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Medical Student Mentorship in the COVID-19 Era

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Abstract

Background

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a reduction of in-person, guided mentorship due to social distancing and an emphasis on virtual meetings. The effect of these changes on medical students’ experiences and specialty choice has yet to be studied in a large-scale manner.

Objective

To determine the perspective of third- and fourth-year medical students regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mentorship.

Design

The authors distributed a modified Likert scale questionnaire (score: 1–10) to assess responses.

Participants

Third- and fourth-year medical students at two large US allopathic medical schools.

Main Measures

Responses to each survey item were analyzed to characterize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mentorship relationships in medical school. A score of 1–5 was considered “disagree” and a score of 6–10 was considered “agree.”

Key Results

A total of 144 responses were collected with a response rate of 16.2%. Overall, 80.6% (n = 116) of respondents agree that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on their medical school experience. Nearly half (41.0%, n = 59) expressed concern over the lack of mentorship opportunities, and 66.0% (n = 95) reported that the pandemic has made it more difficult to form or maintain connections with their mentors. Importantly, 43.6% (n = 61) of respondents reported that having close mentoring relationships reduced the impact of the pandemic on their medical training. While many respondents (79.9%, n = 114) did not change career plans due to the pandemic, most students are concerned about evaluating prospective residency programs (88.9%, n = 128). Notably, M3s have much lower confidence than M4s in their ability to choose a specialty (5.9 vs. 8.2, p = 6.43e − 08).

Conclusions

This investigation illustrates the concerns that medical students have regarding access to mentorship opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that these findings encourage medical schools to evaluate and expand their current mentorship programs.

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Availability of Data and Material

Online survey was administered.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA

    Ryan Bishop

  2. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA

    Rishabh Sethia

  3. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA

    David Z. Allen & Soham Roy

  4. McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Sameer Siddiqui

  5. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Charles Elmaraghy

Authors
  1. Ryan Bishop
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  2. Rishabh Sethia
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  3. David Z. Allen
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  4. Sameer Siddiqui
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  5. Soham Roy
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  6. Charles Elmaraghy
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Contributions

Ryan Bishop helped conceptualize and design the study, administer the survey, analyze and interpret the data, and draft and revise the article. Dr. Rishabh Sethia helped conceptualize and design the study, analyze and interpret the data, and draft and revise the article. Dr. David Allen helped administer the survey for data collection, analyze and interpret the data, and draft and revise the article. Sameer Siddiqui helped analyze and interpret the data, and draft and revise the article. Dr. Soham Roy helped analyze and interpret the data and assisted with revising the article. Dr. Charles Elmaraghy helped conceptualize and design the study, analyze and interpret the data, and draft and revise the article. All authors approved the final version of this paper prior to submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Z. Allen.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

This study was determined exempt from IRB approval by the Ohio State Institutional Review Board on 1/11/2021.

Consent for Publication

Yes.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Level of Evidence

Level 3

Meeting

Accepted for podium presentation at the Triological Society Combined Sections Meeting on January 22nd 2022

Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 15 KB)

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Bishop, R., Sethia, R., Allen, D.Z. et al. Medical Student Mentorship in the COVID-19 Era. Med.Sci.Educ. 33, 1081–1087 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-023-01838-4

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