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I am a music therapist who conducts basic and translational research with adults and children who use cochlear implants. I hope this site will serve as a resource for music therapists who work with adults or children with cochlear implants and for anyone interested in doing their own research.
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Guest post #3: Thoughts on a Music Therapy Master’s level entry

Dec 5th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

6 comments
Today I welcome Bill Matney, an amazing music therapist and phenomenal percussionist working with children in a special education program in the public schools as well as a private contractor and adjunct lecturer at Texas Woman’s University. This is not something that has been decided upon yet but is going to be presented during each Regional Conference this spring. I have asked a few people to share their thoughts on the potential change as each will have a unique perspective to offer.

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit as an assembly delegate the past 7 years. During this time, I was able to act as a representative for my region, to observe, and participate in, decisions that will affect our field. Before I offer my thoughts on the proposed move towards the entry-level master’s degree, I would like to offer public thanks to the members of the Education and Training Advisory Board. They have been diligently working for years on this proposal, weighing the potential costs and benefits. Their presentation to the assembly has been thorough, thoughtful, and open to dialogue. Their presentation materials are available on the AMTA website (http://www.musictherapy.org/assets/1/7/Masters_Level_Entry_Core_Considerations.pdf), and are worth a full read, if not multiple reads. This is an item to be discussed for the next year before a vote takes place. This is also an important opportunity for you to contact your regional assembly delegates and let your voice be heard.

I’d also like to thank Nat Mullis and Meganne Masko for their thoughtful offerings in this blog. They have both wonderfully addressed the issue with their perspectives. Therefore, I will be taking a slightly different direction.

In short, I am in support of the move to the master’s degree. For me, it is not a matter of if, but a matter of how the change will manifest a greater level of skills, knowledge, and application. First, it is my belief that the move to a master’s level entry can, and should, provide us with opportunities to trulyprepare our students for advanced training. In order for that to occur, we will need to address, in its entirety, what undergraduate preparatory courses will provide an adequate foundation for master’s level advanced training. It is one thing to take a current 4-4.5 year bachelor’s degree program and supplant it into a hypothetical 5-5.5 year combined master’s degree. It is an entirely different endeavor to foster adequate development that prepares our future music therapists for a changing world.

Second, it will behoove us to address, in our entirety, how prepared university music therapy educators are to provide foundational and advanced training throughout the curricula. Training capability can (and should) be related to preparatory music skills on all instruments, clinical skills, research, and to other arenas of pedagogy.

To take both of the above points into context, I will discuss an example near and dear to my heart….percussion!

The average music therapist likely utilizes percussion, as an interactive instrumentation, more than any other (with the potential exception of the voice) in their clinical work. The types of instrumentation we use as clinicians are vast. The instruments most commonly used in the literature and the field tend not to be European in nature. There are particular detailed ways in which these instruments are traditionally played. If we know about, and can play with ease, the instruments that we use in clinical practice, then we are able to provide our clients with a greater variety of music experiences in therapy.

According to an informal randomized national survey of more than 200 professional music therapists (practicing between 1 year and thirty-plus years in the field), approximately 25% who were surveyed received no instruction on percussion whatsoever during their university training. Another 7.7% received their percussion training only by voluntary means, as it was not required of their university program. Of those who did receive required training, the vast majority (80.9%) received such in one semester of a percussion methods course. Within these courses, snare drum and orchestral pitched percussion received the majority of training time. Respondents also noted the instruments they most likely used in their work, which included body percussion, shakers, many other types of ethnic auxiliary percussion, hand drums, frame drums, and paddle drums; each of these far surpassed the use of classical European instruments.

