Samantha Cueto, NUR ’24, Union City, NJ
This summer, I have been gratefully given the opportunity to work with Dr. Maya Clark-Cutaia as her Clinical Research Assistant. I was honored to have worked with Dr. Clark-Cutaia, who is currently an Assistant Professor at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing in NYU, while actively practicing as a Nurse Practitioner in the General Surgery unit at Penn Medicine. She is currently a member of several nursing associations, and has previously won several awards for her groundbreaking research, such as the Sojourner Truth Award. Her research primarily focuses on improving patient outcomes in patients experiencing ESRD and hemodialysis renal replacement by decreasing symptom burden and lessening disparities in disadvantaged populations. Furthermore, NYU Langone and the Rory Meyers College of Nursing are nationally-recognized institutions delivering top-quality nursing care and education.
Prior to working alongside Dr. Clark-Cutaia, I held no experience in manuscript development, and I held little to no knowledge on how to even begin writing research articles. I previously worked as a Research Assistant at Penn’s School of Nursing, under nursing researchers Dr. Nancy Hodgson and Dr. Adriana Perez. However, these research studies prioritized elderly populations with dementia, incorporating implementation science and community-based participatory elements. My internship under Dr. Clark-Cutaia has allowed me to directly contribute to manuscript development and the extensive amount of research that must go into the research articles that make it into scientific journals. Furthermore, I expanded my experience working solely with the elderly population, as I now participated in acute care research improving patient care of all ages.
I learned a tremendous amount of the current literature and findings of kidney transplant disparities, specifically for Black Americans. I fully designed and created educational PowerPoints introducing the concept of health disparities that would be later delivered by Dr. Clark-Cutaia to national organizations and groups. I joined weekly manuscript development meetings with renowned researchers throughout the country, where everyone collaborated on their shared goal of reducing the mortality and morbidity rate in kidney transplants. The experience I gained is invaluable, furthering my goal of becoming a nurse scientist and discovering where my passions lie. I sincerely thank Penn Career Services for allowing me to pursue this opportunity through their funding.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2022 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here.
