Undergraduate Summer Research Program wraps up successful summer

26 August 2014

The 2014 Undergraduate Summer Research Program draws to a close at the end of the summer, and students and sponsoring faculty gathered this week to celebrate student research success, and to give feedback on the program.

The Undergraduate Summer Research Program is just one of the ways Bloomberg Nursing gives nursing students the chance to explore their research interests and experience the research process first-hand by working on projects supervised by a faculty researcher.

Funded by the University of Toronto Life Sciences Committee, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Bertha Rosenstadt Health Research Fund and individual faculty, students spend the summer working on faculty research projects while earning a stipend. This year, students participated in a diverse range of projects, from working to enhance the quality of end-of-life care for children with cancer, to looking at the role of co-morbidity, frailty and functional status in the decision-making process for older adults with cancer and their care teams.

The summer research program grows in popularity each year, with more than 50 applicants this year and 23 students placed with faculty researchers. This record high suggests that students see this program as a valuable complement to their nursing education.