TIDE: Establishing Trust, Stimulating Inquiry, Nurturing Development, and Community Engagement.

The TIDE (Establishing Trust, Stimulating Inquiry, Nurturing Development, and Community Engagement) research education program trains current clinician scientists in mentoring best practices and community-engaged research while exposing graduate professional students to the skills needed to pursue careers in rehabilitation research. TIDE leverages partnerships across disciplines and institutions to “train the trainers” (i.e., current clinician scientists) and to provide didactic and hands on research experiences for graduate professional students (i.e., future clinician scientists) who are passionate about the communities served by rehabilitation. TIDE’s overall goal is to optimize rehabilitation outcomes for all people by cultivating a community of mentors and scientists who are well-equipped to address the evolving needs of the breadth of populations that we serve. Advancements in the medical management of life-threatening diseases and traumatic injuries are increasing longevity while also increasing the prevalence of chronic illness and physical disabilities. The top 10 of the 150 most costly health conditions (e.g., low back pain, stroke, catastrophic injury) can be managed with early access to and effective delivery of rehabilitation. However, not everyone who would benefit from rehabilitation receives high-quality rehabilitation services, thereby impeding the potential impact of rehabilitation on health care quality, outcomes, costs, and population health. Furthermore, there remains a significant need for new, more effective, and more efficient rehabilitation methods. We need rehabilitation clinician scientists - or scientists with expertise in rehabilitation theories, methods, and practices – to lead research that ensures delivery of the right care to the people who can benefit most from rehabilitation at the right time. To ensure a scientific workforce that is best equipped to meet these needs, we must train current scientists to utilize best mentoring practices in recruiting, training, supporting, and advancing future clinician scientists. Our program “turns the TiDe” by training current clinician scientists who demonstrate a strong commitment to investing in a scientific workforce in these best practices, while training graduate professional students from across the nation who demonstrate a strong commitment to improving health outcomes for communities served by rehabilitation through their interests and goals related to pursuing careers in rehabilitation research. Thus, TIDE not only trains current clinician scientists, TDE also supports potential future scientists from among students training to be clinicians who are interested in research. Specifically, TiDe is designed to (Aim 1) develop pathways for graduate professional students to learn the skills to become independent clinician scientists in rehabilitation research; (Aim 2) create supportive communities by training current clinician scientists in the skills necessary to attract, train, support, and advance future clinician scientists; and (Aim 3) train and support future clinician scientists as they pursue rehabilitation research careers.