Abstract
Knowledge is power, but only when people have access to it and the confidence to put it into action. Whether it is a student joining an undergraduate research lab or a parent deciding if genetic testing is right for their child, confidence in navigating scientific information determines who can participate in life-changing opportunities. Specifically, in my technical project I explored the knowledge and experiences that are necessary for students to access undergraduate research opportunities in the Engineering School at the University of Virginia. In my STS project, I argue that health literacy is necessary for healthcare decision making and therefore needs to be included in the frameworks that predict it. Both projects examine the broader implications of how access to knowledge shapes opportunities in science and healthcare.
The problem addressed in my technical work is the inaccessibility of undergraduate research opportunities at UVA. Undergraduate research is a high-impact experience that gives students the opportunity to gain academic skills, mentorship, and the opportunity to work on real-world problems. However, there are numerous barriers to entry into undergraduate research, and these barriers especially affect first-year students, first-generation students, and members of underrepresented groups. So, in this technical project I proposed a theoretical framework and conducted a mixed methods study to investigate how students overcome barriers and successfully participate in undergraduate research. I collected quantitative data through a pre- and post-fall semester survey administered to first year students and a one-time survey administered to fourth year students. I used this data to create a structural equation model that tested the theoretical framework and identified the factors most important for a student to access undergraduate research including, research awareness, self-confidence in research, and research belonging. To support the statistical model, I collected interview data and thematically coded it to highlight individual student experiences.
In my STS research paper, I argued that the Health Belief Model (HBM), a foundational framework that models healthcare decision making, is fundamentally flawed because it does not consider health literacy. Health literacy is significant because it is “a stronger predictor of poor health than age, income, employment status, education level, or race” (Shahid et al., 2022, p. 2). To demonstrate why health literacy needs to be considered in the HBM, I analyzed a case study in pediatric genetic testing. The case study highlighted the experience of two parents deciding if genetic testing was right for their daughter. I analyzed the case study through two constructs of the HBM: perceived benefits and barriers. My analysis revealed that health literacy is essential for people to fully understand the risks and benefits of a health action and to engage in bioethics. It is evident that adequate health literacy shapes healthcare decision making, so it must be included in decision making models.
Through these two projects, I successfully explored how knowledge and experiences impact participation in science and healthcare. Through my technical project, I identified the key factors that helped students overcome the barriers to undergraduate research. The next steps of this project would be to use my findings to inform and develop curriculum and extracurricular programs to best help students join and succeed in undergraduate research. Next, through my STS research I demonstrated the need to integrate health literacy into the HBM through a case study. This work could be expanded by doing a similar exercise on other case studies to further reveal the influence of health literacy on decision making. Furthermore, additional work needs to be done to determine how health literacy is best integrated into the HBM and frameworks like it.
