Impact of a Mentorship Program on Medical Student Burnout

Burnout can have negative consequences for providers' health and patient care. Mentorship has positive effects including stress mitigation. We sought to evaluate the impact of a mentorship program on burnout in fourth-year medical students during their 4-week emergency medicine subinternship.

This was a prospective, quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study at two institutions. We assessed burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, comprising three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Personal Accomplishment (PA). We compared changes in burnout scores before and after implementation of a resident-student mentorship program. We compared categorical variables using risk ratios and continuous variables using Wilcoxon rank-sum test. To account for potential confounders, we performed multivariable analysis. Students and mentors completed an evaluative survey. We reported descriptive statistics and performed thematic qualitative analysis on free-response data.

A total of 135 students (intervention = 51; control = 84) and 59 mentors participated. Intervention students demonstrated decreased EE and DP and increased PA scores, medians of -2 (-4 to 4), -1 (-3 to 2), and 1 (-1 to 4), respectively, compared to controls, median difference of 0 for all subscales. After adjusting for potential confounders, there was no significant difference in EE (mean difference = -0.2 [-0.5 to 0.2], p = 0.4) or DP scores (mean difference = -0.2 [-1.8 to 1.5], p = 0.9). There was a significant difference in PA scores (mean difference = 2.2 [0.1 to 4.3], p = 0.04). Most students felt the program positively impacted their rotation (39/48) and decreased stress (28/48). Students felt that the program provided career guidance and positively impacted their personal and professional development. The majority (34/37) of mentors enjoyed participating. Qualitative analysis revealed five major themes: relationship building, different perspective, knowledge sharing, personal fulfillment, and self-reflection.

We found an increased sense of personal accomplishment after implementation of a mentorship program. Both mentors and mentees viewed the program positively and perceived multiple benefits.