professor in the Department of Counseling is of Choctaw and Cherokee descent and has practical experience providing mental health services among rural and tribal populations. She has her doctorate in Counseling Psychology and has taught various research and counseling courses. Dr. Gray is trained in research in American Indian and Alaskan Native communities and has conducted research with American Indian communities for 15 years. Details of the first module is describe below and the next modules under Plans. Part I - Introduction to Research (48 hrs, 3 college credits): This introductory was completed in the current funding period and was provided as an intensive 6 day module to 11 Native American students attending CCCC. A combination of lecture, group, and applied experience was utilized to teach a variety of topics such as research ethics, protection of humansubjects, institutional review boards (academic and tribal), interviewing skills, researchterminology, Intro to the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Excelsoftware, and cultural considerations. A certificate as a 'Research Aide' was awarded tothose completing the full 48 hours of classroom activities and assigned computer labwork. This initial effort will assist both CCCC and Spirit Lake Planning to identify anddevelop a cadre of community researchers for Part II and III of this pilot project. The student response to this course was outstanding and the INBRE has been asked to provide this unit as an adult continuing education course.C. Significance: The applicant's believe that this approach will encourage Native American participation in the Nation's developing community-based research portfolio.D. Plans: The plans in the coming year are to complete Part II of this program. Part II - Research Practice I and II (2 credits each semester): This course is currently being offered to seven students that have completed the above introductory course. This applied two semester practice course is designed to introduce Tribal College students to community based research by providing practical experience in sampling, data collection, data entry and data management. The students will conceptualize the need for community based research and application for researching Native communities. The goal for the first semester is for students to apply their knowledge from the Introduction to Research course to their practical experience. Through this process, students will become familiar in computer assisted interviewing (CAI), informed consent, confidentiality, data security, face to face interviewing, and data entry. Because the data entry will be automated, training will focus on safe and secure data. Additional training will focus on data management to ensure the data transfer or conversion into SPSS is complete andaccurate. Analysis will be limited to descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations. PowerPoint will be utilized for developing poster and oral presentations and the notes pages will be utilized for introduction of analysis, interpretation, and report writing. Lastly, the students will be expected to write a three page report to determine comprehension of the course content. Dr. McDonald, Dr. Gray, and/or Planning staff are mentors for the students. The students will provide a presentation of the results at a CCCC public forum and at a Tribal General Assembly. Part III - The Mental Health Pilot Research Project is also underway. INBRE discovered early in the course of study design for community based research that if demographic data was absent for a community, a research project was almost impossible to design and implement within that community. A lack of demographic data is the norm on reservations. The survey is part of the overall Mental Health Pilot Research Project and is undertaken in collaboration with a demographic study conducted by Spirit Lake Planning. This project is designed to identify all houses on the reservation for the sampling frame. This pilot should be ready for full project funding in the upcoming INBRE competing renewal.
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