Speaking from both personal and anecdotal experience, I can comfortably assert that snare drum, marimba, and timpani (and the detailed techniques they utilize) offer minimal practical transfer into clinical work. Foundational rudiments will supply a music therapist with basic bilateral coordination. Marimba allows a percussive perspective on the European classical and post-modern traditions. However, if a professional music therapist is more likely to use a hand drum, a frame drum, a paddle drum, or an orff xylophone in their work, then why should these not be given equal or preferential time in music skills courses? Since each of these instruments is linked to a type of traditional music (if not many traditions), there is no question that the pedagogical material is available. What keeps us from providing the musical foundation? Are we testing our students to see if they can play the three standard sounds on a hand drum? Can they musically accompany themselves on a frame drum while singing a traditional or popular song? If not, are they really prepared for clinical work?

The same above training “problem” can be applied in differing degrees to guitar, or to piano, or to improvisation, or to voice, or to musical idioms. While I personally value a European pedagogical perspective for what it can provide, I am also aware of its limitations in music therapy practice. “Classical” training does not prepare one for clinical improvisation on piano, or playing a heavy metal song on guitar, or playing a Colombian cumbia on a hand drum.

One problem, as I see it, is related to who is “qualified” to teach the course. Taking my previous example, a percussion methods instructor is most likely arriving from a music education or classical performance perspective. The music therapy instructor may likely have been subject to the same parameters as his/her clinical colleagues…..limited percussion training on practical instruments. And so the cycle continues. In both the case of the percussion instructor and the music therapy instructor, each may lack the training and experience to provide the student with what they most need to develop applicable, foundational music skills. For me, two important questions emerge.
1. “Who IS qualified to teach foundational/practical percussion skills to music therapy students?”
2. “Who SHOULD BE qualified to teach foundational/practical percussion skills to music therapy students?”
While each university may be able to address these questions differently, it seems to me that the onus will ultimately lie upon us to step up as educators…to prepare ourselves to teach what needs to be taught. It is time for each of us to go back to the drawing board, as a musician, as a therapist, as an educator.

It also seems to me that we should consider to what degree we wish to uniquely identify and assert our educational needs within the parameters of NASM, AMTA, and CBMT documentation. It would be detrimental to kowtow (if I may be so bold) to the past Euro-centric pedagogical approaches, or to write in our salient considerations in such ambiguous writing that it ceases to guide us; it would rather be helpful to understand and assert our unique needs. In my mind, this will allow for a vital integration of perspectives and skills, an integration that will better prepare future music therapy professionals within both preparatory undergraduate courses and advanced, entry-level graduate courses.

If this proposal passes next year, there will be many, many small steps taken by boards, committees, and ad hocs to detail how this major change will take place. The overall transition will likely take a decade or so to near completion. It will be through our own participation that this step will either become perfunctory or transformative transition. Personally, I am hoping that we seriously rethink and re-prioritize the way we view preparatory music skills as we move forward one way or the other. We may have an opportunity to change from within the core of our practice. To me, that is very exciting!

Bio:

Bill Matney is a board-certified music therapist working full time in a school district special education setting, and an adjunct lecturer at Texas Woman’s University.

Websites: billmatney.com , musictherapydrumming.com

Blog: http://billmatney.com/bills-blog-point-of-contact.htm

You can reach Bill at billmatney@mac.com
Education, Music Therapy, Research

Education, Music Therapy, Research
Guest Post #2: Thoughts about Master’s Level entry

Dec 2nd 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

4 comments
Today I welcome Meganne Masko, a fabulous music therapist and new Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota, to share her thoughts on the potential for the field to move to a Master’s Level entry. This is not something that has been decided upon yet but is going to be presented during each Regional Conference this spring. I have asked a few people to share their thoughts on the potential change as each will have a unique perspective to offer.

I’ve been thinking a lot the past week or so about the vote to move the music therapy profession from Bachelor’s-level to Master’s-level entry. I’ve actually always thought it should be Master’s-level entry, but I never sat down to think about why until the great vote took place. Here are my two cents on the topic. Like all things you read, please take them with a grain of salt.

There are three main reasons music therapy should move to Master’s-level entry: 1) Reimbursement, 2) Employ-ability and 3) Student development. Let’s talk about each of these points.

