Application Process for Rice Undergraduate Students

To apply, submit the following application documents online at 12twenty (12twenty account needed).

• Student Application Form
• Resume
• Unofficial Transcript
• Project-Specific Paragraph for each project to which you are applying

Research Projects available for Spring 2025

Application deadline for the Spring 2025 semester is Friday, November 22, 2024 at 11:59pm Central.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Chin Jou (Rice University)

Project Title
Captive Consumers: Hunger, Inequality, and Violence in American Prison Food

Project Description
This project is a book manuscript on prison food that I drafted and submitted this past June. The book manuscript discusses virtually every aspect of prison food in the United States, including nutrition and health. I hope to receive readers' reports on the manuscript soon, and expect to revise the manuscript in accordance with readers' reports and prepare it for publication in Spring 2025.

Tasks the student would be expected to perform
The selected student would probably be fact checking, copy editing, making sure endnotes correspond to text, and obtaining permissions to reproduce/publish photographs and other images from their sources. A student interested in a career in publishing and/or applying to graduate school in the humanities would probably get the most out of the tasks associated with this project.

Specific skills or training the student should have before beginning the project
The student should be proficient in spelling and grammar, be able to look up original secondary sources from their citations, and respond to emails promptly and consistently.

Onboarding
The selected student must show evidence of completion of specific CITI IRB training modules prior to starting the fellowship. Details will be included in the acceptance letter.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Luziris Pineda Turi (Rice University)

Project Title
U.S. Latine Health Research

Project Description
SPAN 333: U.S. Latine Health focuses on the most current research about the topic. In order to keep the course up to date, Dr. Pinea Turi seeks a student capable of gathering and doing a review of research articles focused on different medical humanities topics connected to the U.S. Latine population. English and Spanish proficiency required.

Tasks the student would be expected to perform
Research
Literature Review
Analysis

Specific skills or training the student should have before beginning the project
Proficient in English and Spanish
Research experience

Onboarding
The selected student must show evidence of completion of specific CITI IRB training modules prior to starting the fellowship. Details will be included in the acceptance letter.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Natasha Afonso (Texas Children's Hospital)

Project Title
Experiencing the ICU as a Limited English Proficiency Family Member: A Phenomenological Study

Project Description
Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) face significant risks within the healthcare system, including increased medical errors, lower satisfaction rates, and longer hospital stays. These challenges are particularly pronounced in the intensive care unit, a high-stakes environment where critical decisions are made and clear communication between providers and families is essential. The experience of LEP family members in this setting is complex and often fraught with additional stress due to language barriers which can impair their understanding of care decisions, increase feelings of isolation and hinder participation in their loved one's care. This project aims to explore the unique experiences of LEP family members of ICU patients, uncovering the challenges they face as well as how these barriers may impact patient outcomes. Using a phenomenological approach, the student will conduct in-depth interviews with LEP family members of ICU patients to capture their personal narratives and understand the impact of language barriers on their ICU experience.

Tasks the student would be expected to perform
Conduct literature review on experience of Limited English proficiency patients/families while in the hospital.
Development of semi-structured interview to explore key topics such as clarity of medical information, emotional responses to ICU communication and interactions with healthcare providers.
Conduct in-depth Interviews with LEP family members of ICU patients to collect first hand narratives about their time in the ICU.
Transcribe and analyze the interviews to identify themes related to communication, trust and overall satisfaction with care.

Specific skills or training the student should have before beginning the project
Not required, but fluency in language other than English would be beneficial.

Onboarding
The selected student must show evidence of completion of specific CITI IRB training modules prior to starting the fellowship. Details will be included in the acceptance letter. In addition, the student will need to complete the onboarding process (badging, background check, paperwork) and HIPAA training for Texas Children's Hospital.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Chang (Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital)

Project Title
Antibiotic Accountability: Minimizing Waste, Maximizing Sustainability in Healthcare

Project Description
There is a growing body of literature analyzing the impact of inefficient management of antibiotics at the hospital level. Significant quantities of antibiotics are wasted in pediatric hospitals including those in shortage. Beyond the economic impact, antibiotic waste is also related to supply chain resiliency and overall hospital waste and healthcare sustainability. (References: DOI: 10.1177/0018578719844164 and DOI: 10.1017/ice.2023.118)

The overall goal of this project is to examine antibiotic waste within a pediatric acute care hospital and identify opportunities for reducing waste. This project aligns with the medical humanities in the following ways: Environmental Impact: This project lets students explore the connection between healthcare and environmental sustainability, prompting discussions about how healthcare practices impact our environment in currently unaccounted ways. Stories and Communication: Talking to staff about their views on antibiotic use and waste can reveal everyday challenges and attitudes toward sustainability. These narratives could provide insights into the everyday challenges healthcare providers face in balancing effective patient care with sustainable practices. This aspect of the medical humanities brings human experiences and stories into the project, offering valuable qualitative data to support quantitative findings.

