Applications due to internship@ifh.rutgers.edu by April 26, 2024. See below for application instructions.

Questions about the program? Email Nicole Swenarton at nswenarton@ifh.rutgers.edu.

OVERVIEW

The Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research (IFH) Summer Research Internship Program is designed for undergraduate/graduate students interested in public health, biomedical or social science research. This program is a 10-week internship opportunity for qualified students who would like to gain hands-on, guided and practical experience on a project related to the interdisciplinary areas of research at IFH. While IFH represents a variety of research focuses, candidates interested in health disparities in diverse racial/ethnic populations are encouraged to apply.

Over the course of 10 weeks, you will:

• Gain hands-on research experience working on a research project led by a faculty mentor, meeting with mentors at least once per week
• Receive general mentorship and guidance from your faculty mentor about your research career
• Attend in-person seminars to network with peers and faculty at the Institute for Health in New Brunswick, NJ (not required, but encouraged)

Participation in this summer internship will begin the week of June 10 and culminate in a final presentation the week of August 16 based on the individual’s research project. Participants are welcome to take additional summer classes and/or hold other employment during the program period. The expected time commitment is a minimum of 20 hours per week. A stipend will be provided.

ELIGIBILITY:

To be eligible for this internship, you must:

• Be an undergraduate or graduate student in public health, biomedical, social sciences, social work, public policy, health economics, or a related field;
• Be able to commit to 20+ hours per week from June 10-August 16

TO APPLY:

Please send the following materials to internship@ifh.rutgers.edu by April 26, 2024:

• Resume or CV
• 1-page cover letter outlining why you are interested in research and which research project you are most interested in pursuing (see below for options)

Through this program, all interns will be working alongside an assigned mentor on one their mentor’s current projects. Types of responsibilities will vary across projects, depending on intern’s previous experience and what is needed to advance the mentor’s research. Examples of some of these potential projects are included below. Applicants are required to indicate their preferred project in their cover letter. Please choose one.

1. Behavioral health and intellectual/developmental disabilities: The intern will work on conducting literature review and secondary data analysis (survey and/or claims data) to examine health services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illness/addiction culminating in a manuscript to be submitted for peer review.

2. The student will have opportunities to work on different research projects examining neighborhood and interpersonal stressors (e.g., social isolation) and their impacts on cardiometabolic and cognitive health among community-dwelling older adults. The student will help with manuscript preparation, literature review, data management, and statistical analyses.

3. The intern will have the opportunity to support an investigation of recent trends in the utilization of psychotropic medications in children and adults using real-world-data. We anticipate the intern conducting a literature review and, depending on interests and expertise, assisting with the analyses and table/figure preparation for publication.

4. The intern will support faculty in research examining recent trends in prescription ketamine utilization among adults with treatment-resistant depression using real-world health care data. Activities will include literature review and assistance drafting research manuscripts, preparing tables/figures for publication, and secondary data analysis, depending on interests and expertise.

5. Support various population health and health equity research projects including: 1) implementing and evaluating strategies to improve cancer screening and chronic disease management; 2) conducting literature reviews to improve the Office’s Population Health Fellowship Program and other initiatives; and 3) participating in and analyzing the Office’s high school training program and health communication initiatives. Projects can be customized to align with the intern’s research interests. Interns will also participate in Office of Population Health team meetings.

6. Intern to support data analysis and literature review for studies in digital health and neuropsychology, with opportunity to continue after the summer ends. Students with prior statistics and programming skills preferred.

7. Interns with an interest in increasing access to evidence-based treatments for reducing the negative consequences of the opioid epidemic will collect and analyze primary survey data from a system of community-based residential services. Interns will support survey recruitment, collection, and analysis, as well as literature reviews for manuscript preparation.

8. Intern will support a research study working to determine causes of vaccine hesitancy among underserved communities using social media data capturing strategies. The study aims to identify and target interventions to best meet the needs of vaccine-hesitant communities across the country. Interns will support data collection as well as conduct literature reviews.

9. Interns with an interest in aging and end-of-life will support a project to define the scope of hospice policies regarding Medical Aid in Dying in the 11 states where MAID has been legalized. Responsibilities include finding and analyzing publicly available hospice policies according to a data abstraction guide. They will also conduct outreach to hospices to enquire about their MAID policy when none is publicly available.

Summer Research Internship Flyer 2024 by Nicole Swenarton on Scribd