Point 1: Reimbursement

Reimbursement refers to the way music therapists are paid for the services they provide. Most MTs are paid out-of-pocket by clients (or their families) OR by the agency employing the music therapist. As of today, music therapists are not able to directly bill third-party payment sources such as Medicare, Medicaid or insurance companies on a regular basis the same way a Speech/Language Pathologist (SLP), Occupational Therapist (OT), Physical Therapist (PT) or other allied healthcare professional can. Instead, MT services are paid for on an hourly basis (for contract employees) or as part of a salary that comes from a per diem (per day) rate of reimbursement from an outside source such as Medicare. Here are a few examples of some of the many ways MTs are paid without directly billing an outside payor (such as an insurance company):

Maggie works as an hourly employee for a hospice agency as a MT-BC. Her agency gets paid a pre-established daily rate from Medicare or other insurance companies for each patient they take care of each day. Maggie’s paycheck comes out of the pool of money the agency receives from those third-party sources (as well as some outside grants and community support). The agency cannot directly bill Medicare for music therapy services.



            Drew is a MT-BC at a large metropolitan hospital. He is a salaried employee who works in several different units within the hospital. The hospital is reimbursed by insurance companies at a daily rate based on the care patients receive; however, the physicians, OTs, PTs, SLPs and some other allied healthcare providers bill the insurance company (or the hospital bills) separately for the services they deliver to the patients. The hospital is not able to bill directly for the music therapy services, so Drew’s salary comes from the per diem rate paid by the insurance companies.

            Katie owns her own private practice in a rural area of the Midwest. Katie is not able to directly bill insurance companies for the services she provides to her clients. However, some of her clients receive Supplemental Social Security Income or other disability payments. They use some of these funds to pay Katie directly at a pre-set hourly rate for music therapy services.

I want to clarify that I do NOT think going to Master’s-level entry will magically make it possible for MT-BCs to directly bill insurance companies with 100% success, but I do sincerely believe it will help. Why? Because all of those other professionals who are able to bill outside payors are at least Master’s-level entry programs.

Point 2: Employ-ability

When we train students to become music therapy professionals we do so in the hopes that they will find gainful employment as music therapists. Unfortunately, due to changes in the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoP) for particular care providers (I’m thinking specifically of hospice), a Bachelor’s degree and board certification are not always enough to get the job. Let me be clear here: There is NOTHING in the current Medicare hospice regulations that says that hospices are only allowed to hire music therapists who have a Master’s degree. But, the CoPs DO say that about Social Workers and counseling professionals. So depending on the state in which you live and how the agency defines the position of “music therapist,” you may need to have a Master’s degree just to get hired.

Point 3: Student development

In the interests of full disclosure I’m going to tell you about my academic background…

I have a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. I worked as a professional performer before going back to school and receiving my music education training. I taught private lessons before being hired as a music teacher at a parochial school just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After one year of teaching in a school I began my music therapy equivalency training at Alverno College in Milwaukee. Then, I transferred to the University of Iowa where I completed both my MT equivalency and a MA in Music Therapy. I immediately started working as a full-time clinician once I earned my board certification, and continued to work while I completed my PhD coursework at The University of Iowa. I’ve been a clinical supervisor, a guest lecturer in a college neuroscience department, and a researcher. I am currently a PhD candidate at The University of Iowa, and a new Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at The University of North Dakota.

Do you remember what it was like to be in college? College is hard. Many students are away from home for the first time, they are working on developing their personal identities, trying to manage their time, learning about feeding themselves, navigating personal relationships, dealing with personal finances, and generally trying to survive the transition between childhood and adulthood.

Music majors have it even harder than the average college student. They are working to master a primary instrument, and many of them are formally studying theory and aural skills for the first time. Plus, there are ensemble requirements that sometimes equal massive amounts of time away from other academic activities. Then there’s practice time when it’s just you in a room with your instrument. I used to spend around four hours each day in a practice room, and it wasn’t nearly enough (just ask my piano teacher). Do students get course credit for practice time? No. They get credit for their lessons, but not for the hundreds of hours they spend preparing for those lessons. My point? Being a college student is hard, but being a music major is even harder.

