A Tiered Mentorship Program Improves Number of Students With an Identified Mentor

Abstract

Background: Mentorship is critical to professional development and academic success. Unfortunately, only about 40% of medical students can identify a mentor. While group mentorship has been evaluated – the concept of a specialty specific, tiered group mentorship program (TGMP) has not. In the latter, each member of the group represents a unique education or professional level. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of a specialty-specific, tiered group mentorship program to improve mentorship for students interested in emergency medicine. Methods: Groups consisted of faculty members, residents, 4th-year students pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine, and junior (MS1, MS2, and MS3) medical students (13 total groups). Students completed confidential electronic surveys before and after completion of the program. Results: Of 126 students, 85 completed the Course Evaluation Survey. At program onset, 11.4% of 1st-year students, 41.7% of 2nd-year students, 50% of 3rd-year students, and 28% of the total students could identify a mentor. After completion, 68.6% of 1st years, 83.3% of 2nd years, 90% of 3rd years, and 77.6% of the total reported they could identify a mentor. Faculty were rated most important members followed by the 4th-year student. Conclusion: A tiered group mentorship program improved the ability of students to identify a mentor. Students identified mentoring relationships from individuals at various professional levels.

Keywords:

• mentorship
• medical student
• career choice

Acknowledgments

External funding provided by SAEM Emergency Medicine Interest Group Grant, RF2011-008. A previous version of this article was presented at 2011 CORD Academic Assembly (3/4/11), Kman N, Gerstman J, Malone M, Martin D, Khandelwal S. “The Tiered Mentorship Program in Emergency Medicine.” We thank Carla Ralston, M.D.; Jacob Gerstman, M.D.; Matt Malone, Med Student 4; Fadi Kasyouhanan, Med Student 4; Michael Bowen, Med Student 3; and Shannon Emerick, Med Student 3.