Priming the Palliative Psychology Pipeline: Development and Evaluation of an Undergraduate Clinical Research Training...

Psychology adds value to palliative care research and practice, but palliative psychology training programs are underdeveloped, particularly prior to advanced graduate and post-doctoral training. The investigation aimed to examine the feasibility of developing an undergraduate clinical research training program focused on the application of palliative psychology to cancer care. Analyses described and examined predictors of trainee performance and post-graduate outcomes. Retrospective analyses of administrative data tracking trainee characteristics (degree programs and tracks, qualifications, and demographics), research trainee performance (satisfactory participation, training duration, scientific output, supervisor ratings, and overall performance), and post-graduate degree programs. The population included all undergraduate trainees in a cancer-focused palliative psychology research lab from inception in 2013 through 2020 at a US research-intensive university. Trainees (N = 25) typically majored in psychology (72.0%) or neuroscience (28.0%), often with second majors. The average participation in the lab was 3.4 semesters. Overall, 92.0% of trainees earned a conference abstract, 56.0% earned a publication, and 72.0% went on to a post-graduate degree program, most commonly psychology PhD, MD, or nursing programs. Trainees enrolling in psychology PhD programs were more likely than other trainees to have been on the pre-psychology PhD track (P < .001) and had higher overall research performance (P = .029), including higher supervisor ratings (P = .008) and higher scientific output (P = .019). This demonstration study provides evidence for the feasibility and beneficial impact of an undergraduate palliative psychology clinical research training program as an early component of cancer educational training. Findings support calls for the development and evaluation of novel palliative training programs worldwide.