Tasks the student would be expected to perform
Qualitative and quantitative end-to-end examination of how antibiotic prescriptions flow through a pediatric acute care hospital. Qualitative tasks would include observations of social structures within inpatient pediatric teams that drive antibiotic prescriptions and how different types of healthcare providers interact and perceive their relationship to antibiotics, waste, and sustainability. Students would conduct interviews with providers, pharmacists, nurses, patient families about perceptions around antibiotic waste.
Students would perform quantitative data collection on the volume, cost, and impact of wasted antibiotics. Students would attempt to identify and develop interventions to reduce antibiotic waste. Students would also develop the communications and messaging to implement interventions, and subsequently try to measure quantitative outcomes from their intervention. Finally, students would develop and collect qualitative measures of perceptions of effectiveness of messaging and interventions to reduce antibiotic waste in the hospital.

Specific skills or training the student should have before beginning the project
Basic understanding of quality improvement principles would be helpful. Skills conducting and coding interviews would be helpful.

Onboarding
The selected student must show evidence of completion of specific CITI IRB training modules prior to starting the fellowship. Details will be included in the acceptance letter. In addition, the student will need to complete the onboarding process (badging, paperwork) and HIPAA training for Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, including the completion of the UTHealth Houston Visiting Scholars Program Application for Visiting Students. More information about the process is available at this link: www.uth.edu/visiting-scholars

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Misti Ellsworth (Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital)

Project Title
Understanding Patient and Family Refusal of CHG bathing

Project Description
Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) contribute to significant patient morbidity and mortality. One pediatric central line associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) can increase the cost of care by $50,000 dollars and extend the hospitalization by up to 3 weeks (1). Daily chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing has been proven to reduce hospital acquired infections and is included in our maintenance bundle for central line care to prevent CLABSIs. Despite the evidence supporting this practice, compliance with daily bathing in our children’s hospital is currently not at our goal of 95%. Over the past 12 months, CHG bathing compliance across all units has ranged from 70-80%. Frequent reasons for missed CHG bathing include lack of nursing time, patient factors such as instability or hypothermia, and parent or patient refusal. Parent or family CHG bathing refusals account for 11-30% of missed baths. The reason for parent or patient refusal is not consistently documented and there is currently no process to address the refusal or to provide education on the benefits of CHG bathing. The aim of this project is to reduce CHG bathing refusals by 50% over the next 6 months. To accomplish this goal, we will identify the reasons for refusal, create a process to address these reasons and develop education on CHG bathing for patients and families. The student's work will engage with medical humanities through interviews to gain insight into the patient's perspective of CHG bathing. This will allow us to identify reasons behind refusals and help drive interventions that improve the experience for patients and families. The student and I will also partner with families to create educational materials to explain the "why" behind CHG bathing.

Goudie A, Dynan L, Brady PW, Rettiganti M. Attributable cost and length of stay for central line-associated bloodstream infections. Pediatrics. 2014 Jun;133(6):e1525-32. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3795. Epub 2014 May 5. PMID: 24799537; PMCID: PMC4258643.

Tasks the student would be expected to perform
Interview patients, parents, and families on CHG bathing experience
Interview healthcare workers on CHG bathing experience
Develop interventions to improve the experience for both patients
Create educational materials for patients and families

Specific skills or training the student should have before beginning the project
None

Onboarding
The selected student must show evidence of completion of specific CITI IRB training modules prior to starting the fellowship. Details will be included in the acceptance letter. In addition, the student will need to complete the onboarding process (badging, paperwork) and HIPAA training for Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, including the completion of the UTHealth Houston Visiting Scholars Program Application for Visiting Students. More information about the process is available at this link: www.uth.edu/visiting-scholars