Early Mentoring of Medical Students and Junior Doctors on a Path to Academic Cardiothoracic Surgery

Retrospective study of medical student scholarship and career trajectory following a mentored preclinical cardiovascular summer research fellowship

OBJECTIVES

Developing a preclinical training infrastructure for cardiovascular clinician-scientists is an academic workforce priority. The Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont developed a cardiovascular summer research fellowship (SRF), wherein medical student awardees were selected by merit-based application and completed mentored research between the first and second years. We aimed to study the impact of the SRF on medical student scholarship and career planning.

DESIGN

Retrospective survey study.

SETTING

Single academic medical centre.

PARTICIPANTS

All SRF participants from 2015 to 2020.

INTERVENTIONS

Not applicable.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Prior SRF participants were surveyed to ascertain current position, research engagement and perspectives regarding SRF experience. Comparisons to American Association of Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire data from equivalent years were made using χ² tests.

RESULTS

Survey response rate was 87% (20/23), 55% were women. Median time from SRF completion was 2 years (IQR 0.75-2.25), with 75% still enrolled in medical school and 25% in residency. As a result of the first-year summer programme, 45% published a peer-reviewed abstract or manuscript, which was equivalent to the national rate for graduating students (53%, p=0.4). Most respondents (80%) were active in additional research projects during school separate from the SRF, 90% anticipated a career involving research (vs 53% nationally, p<0.001) and 75% planned to pursue a career in cardiovascular medicine.

CONCLUSION

Medical students completing a mentored cardiovascular SRF after their first year have a high rate of academic scholarship, with publication rate already equivalent to national peer graduates. Preclinical SRF students strongly anticipate cardiovascular medicine and research careers.

Correlation Between Enrollment of Students in Mentoring Program and Their Academic Achievements: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction Mentoring is a process in which a mentor guides his mentee to achieve specific academic goals and an array of objectives. We conducted this study to detect the correlation between the active participation of the students in the mentoring program and their academic achievements.  Methods This is a comparative cross-sectional study. The data were collected through an online questionnaire. One hundred participants were enrolled randomly in the study. The data included the number of meetings between the mentor and students and their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Results The response rate was 83.3% (100 students). Fifty percent (n = 50) of the respondents had never met with their mentors while the other 50% (n = 50) had met with their mentors at least once in a semester. For this group, overall, positive response rates regarding the value and effectiveness of the mentoring program exceeded 78%. The correlation between participation in the mentoring program and the academic achievements of students was calculated (R² was 0.007, p-value = 0.757). Conclusions This study demonstrated a non-significant correlation between the degree of involvement in the mentoring program and students' overall academic achievements as students from both sections. Those who were enrolled in the program, and those students who were not, still achieved high scores.

The European Society of Head and Neck Radiology Mentoring Programme: development and feedback during the first phase of the initiative

There is increasing awareness of the benefits of formal mentorship programmes in radiology. In the context of the COVID 19 pandemic which impacted on education, professional engagement and networking within the wider radiological community, the European Society of Head and Neck Radiology (ESHNR) decided to develop a formal mentoring programme. The ESHNR mentoring initiative is novel in its scope, whereby European and international members of a subspecialty radiology society are matched into mentor–mentee pairings to disseminate good practice, knowledge and ideas. The purpose of this report is to describe the motivations, planning, challenges and early experience of the ESHNR mentoring programme together with initial feedback from the scheme.

The development of the programme and iterative modifications during the first phase of the scheme are described. The programme has enrolled 33 mentors and 27 mentees with international representation and 24 mentor–mentee pairs have participated in 2.6 (mean) meetings. The experience and benefits reported by the participating ESHNR members (mentees and mentors) were evaluated by a questionnaire at six months following the start of the programme. There were 80% of mentors and 88% of mentees who strongly agreed that the mentoring programme was rewarding rather than an obligation, and all participants reported that they would recommend the scheme to colleagues.

A formal mentoring programme has been established for an international subspecialty radiology society. The early experience is encouraging and suggests that it is both useful and sustainable. Our experiences may be of benefit to other subspecialty societies considering a mentoring programme.

Medical Student Mentorship in Orthopaedic Surgery

Mentorship is a key aspect of medical education, but the availability and quality of mentorship varies considerably between institutions. The lack of standardization results in information asymmetry and creates notable inequities. This disparity is particularly important for students interested in pursuing competitive specialties, such as orthopaedic surgery. The purpose of this study was to (1) demonstrate the importance of mentorship in orthopaedics, (2) provide a framework for orthopaedic surgeon mentors, and (3) guide medical students interested in activating and expanding their networks.