Next, think about being a music therapy major. You have your general education requirements, your primary instrument, your secondary instruments, music requirements, plus courses in psychology, anatomy, sociology, statistics and research methods, music therapy history, techniques and approaches, and about 200 practicum hours to complete. I’m exhausted just thinking about being a music therapy major.

From my perspective, I feel like we ask our undergraduate music therapy students to develop their knowledge and abilities at an unrealistic rate. It works for some students, but other students take a longer time to develop. This second tier of students has the potential to be excellent music therapists given a little bit more time in the classroom, the practice room and supervised clinical setting before they go off to internship.

Now, let’s look at things from a music therapy educator’s perspective. I sit down with my colleague at UND on a regular basis to see how we are addressing the AMTA competencies in our curriculum. We try our best to make sure we cover everything that needs to be covered before a student heads to internship, and we design assessments to see how well students are acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to be competent music therapists. The problem is I often find myself thinking, “I’d really like to talk about [insert topic here], but we just don’t have the class time for that.” Or, I hear myself saying to students, “Yes, I think [insert activity here] is a fantastic idea for you, but I don’t see how you can do that and still leave for internship in four years.” I want my students to study abroad because it’s a great way to gain an understanding of another culture (and lay the groundwork for cultural competence). I want them to participate in campus organizations to gain leadership experience. I want them to take research classes in areas that spark their interest. I want them to stop and smell the roses from time to time so they can practice finding balance in their lives. I want them to concentrate on being the best musician possible so they can then become the best music therapist possible.

This is the part where my bias (and personal background) rears its head: I believe the greatest reason for moving to Master’s-level entry is that it will allow our students time to more fully develop as musicians before we try to help them develop as therapists. My personal belief is that the music has to be second nature in order to be useful as a therapeutic tool. If students are worried about singing or playing the right notes at the right time, they aren’t going to be focused on the behaviors or reactions of the clients to the interventions. Music therapy, to use an old definition, is the use of music to help clients achieve non-musical goals. The way we do that is by focusing on our musical skills first. I hope that moving to a Master’s-level entry program will allow that to happen on a more regular basis.

Bio:

Meganne Masko, MA, MT-BC is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota , a PhD Candidate at the University of Iowa, Music therapist for Hills and Dales Agency providing bi-weekly contractual services for clients in daytime rehabilitation, pre-school, and after-school programs, and a mom to a wonderful pre-teen with Asperger’s. Her research focus is on Music Therapy in spiritual care during hospice and end of life.
Conferences, Education, Music Therapy, Research

Cochlear Implants, Education, Music Therapy, Research
Guest Post #1: Thoughts on Master’s Level Entry

Nov 29th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

3 comments
Today I welcome Natalie Mullis, a fabulous music therapist serving Columbia, South Carolina, to share her thoughts on the potential for the field to move to a Master’s Level entry. This is not something that has been decided upon yet but is going to be presented during each Regional Conference this spring. I have asked a few people to share their thoughts on the potential change as each will have a unique perspective to offer.

If you haven’t heard, the field of music therapy is considering moving to a master’s level profession. As things currently stand, you can be a practicing music therapist with bachelor’s level training and internship completion. As you can expect, this announcement has brought about a lot of discussion; both in favor of and against the move.

Before I get to the pros and cons, allow me to state my bias as any good scientist (or in my case, wanna-be scientist) would. I am currently a bachelor’s level music therapist operating a private practice in its early stages. I have a desire to pursue academia in addition to my practices as a clinician. My husband and I have a modest income and little debt.

In the interest of ending this discussion on a happy note, I am going to begin by listing the negatives I associate with the potential move of music therapy to a master’s level field, and then move to the pros. I think you may be surprised by the balance between the two given my bias.

