About Boot Camp
A major NIDUS priority is providing mentorship and career development opportunities. As a result, we seek trainees, junior faculty, and mid-career researchers who are new to the delirium field. These opportunities include a virtual mentorship program, mentoring webinars, and other training opportunities throughout the year.
We use the annual NIDUS Delirium Boot Camp to mentor early-career researchers in an intensive setting. The over-arching goal of the Boot Camp is developing a multidisciplinary pipeline of well-trained translational, epidemiologic, and clinical delirium researchers. Boot Camp is an international affair - we've had the privilege to welcome participants from Canada, Australia, the European Union and South America. Currently, there are over 125 Delirium Boot Camp alumni. Boot Camp offers attendees:
- NIH-style mock grant reviews of all submitted mentee proposals
- An in-depth workshop on use of the commonly used delirium assessment instruments (e.g., CAM, 3D-CAM).
- Mentor-guided discussions on topics related to research success and career development
- Thirteen interactive didactic-style sessions addressing one more of the following focus areas:
- Research gaps and opportunities regarding the inter-relationship between delirium and AD/ADRD
- Strategies to optimize clinical, translational, and epidemiological delirium research approaches across different settings.
- Addressing common delirium research challenges and strengthening grantsmanship
- Multiple networking events and opportunities: 3 structured, 7 unstructured and opportunities for 1:1 meetings with senior NIDUS faculty researchers
Boot Camp Eligibility
The NIDUS Boot Camp is designed for faculty and research fellows with previous research training and experience who plan to continue researching delirium. It is open to researchers from a variety of backgrounds, professions and research areas. However, there are a limited number of spots available each year and the application process is very selective. The following criteria determine eligibility:
- Prior training in the fundamentals of translational, clinical and/or epidemiologic research
- At least 1-2 years of previous research experience
- Hold an MD, PharmD, PhD, or other doctoral level degree
Note: strong advanced predoctoral candidates may be considered
- Have an interest and passion for delirium research
- Must have at least 25% protected research time to conduct the planned Boot Camp proposal research
- Must have 10 hours to devote to advance preparation for Boot Camp (Mid-August to mid-October):
- attend a 1 hour meeting on how conduct an NIH-style grant proposal review
- review 1 project proposal of another Boot Camp applicant
- watch a pre-recorded Delirium Assessment presentation in preparation for a Bootcamp workshop
- review 8-12 medical journal articles prior to Bootcamp that provide foundational background for different Boot Camp presentations
History of NIDUS Boot Camp & Organizing Committee
Co-chaired by Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD and John Devlin, PharmD, an Organizing Committee plans the NIDUS Boot Camp. You can find a full list of Organizing Committee members here.
Boot Camp was founded in 2013 through a career development award to Dr. Sharon K. Inouye. With this grant, she established the Center for Excellence for Delirium in Aging: Research, Training and Educational Enhancement (CEDARTREE).
From 2016 to 2020, the Delirium Boot Camp was funded by an NIA Network Grant (R24AG054259, PI Inouye), under leadership of Donna M. Fick, PhD, MSN, and E. Wes Ely, MD, MPH.
The NIA has funded the 2021-2025 Delirium Boot Camps (R13185760). The current Boot Camp leaders are Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD, MPH and John W. Devlin, PharmD.
