An exploratory review of the literature evaluating nonclinical fellowship programs

Margaret Paek; Connor Radkey; Sally Honeycutt; M Kathleen Glynn

doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101812

An exploratory review of the literature evaluating nonclinical fellowship programs

Eval Program Plann. 2020 Feb 27:80:101812. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101812. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Margaret Paek¹, Connor Radkey², Sally Honeycutt³, M Kathleen Glynn⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, United States. Electronic address: kvz3@cdc.gov.
² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, United States. Electronic address: kvz1@cdc.gov.
³ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, United States. Electronic address: ejk6@cdc.gov.
⁴ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Public Health Scientific Services, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, United States. Electronic address: mjg6@cdc.gov.

Abstract

Fellowship programs offer career development opportunities, provide experiential training, and can be used to recruit personnel to address specific challenges facing the public health workforce. Given the potential influence fellowships have on the future public health workforce, it is important to understand and articulate the results of such programs and to identify areas of improvement to meet current workforce needs. The purpose of this literature review was to identify common practices used to evaluate nonclinical fellowship programs. After a search of the internet and selected databases, we screened titles and abstracts using predetermined selection criteria. We then conducted a detailed review of selected papers to extract information about program characteristics (program description, sector, and program length) and evaluation characteristics (primary evaluation type, framework for evaluation, data collection methods, and respondent populations) from 33 papers. We found a limited number of published papers on the evaluation of nonclinical fellowship programs, and most focused on outcomes associated with fellows or alumni. The most useful papers for our purposes clearly described the evaluation framework that guided the evaluation.

Keywords: Fellowship program; Literature review; Program evaluation; Service learning.

Grants and funding

CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHS/United States