Cons:

Economic Feasibility: I was extraordinarily fortunate as a student in college to be a recipient of the HOPE Scholarship in Georgia. This scholarship pays tuition and a portion of books, room, and board for students who keep and maintain a certain grade point average. The long short of this section is that a move to master’s level will block off those of us who cannot afford to pay college tuition out of pocket. Scholarships for graduate level work are less prevalent than those for undergrad. Many receive aid through working as an assistant during their studies, but those positions are highly sought after, and many students (like myself) may not be able to move to complete their studies.

The Implication for Bachelor’s Level Music Therapists: My first knee jerk reaction to this was the sad thought that AMTA and the CBMT are essentially saying that I am not good enough. This was, of course, before reading the advisory, but I have to wonder how others feel about this side of things. I understand the rationale that music therapy is “bursting at the seams” with all that there is to learn, but what can I say? I was a little hurt.

Recognition: What comes first? The chicken or the egg? As a music therapist in private practice, I get no raise for having a graduate degree. As an employee working for the state before becoming self-employed, I received no raise, period. Are jobs available in all areas that can support a music therapist with 6+ years of loan debt? There wasn’t in my area. How will we make sure that music therapists are compensated appropriately, and not as an activity specialist?

Pros:

We’ll Be On Par: Many other therapeutic modalities are already on a graduate level entry, and some are even moving to a doctoral level entry (yikes). If we want music therapy to be taken seriously as a profession, we have to move with them.

Advanced Training: I’ll be honest here. There are a lot of situations where I have researched and e-mailed with questions that I might have had the answer to if I had advanced training. I’m just lucky enough to be driven to provide optimal service for my clients so that I seek out these answers. I like to think all music therapists are the same as I am, but the possibility exists that they aren’t. Having all music therapists operating at a master’s level of training could raise the quality of service across the board, and at Bruscia says, “It’s not about us”.

More Masters Programs: I briefly mentioned earlier that I cannot pack up and move to have a chance at financing my master’s degree. I’d love to be a TA and get a tuition break, but that’s not feasible for me since I have established a business at my current location. I know, I throw up the brick walls, but that’s my life. The one thing that is true is that I WANT MY MASTERS. I thirst for more education so badly. I know that there are things that I do not know about this field, and truth be told, that drives me insane. I want my masters. I want my PhD, and then I want to teach little me’s how to do what I do. If we move to a graduate level field, more graduate programs have to happen. That means one of them can happen here. Then I can fulfill my dream from the comfort of my own half acre bungalow while still running my private practice.

This is a difficult situation for me because if, when I was in school, graduate level work was required; I’d likely be an educated waitress at the moment. However, when looked at objectively, the scales tip in favor for me. There will be backlash of course, but it will be a good move for our profession. I fully intend at some point in the next ten years (ideally) to complete graduate coursework because I see a need for it in myself, and it is necessary to reach my goals.

What are your thoughts about the move? Do you have a different set of pros and cons than I do?

Bio:

Natalie Mullis, MT-BC is the owner of Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC in Columbia, South Carolina. She works with a variety of populations in addition to her duties as the president-elect for the Music Therapy Association of South Carolina and as a member of the South Carolina Recognition Task Force. Natalie also maintains a weekly blog at www.keychangesmusictherapy.com and mentors students and new professionals at www.nononsenseprofessional.com.
Conferences, Education, Music Therapy, Research

Conferences, Education, Music Therapy, Research
#AMTA11 my conference experience

Nov 28th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

No comments
The American Music Therapy Association held its national conference November 17-20th of this year in Atlanta, Georgia and I had the opportunity to continue my consecutive attendance streak (currently stands at 13). There were so many amazing things to learn about during each session time-slot that it was truly a tough decision to make.

