College students get more than an education during Summer Research Practicum at Phoenix VA

The program, which ran from July to September 2024, supports research engagement for students in allied health, medical, and nursing fields, and enables early career investigators to become competitive as independent scientists under co-directors Katherine Petersen and Kevin Kupferer.

“The 2024 Summer Research Practicum was the third year Phoenix VA has hosted this program,” said Kevin Kupferer, Director of Operations, Clinical Studies Center, Phoenix VA Health Care System. 

While the initial funding was for 21 VA locations to host these summer internship programs for three years, Kupferer explained that VA Health Services Research and Development was recently awarded funding to continue this program for an additional five years, which he believes will allow for continued research and training benefits for students, staff, and Veterans.

“We have a good portion of our scholars here that traveled from other states because they are interested in nutrition,” said Katya Milyard, an SRP scholar who recently graduated from Northern Arizona University with a BS in Biomedical Science. “The other locations have different focuses, so this program is definitely worth it regardless of which location you go to. It's just a good experience.”

The nutrition focused practicum at the Phoenix VA was designed as a three-month, compensated summer experience for undergraduate and graduate students. As part of this experience, students received 10-weeks of mentored research training and applied clinical research experience.

The Phoenix VA is excited to continue to offer this opportunity to students. This program will inspire individuals from diverse backgrounds to become the future VA healthcare workforce and compete for future research funding as part of their careers.

“This program fills a vital goal of attracting future VA healthcare providers and preparing them to critically understand the challenges of VA healthcare, and develops solutions to address these challenges,” said Kupferer.

“For me, I've never had any research experience before, so this program made me realize just how much thought and detail goes into research and just how long that process can take. I have more respect for the field in general now,” said Elease Tewalt, a senior majoring in Dietetics at Arizona State University, who is considering being a Registered Dietitian or a Physician Assistant.

Another scholar in this program, Sophia Bae, who is pursuing a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Nutrition at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said she had some research experiences prior to this program, but they were not entirely positive.

“Initially, I reached out just to see what the VA had in terms of opportunities for my nutrition practicum,” said Bae.

Bae, who will be applying for medical school for the Fall 2025 and wants to work in the field of Public Health, said that she had a much better experience here because the research mentors defined for her what the scope of the research was from the beginning. Bae said this has given her a clearer understanding of what a future in research might look like.

The Phoenix VA SRP accepted four scholars into the program the first year, six the second year, and eight this year. The curriculum is under continuous process improvement based on feedback from faculty and scholars. Lessons learned from the first two years of the practicum have better prepared the program for success.

“This program benefits the scholar, Phoenix VA and Veteran groups VA-wide through proactive engagement with possible future VA workforce to enhance their baseline research skills, and their use of those skills in professional roles to improve Veteran-centric care,” said Kupferer.

The practicum is rigorous, yet individualized and flexible. Didactics include tours, elective activities, journal clubs and bi-weekly half-day seminars. The scholars receive comprehensive mentorship, customizable research experiences, and professional development training that are not typical of their traditional fields of study.

“This program is really good even for people even who don't want to go straight into being a researcher. It really helps develop your critical thinking skills. I think that's a very important skill for all of us here, as future healthcare workers, to develop because we should be approaching our jobs in a way that is systematic and evidence based.” said Kylie Waynik, who is pursuing a Nutritional Science Master’s Degree at Arizona State University.

Waynik has aspirations to become a Registered Dietitian and said she picked this internship because she wants to work for the VA eventually.

“And it was nutrition focused, so as a dietetic student that got me very interested,” said Waynik. “It was a way for me to build connections here in the Phoenix VA, and learn about research, which is something that I had no knowledge of but was interested to see what nutrition research in general would look like.”

Bae said what stood out for her was the willingness Phoenix VA staff had to provide assistance, guidance, and mentorship.

“I think one thing that I really happy about is how many mentors are really part of the program,” said Bae. “Every single investigator or individual that we've interacted with has been very open telling us ‘my e-mail is always open and reach out to me if you have any questions.’ Knowing that there is a network that's not just working towards making sure that the Veterans are taken care of but also making sure that people who in the future are perspective individuals interested in healthcare have them as resources.”

The Phoenix VA has developed a rigorous and flexible program for the SRP scholars, which aims for improving scholar confidence and self-identification as a researcher, increasing the diversity of the VA workforce, and cultivating interest and participation in nutrition research. 

“I like having seminars twice a week. It's been a really good experience meeting so many different people and learning so much,” said David Kay, who is a Medical Studies sophomore with a minor in Nutrition at Arizona State University. “Now I know so much about the field it's opened my eyes to so much. It's a really big and new interesting field to learn about.”

“Personally, I would say it's a lot of writing, and I feel like it's really helpful to strengthen my writing,” said Derrica DeVault, a rising senior at Texas A&M Prairie View where she studies Human Health and Nutrition with a concentration in Dietetics. “I feel like everything that we do is going to have an impact on me. How I go about school, studying, or writing in general is going to be strengthened because of the experiences I have here.”

“The early mentorship and training provided through this practicum helps prepare these scholars to advance their career and be Veteran-informed care providers in their respective disciplines,” said Kupferer. “Also, having a fresh workforce from students who come with diverse exposures and experiences helps the VA adapt to emerging clinical needs and develop solutions to emerging challenges.”

“I hadn't really had an opportunity to do anything like this before,” said Milyard. “This was really great for me coming from someone with no research background and learning all these skills. From this experience, I learned that I actually really enjoy research.”