Understanding reasons for taking gap years before medical school, and the impact of gap years on the student experience of medical education

Gap years have grown in popularity among students attempting to go to medical school in recent years. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), more than half of matriculated students now have taken time off between their undergraduate studies and medical school. While many claim benefits to taking gap years, research on the impacts of these experiences on medical students is largely nonexistent. This study aims to qualitatively analyze the gap year phenomenon and its impacts on medical students through semi-structured interviews conducted at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. Through these interviews, the research team collected in-depth responses that were thematically analyzed. Analysis revealed the following major themes regarding the impacts of gap years: 1) adaptability to change and failure, 2) professional identity formation and understanding of team role, 3) understanding the "real world", 4) refocusing of goals, 5) resilience and stress management, and 6) reinforcement of motivation.

Rapid Response: Developing a Suite of Copyright Support Services and Resources at the University of Central Florida during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Like many academic libraries, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries has faced the difficult challenge of ensuring access to information and supporting the research, scholarship, and teaching needs of faculty, staff, and students during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Copyright and licensing matters have played a key role as the UCF Libraries has helped faculty and students navigate the rapid transition from face-to-face courses to online and conducting academic work in a wholly online environment. This article provides a case study of how the UCF Libraries developed an expanded suite of copyright support services and resources in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will explore how each of these services or resources provided specific support to faculty and students in teaching and learning. Services and resources developed in consultation with the Office of General Counsel include a detailed research guide with information about remote access to resources, including temporary access to licensed content from publishers; a series of professional development online workshops on topics such as copyright, fair use, and emergency circumstances and library support for course materials; and additional opportunities for individual consultation support through virtual office hours and other modes of communication, such as chat, email, and phone. The aim of this article is to provide academic libraries with examples of copyright services from a large metropolitan library during COVID-19 so that they can be used as a model when implementing copyright support at their respective institutions during these exigent circumstances and beyond.

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Transfer students face many challenges integrating into a 4-year college that affect their retention and success, yet very little research has documented how to create wraparound programming to support them. There remains a need to establish retention models that are adaptable and can serve a variety of students and institutions. The Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (LEARN) Consortium, a partnership of Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, and Western Carolina University whose focus is on engagement in undergraduate research, addressed this need by developing and testing T-LEARN, a new model for a sustainable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) retention program specifically for transfer students who have transitioned to a university setting after receiving their associate’s degree at a community college. The new model was developed by adapting a successful retention model for 1st-year students at the University of Central Florida centered around three main pillars: (1) academics/research, (2) mentoring, and (3) community building. In this paper, we describe the development of the T-LEARN model, outline the adaptations made to accommodate the specific needs of transfer students, and present 3 years of implementation data we analyzed to determine what factor(s) most impact transfer student retention and success. Our findings indicate that T-LEARN students’ involvement in research during their 1st year was the most significant factor within the T-LEARN program that contributed to their academic success. Additionally, the majority of these students had continued to do research with the same LEARN program faculty mentor 1 year after the program ended.

Lifestyle Medicine at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine

From 2009 to present-day, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine has progressively incorporated lifestyle medicine into its curriculum thanks to a variety of student and faculty-led efforts. These efforts include extracurricular learning opportunities through a student-run Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group, curriculum-based didactics through University of Central Florida faculty members’ integration of lifestyle medicine in preexisting sessions, and clinical experiences for students provided by a American Board for Lifestyle Medicine certified practitioner.

The Professional Counselor: Author and Article Characteristics from 2011 to 2019

This meta-study evaluates publication patterns and trends occurring in the first 9 years of The Professional Counselor (TPC). Both author (e.g., gender, domicile, employment setting, top individual and university contributors) and article characteristics (e.g., topic, research design, participant type, sample size, statistics) are identified, with a particular focus on research articles. Almost 64% of lead authors and all authors were women, 92.1% of lead authors were affiliated with universities, and 3.4% of lead authors were internationally domiciled. From 2011–2019, the University of Central Florida featured the greatest number of lead authors, and the top author overall was Dr. Kathleen Brown-Rice. About 58% of published works were research articles, and of those, 69% used quantitative design methodology. Nearly all coded research variables were stable over time, except for participant types, as the proportion of adult participant samples increased while undergraduate participant samples decreased over time.