To understand the barriers and facilitators to a career in clinical and translational science.
The CTSA Program Steering Committee has established a Taskforce to identify ways to sustain the careers of translational scientists. In an effort to understand the barriers and facilitators to a career in clinical and translational science, the taskforce surveyed former participants of the CTSA KL2 mechanism. The purpose of the survey was to gain information from individual investigators about their experiences both during and after KL2 support.
The survey was sent via REDCap on January 18th, 2019 and collected responses until it was closed on February 8th, 2019. A list of KL2 alumni emails was provided to CLIC by NCATS. Weekly reminders (3 total) were sent to survey participants, and were halted only after the participant completed the survey. A total of 756 unique responses were cultivated over the life of the survey giving a 42% response rate. The survey was comprised of both quantitative and qualitative questions. All responses were analyzed systematically and aggregated to preserve anonymity.
Demographically, at least four unique gender identities were represented in the survey responses. However, those who identify as ‘Female’ comprised the majority of responses at 54.7%, and those who identified as ‘Male’ comprised 43.9% of the responses. In addition, roughly 23% of survey respondents identified as a minority underrepresented in Clinical and Translational Science in accordance with the official NIH definition.
Overall, participants responded positively regarding their experience before and after completing the KL2. Three hundred and thirty nine survey participants indicated that they hold a role in administration or leadership in their current position, and provided specific examples which can be found in the appendix. Of the respondents who answered the survey items regarding intrinsic/extrinsic success, most agreed that their job is meaningful and that they are satisfied with the direction that their career is progressing.
In an effort to aggregate data, some qualitative responses were put into categories with subsequent theme codes. All raw, qualitative responses can be found in the appendix. Quantitative data were represented with appropriate graphs and charts.