I had the honor to preside for two very dear friends as they presented their informative sessions. I also was very fortunate to be a part of the Music Therapy Roundtable Podcast, the Membership Committee, and many other amazing things. As the next few weeks go by, I hope to touch on different things I learned and experienced during conference and perhaps have a guest post or two about some information shared with the membership.

One highlight for me, and many others, was the participation of Ben Folds for our last 2 days of conference. Not only did Mr. Folds come to learn about Music Therapy, but the 5 of us who, as he put it, “Twittered [him] to death” also had the distinct pleasure of joining him for dinner that Saturday night. The reason this mention fits into the goals of this blog is this: I am a big fan of his. I don’t know his birthday and can’t name every song he’s written, but I am a fan of his work and talent. But, and it’s funny and a little embarrassing at the same time, my colleagues found it humorous when I “geeked-out” on him about one thing: Research. You see, he or his manager, mentioned that he would be traveling to participate in a research study regarding music with a renowned doctor who happens to work in cochlear implant research. Hit trigger for a self-proclaimed “Mega-Research-Nerd” and you get this:

One of my colleagues entitled this “When research attacks.” I am grateful that you can at least presume Mr. Folds is interested by his hand placement on his chin and he was (or at least is really good at pretending).

In the mean time, check out the chirpstory that contains all the of the tweets from the conference with the #amta11 hash-tag. I did remove duplicates and re-tweets for a better flow. You will also find links to many other blog posts about the conference.

Tomorrow my very first guest post will be up from an amazing professional, Natalie Mullis of Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC of Columbia, South Carolina.
Conferences, Music Therapy, Research

Conferences, Music Therapy, Research
Major Revisions…Again!

Nov 8th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

No comments
I thought I had finished my series on manuscript reviews and then received one heck of a reminder that I missed a very significant point: Sometimes you make revisions and the reviewers decide they want MORE or that you didn’t do enough or do them correctly. My reminder came in the form of all of these recently.

So what do you do? Well, like the last time you received a request for Major revisions, look through the feedback and see if you can address the issues of your reviewer(s). If you find errors or discrepancies you can address, by all means do so. Even the most cautious eye can miss an obvious error. Often if one reads the manuscript repeatedly, the brain inserts what you meant to say in the same place. It happens to the best of writers.

But what do you do if the reviewer(s) is/are completely unfounded and you truly believe they are being irrational? This was something most certainly not addressed in any of my past posts regarding feedback.

First, address those issues that you can address within the manuscript. (Deal with the ugly thoughts and responses you have in whatever way is healthy for you–but legally, please). Then stick with being a professional and use your response letters to convey your rationale. You may have two separate letters: one that goes to the reviewers, one that goes to the Editor.

The final decision of whether or not to publish a manuscript lies in the hands of the Editor. If one reviewer sees a strong and well-rounded research study and another denotes areas in which the manuscript could be improved, the editor typically requests revisions (either major or minor). If the revisions you, as the author, send back are viewed to be favorable, the Editor may decide to accept the manuscript (minus copy-editing changes) and publish it.

In some instances, one or two reviewers may approve a manuscript’s revision and another may not. In this case, the editor, again, should use their best judgement and either accept the manuscript or return it to the authors for further modification. This is the time when reasonable adjustments can, and should, be made. However, if there are issues that you feel are unreasonable they can be addressed to both the editor and reviewer or just to the editor in a separate letter. In the responses to the reviewer, you should be able to provide a strong rationale for your protocol and decision-making as it relates to your study and the areas in which this reviewer finds flaw (or continues to find flaws). There will always be critics and some people will refuse to accept your research, choosing instead to see it as flawed. Either way, you have spurred interest in future knowledge (the silver-lining, if you will).

