From Lab Technician to Professional Student

When students graduate from college, a large number of them do not have the means, guidance, or confidence to achieve their career goals.  Most who seek jobs as research technicians hope they will receive some guidance on how to proceed and become successful at being admitted.  Currently, 299 Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) employees hold the following staff designation, Research Tech I (39), II (148), or III (112), and 82 are men and 215 are women. The total number with bachelor degrees is 99, 19 have Master’s.  If a significant number of these technicians have this underlying goal, the institution could provide a way for these potential students to gain successful admittance into medical/graduate school. The success of these BCM employees maybe directly correlated with their ability to develop mentor relationships or attend mentoring sessions that would help construct a plan for their successful admission.  This research study will determine “How many BCM Research Technicians sought employment to gain admission into graduate/medical school?”.  The hypothesis is that more than 50% of BCM Research Technicians seek employment at the college in order to successfully gain admission into graduate/medical school. Methods A Cross-Sectional Survey was used to generate background data and narrative data from the participants.  Survey Monkey was used to produce a web-based version of the survey, stored the responses, and allowed us to download responses in several formats.  Once collected the data was analyzed using description, analysis, and thematic development methods. Results Of the 299 technicians, 117 responded to the survey and 59.6% indicated they sought employment to gain admission into BCMs graduate/medical school. This study determined that the technicians are interested in professional degrees and are interested in mentoring opportunities to assist them in this endeavor. Workshops will be offered during the times the technicians indicated.