Saint Louis University's Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing offers graduate research assistantships as an option for full-time students on campus. There are both contractual requirements and school expectations for doctoral research/teaching assistants.
Contractual Requirements
- Work 20 hours per week for assigned faculty during weeks that SLU is in session for the period of time defined in your contract.
- Take coursework or actively engage in other academic work (e.g., dissertation) consistent with full-time student status.
- Refrain from other regular outside work for pay unless this has been approved in advance by your adviser, program director and the graduate dean.
School Expectations
- Doctoral assistants are actively involved in acquiring research competencies and teaching competencies if the latter are consistent with your role aspirations. To foster this development and encourage your participation in a developing community of scholars, you will be expected to attend and participate actively in regularly scheduled Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing monthly research events and, if you are a teaching assistant, special instructional events consistent with developing teaching expertise. Three hours per month of your contracted time may be allocated to participation in these events.
- Doctoral assistants are expected to develop role competencies appropriate to a future academic or clinical research position. Participation in governance through the committee structure of the school is an important part of this role development, and the active participation of doctoral students on various committees is welcomed and valued. Two hours per month of your contracted time may be allocated to participation in SON committee work.
- The two provisions above allow for a maximum of five hours per month of your contracted
assistantship time (approximately 6% of that time to be used for role development
activities).
In addition, our doctoral assistants are strongly encouraged to participate in regional and national presentations of their work. A maximum of three work days per academic year (i.e., the equivalent of 3*4=12 hours of assistantship time) may be devoted to regional and national presentations of your work (either work related to the assistantship or other scholarly work).
First-year doctoral students may use a maximum of two work days per academic year (i.e., the equivalent of 2*4=8 hours of assistantship time) to attend a regional or national research or scholarly meeting. Funding from the research office is available to help defray the expenses of presenters (maximum of $400 for one presentation per academic year; maximum of $300 for attendance at one conference per year). Funding must be requested and approved prior to travel. - Doctoral assistants working for the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing will be
allowed to use our materials and supplies for personal academic work at a reimbursement
rate that compensates us at cost. A schedule of the reimbursement rate for various
supplies (e.g., transparencies) and services (e.g., use of the color printer to print
copies on 28# stock) will be made available in the early fall of each academic year
by the assistant dean.
Assistants are on the honor system to keep records of their use and to reimburse the administrative assistant of the Office of Nursing Research by cash or check at least once each semester. Occasional small uses need not be recorded or reimbursed.
Materials and services used for grant proposal preparation or for classroom handouts need not be recorded or reimbursed. Materials and services used for scholarly presentations outside the SON should be recorded and reimbursed, but as noted above, some funding is available to help defray those costs.
If a large-scale use of supplies or services is planned, the doctoral student should clear this in advance with the administrative assistant of the Office of Nursing Research to be sure that supplies are not suddenly depleted or instructional work is not disrupted. - Doctoral assistants are given SLU business cards and are asked to post time cards on their office doors, indicating their probable hours of use of their shared offices. This will allow greater sharing of not-in-use computers by doctoral assistants and NRSA fellowship holders.