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Published on: March 18, 2020
Medical student clerkship performance and career selection after a junior medical student surgical mentorship program
K M Day1, T M Schwartz2, V Rao2
1Department of General Surgery, Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA.
Background:
The impact of early medical school mentorship in students' clerkships performance and career selection is unknown.
Methods:
We administered Introduction to Surgery, a resident-directed, semester-long, preclinical elective to junior medical students who answered a Likert-type survey after residency application. Elective participants (EPs) were compared with nonparticipant applicants (EAs), medical school class (MS), and national match outcomes (USA).
Results:
All 18 EPs (7 M1's, 11 M2's) completed the elective and survey. EP reported more confidence and improved surgical skills, especially attributed to resident mentorship (F(13,237) = 2.3, P = 8*10(-3)). EP "honored" the clerkship more than MS (P = .05); 55.6% of EP, 37.5% of EA, and 27.7% of MS chose surgical fields, yielding a relative risk of 2.0 for EP vs MS (95% confidence interval: 1.3 to 3.2, P = 4*10(-3)). EP "strongly agree" with future mentorship programs (4.6/5), and 1 EP reported the course to be the "main reason" for applying to general surgery.
Conclusions:
Introduction to Surgery provides a model for a multifaceted junior medical student mentorship program, which has the potential to retain interested students for surgical career selection.