Clinical Exposure to Cardiothoracic Surgery for Medical Students and General Surgery Residents

BACKGROUND

The introduction of integrated 6-year cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) residency programs has shifted recruitment efforts to encompass not only general surgery (GS) residents, but also medical students.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to assess medical student and GS resident clinical exposure to CTS.

DESIGN

Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges Visiting Student Application Service and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Case Log Reports were collected from 2010 to 2017 and 2010 to 2018, respectively. The data extracted included medical students who applied and received an offer for elective rotations and the cases performed as a GS resident.

RESULTS

A mean of 95 ± 28.5 medical students applied for CTS rotations annually and the applicants for CTS rotations increased by an average of 11.8% per year. However, significantly less students received an offer compared to other specialties (53.4% CTS vs 74.1% GS, 79.3% plastic surgery, 86.3% urology, 85.7% otolaryngology, 88.6% neurological surgery, and 89.6% orthopedic surgery) (p < 0.001). GS residents performed a mean of 39.3 ± 0.8 CTS procedures during residency: 32.9 ± 1.0 performed as a junior resident and 6.3 ± 0.7 as a chief resident. Out of all CTS procedures, 7.3% were cardiac procedures, with rates increasing from 5.6% to 8.4% during the study period (p = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Elective rotation opportunities in CTS are high in demand for medical students while GS residents receive limited CTS exposure, especially cardiac cases. Increasing clinical opportunities in both groups will aid in recruiting young talent to the field.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of faculty on mentorship: an exploratory interpretivist study at a sub-Saharan African medical school

BACKGROUND

Mentorship has become a routine part of undergraduate training in health professions education. Although many health professions training institutions have successfully incorporated faculty-student mentorship in their formal training, many others especially in Sub-Saharan Africa have not fully embraced this. Institutionalized mentorship programmes are effective methods of enhancing student learning experiences. Faculty, who are the mentors have an active role to play in driving the mentorship agenda and ensure that students benefit from this important activity. The aim of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitudes and practices of faculty about student mentorship at Makerere University College of Health Sciences.

METHODS

It was an exploratory qualitative study using interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires. The study participants included faculty at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data using pre-determined themes.

RESULTS

Four themes were identified: 1) Knowledge of mentorship, 2) Attitude towards mentorship, 3) Practice of mentorship and 4) Improving the mentorship process. Majority of the faculty reported being less knowledgeable on mentorship regardless of seniority. The level of knowledge seemed to influence the practice of mentorship. Despite the observed knowledge gap, all faculty demonstrated a positive attitude to participate in mentoring.

CONCLUSION

Faculty demonstrated a positive attitude towards mentorship despite the knowledge gap of mentorship identified. Continuous faculty development in mentorship as well as using peer mentorship were identified as key in sustaining the mentorship programme.

Importance of publishing research varies by doctors’ career stage, specialty and location of work

Purpose

To investigate whether publishing research is an important aspect of medical careers, and how it varies by specialty and rural or metropolitan location.

Methods

Annual national panel survey (postal or online) of Australian doctors between 2008 and 2016, with aggregated participants including 11 263 junior doctors not enrolled in a specialty (‘pre-registrars’), 9745 junior doctors enrolled as specialist trainees, non-general practitioner (GP) (‘registrars’) and 35 983 qualified as specialist consultants, non-GP (‘consultants’). Main outcome was in agreement that ‘research publications are important to progress my training’ (junior doctors) or ‘research publications are important to my career’ (consultants).

Results

Overall, the highest proportion agreeing were registrars (65%) and pre-registrars (60%), compared with consultants (36%). After accounting for key covariates, rural location was significantly associated with lower importance of publishing research for pre-registrars (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.78) and consultants (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.76), but not for registrars. Compared with anaesthetics, research importance was significantly higher for pre-registrars pursuing surgery (OR 4.46, 95% CI 3.57 to 5.57) and obstetrics/gynaecology careers, for registrars enrolled in surgery (OR 2.97, 95% CI 2.34 to 3.75) and internal medicine training, and consultants of internal medicine (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.63 to 2.08), pathology, radiology and paediatrics.

Conclusions

This study provides new quantitative evidence showing that the importance of publishing research is related to medical career stages, and is most important to junior doctors seeking and undertaking different specialty training options. Embedding research requirements more evenly into specialty college selection criteria may stimulate uptake of research. Expansion of rural training pathways should consider capacity building to support increased access to research opportunities in these locations.