Be professional. Be honest. Be clear. But most of all, make sure you have good science to back you up.
Cochlear Implants, Music Therapy, Publications, Research

Cochlear Implants, Music Therapy, Publications, Research
Grant funding: Finding other sources

Oct 27th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

No comments
So now that we know we will not have funding in January through our previous grant application, we have to find other funding sources, which is definitely a balancing act. Our previous grants were P50s, which means they cover an entire program and not just one project. Now we are working on individual project applications, called R01. Of course, these are the titles given by the National Institutes of Health and may change from one organization to the next. In fact, some organizations may only have one or two grants they offer. They range in funding amounts as well. Where our P50 was upwards of $10 million across 5 years, others offer significantly less.

Once we get the R01 in (on Halloween, hopefully not foreboding), we will work on various other applications that range from our professional organizations (Music Therapy, Speech-language, Audiology, etc) to other organizations that may have an interest in what we are trying to find out.

How do you find these other grants? you may ask. First, the internet is a very good source. Using various combinations of topics, you can search organizations that offer funding. The ones that typically come to mind (besides those from the Federal Government) include corporations like Pepsi. There are also many humanities-related funding opportunities, but you must read the fine-print to make sure they will fund the parts of your research you are hoping to address. Some have limitations on purchasing music, equipment, etc. Those are things of which you must be mindful.

Second, this is great support for being a member in good standing of your professional organization(s) because they can provide funding to advance your research or at least can work with you to find funding. There always seems to be someone who knows someone who knows of a potential funding opportunity or grant application.

In the mean time, we are polishing up this grant application and working on our papers (which are now numbering at 12), and continuing to ask our research questions to show our value to both the organization to which we belong and to the potential, and current, funding agencies.
Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Research

Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Research
Grant funding: After funding is denied

Oct 7th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

No comments
Before I begin, I would like to thank those of you who provided such kind words of support. Second, I want to assure you that the forthcoming posts will not, and I repeat NOT, be a pity party. I am not the first person for whom funding has been lost and I am confident I will not be the last. Instead, I am writing so that others can have an idea of what happens in progression.

Don’t get me wrong, the first response was tears and panic. Lots of panic (and some nausea. TMI?). But in the field of research, one must be action-oriented, and even though I haven’t received the official “furlough notice” I know it is coming. It is just a matter of time. So as I go through the stages of grief (sometimes vacillating between a few), I continue to push forward.

So what do I do next? Lots of things. The first being to find other avenues for funding, which means writing more grant applications. And, because I want to make sure our team goes out with a bang (if we go “out” at all), I started an additional 8 papers. Yes, additional. That brings the current total of my working papers to 11. Now, I don’t want anyone to think I am superhuman or anything. This is a collaborative team with 6 people working together and we are sharing the workload while striving for the strongest and best papers possible. We are pushing forward and looking for as many opportunities as possible.

I would be lying if I said I had not started looking for other positions. I have because I have to do it. I am utilizing the connections I have made through my research experience with the hopes that someone who values my work ethic and scientific approach toward clean research will need another person for their team. I am also looking to further education, but that is a less prominent option at the moment.

I won’t give up. In research, every study tells a story even if it just supports one someone already told. Some research supports previous perceptions, some throw a scientific community on their ears (like the ISU professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this week). I strive to be that amazing. One day, maybe…

In the mean time, I will share all of the process with you and welcome your questions.
A bit about me, Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Publications, Research

Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Publications, Research
Grant funding: when things change

Oct 5th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

No comments
For a while, I have kept this site as a professional “how-to,” day-to-day activities of research kind of blog. But seeing as this is the view of a music therapist in research, it is now time to follow the path I am on and share it with you.

As I wrote in my last post, we were scheduled to find out our score for the grant on Tuesday, September 27. We got our score. It was a better number than we anticipated. Having a number was a positive thing for many in the department, but we still needed clarification of “what it meant.” Unfortunately for the rest of the team, our lead Primary Investigator (PI) was out of the country so we had to wait until he returned this Monday.

Honestly, I was really nervous and had a feeling of dread. For whatever reason, my confidence was absent. Later that morning, I heard our lead PI go into the office of my supervisor and shut the door. (Shutting the door around my area isn’t deemed a bad thing. It is a quiet hallway and voices carry.) When he left and the door remained closed, I was certain the news couldn’t be positive. That was confirmed within the hour. While the overall score for the grant was low (which is good–like golf), our grant would not be funded if the music team was kept on. So, in what I know was a very tough decision, my supervisor chose to withdraw our project from the application.

Initially, I was given until January. Now, due to the diligence of my supervisor and other colleagues who value my work, I will have longer–possibly a year.

Right now, our project will continue to go forward until we know whether we can secure funding for the future. We are continuing to research and publish–perhaps with a bit more fervor than before (my personality doesn’t take “no” for an answer very well). And I’ve learned quite a bit.

First, grant reviews are not fair (but neither is life). There can be politics. There can be stubbornness and an unwillingness to relinquish preconceived notions. It’s part of the game because it is wonderful when you get one and, honestly, it stinks when you don’t.

Second, this gives me a unique opportunity to share the other side of research. Not just the conducting and publishing of research, but the side that comes with living and working on “soft” money.

I welcome you to follow me as I follow this path; perhaps to funding, perhaps to unemployment, or perhaps on another adventure. Either way, I will learn valuable lessons that I hope to share with you.
A bit about me, Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Research

Cochlear Implants, Funding, Music Therapy, Research
T-minus 4 days

Sep 23rd 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

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In 4 days (yes, just 4) our grant application will be reviewed again…for the last time. We will either get a thumbs up or thumbs down response; no more rewrites, no more revisions. So everyone in our department is a bit on edge, including me.
If it’s bad news, I will be on the job hunt along with a few audiologists and SLPs in our department and unemployed on June 1.
When they decide to approve the grant (which is how I’m choosing to see it), we get to start our amazing research studies in full force and start asking those really good questions we proposed.

In the mean time, I’m thinking happy thoughts and sending them to the NIH. Feel free to join in.
Cochlear Implants, Funding, Research

Cochlear Implants, Funding, Research
Perks to the job

Sep 16th 2011

By: Ginny Driscoll

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I feel I need to say (thought I think I say it fairly often):

I really love my research participants!

And I mean it in a platonic, healthy, professional way since I have never met a large number of them. It’s important that people know how much researchers really appreciate those who participate in their studies. After all, we are (typically) conducted research about which we are passionate. Me? I’m passionate about (re)habilitation for adults and children. In my current line of work, those individuals tend to have hearing losses and almost always have cochlear implants. For a large majority of the people I see, music sounds…well…bad. Think of your favorite song. Now, pretend it sounds like a garbage disposal. Pretty nice, huh? I didn’t think so. But that is often a description we get from adults who lost their hearing later in life and now have a cochlear implant. For some, the loss of music does not create a noticeable absence, while for many others it is a devastating loss.

That is where I (and my research team) come in. Over 20 years ago, my boss (the awesome and ever-talented Kate Gfeller, PhD) began working with the research team here at Iowa. She was one of the first to begin investigating music perception of adults who received cochlear implants. Several years later, she began working with children and adolescents to evaluate how they heard music. Since then, it has been an incredible journey; one where more and more questions continue to come. I first joined the team in 2004 as a graduate student and learned the ropes. Two years later, I was helping her head up the team and running my first independent project testing adults with normal hearing, but using simulations of what we believe it sounds like to people who have CIs. I started the follow-up study in 2009 and it has been a wonderful adventure. Only recently was I able to recruit people outside of our facility and that has been an even more wonderful experience. I have been able to take my passion of helping with music rehabilitation for adults and see the results. The feedback that I’ve received, typically makes me want to do cartwheels down the hallway.

So to any of my past, current or future participants: You are so appreciated and I hope I can help you as much as you have helped me. Thank you! Because when I sign my emails “With gratitude,” I mean it.

To everyone else: take part in research whether as a participant or one who is conducting it. The learning experiences can be vast and remarkably important. You just never know what you may help discover.
Cochlear Implants, Research

Cochlear Implants, Research
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