A framework for mentoring of medical students: thematic analysis of mentoring programmes between 2000 and 2015

Abstract

A consistent mentoring approach is key to unlocking the full benefits of mentoring, ensuring effective oversight of mentoring relationships and preventing abuse of mentoring. Yet consistency in mentoring between senior clinicians and medical students (novice mentoring) which dominate mentoring processes in medical schools is difficult to achieve particularly when mentors practice in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical schools. To facilitate a consistent approach to mentoring this review scrutinizes common aspects of mentoring in undergraduate and postgraduate medical schools to forward a framework for novice mentoring in medical schools. Four authors preformed independent literature searches of novice mentoring guidelines and programmes in undergraduate and postgraduate medical schools using ERIC, PubMed, CINAHL, OVID and Science Direct databases. 25,605 abstracts were retrieved, 162 full-text articles were reviewed and 34 articles were included. The 4 themes were identified—preparation, initiating and supporting the mentoring process and the obstacles to effective mentoring. These themes highlight 2 key elements of an effective mentoring framework-flexibility and structure. Flexibility refers to meeting the individual and changing needs of mentees. Structure concerns ensuring consistency to the mentoring process and compliance with prevailing codes of conduct and standards of practice.

Appendix 1

References	Study details	Intervention	MERSQI score	COREQ score
Pinilla et al. (2015)	Quantitative Case study Single center study at the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität Munich during the 2009–1013 academic year N = 3403 medical students and 399 mentors	Two-tiered program with a peer-mentoring concept for preclinical students and a 1:1-mentoring concept for clinical students aided by a fully automated online-based matching algorithm	8.5	NA
Kalen et al. (2010)	Quantitative Intervention, Post survey Single center study at Södersjukhuset during the 2005–2006 academic year N = 118 students and 101 mentors	Offered a personal mentor for 2 years and followed up via a questionnaire when the mentoring programme was completed	10.5	NA
Kalen et al. (2012)	Qualitative Intervention, post survey N = 12 medical students	Medical students who had finished their two preclinical years and were taking their first clinical course were offered a mentor for 2 years	NA	22
Kalen et al. (2015)	Qualitative Case study, post survey Single study center at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden N = 16 medical students	Students had combined group and one-to-one mentoring that is given throughout their studies. The mentoring programme was focused on the non-medical skills of the profession and used CanMEDS roles of a physician for students’ self-assessment	NA	24
Aagaard and Hauer (2003)	Quantitative Case study, post survey Single center study at the University of California, San Francisco N = 302 students	Two programs provided personal support and career advising	13	NA
Hawkins et al. (2014)	Quantitative and qualitative Intervention, post survey Single center study at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon N = 34	Final year medical students were allocated a junior doctor mentor at the start of their attachments. A questionnaire was conducted at the end of their placement 3 months later	11.5	NA
Drolet et al. (2014)	Quantitative Intervention, pre-and post-survey N = 24 students in the course (100%) and 147 students in the control group (67%) completed the surveys	A preclinical elective in surgery was developed, which served as an organized curriculum for junior medical students to experience surgery through a paired resident-mentorship model	14	NA
von der Borch et al. (2011)	Qualitative and Quantitative Needs assessment, Preliminary survey, focus group and sign-up surveys Single study center at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich School of Medicine during the 2007–2008 academic years Focus groups with selected medical students (n = 24) and faculty physicians (n = 22) All students signing up for the individual mentoring completed a survey addressing their expectations (n = 534)	NA	13	19
Stenfors-Hayes et al. (2010)	Qualitative Thematic analysis Single center study at the Södersjukhuset, a Karolinska Institutet teaching hospital N = 83 for questionnaires and N = 10 for focus groups	Participants were involved in a mentor programme at Södersjukhuset, a Karolinska Institutet teaching hospital, aimed to provide the students with a channel into the part of the medical profession not covered by factual knowledge and to discuss topics not covered in the educational programme	NA	18
Dimitriadis et al. (2012a, b)	Qualitative and quantitative Intervention, pre, during and post survey Single center study at the Munich Medical School N = 534 students and 203 mentors	A mentoring program was established at LMU School of Medicine and launched in May 2008	13	NA
Zuzuarregui and Hohler (2015)	Quantitative Case study Students involved in the comprehensive opportunities for research and teaching experience program	To promote medical student interest in an academic career in neurology, a faculty member developed a one-on-one mentorship program in the 2010–2011 academic year based on the issues identified by the International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine From 2010 to 2012, the faculty director initiated an informal process to students entering into neurology with opportunities in clinical research Beginning in the 2012–2013 academic year, the faculty director developed a teaching curriculum for interested students	10	NA
Stewart et al. (2011)	Quantitative Case study Single center study at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine N = 124 in its transitional one semester class and N = 119 in its first complete two-semester class	The Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship provides first year medical students with their initial exposure to clinical medicine during a 12-month experience consisting of weekly clinic sessions with a practicing physician-mentor (preceptor) and longitudinal experience with a population of patients	13	NA
Pololi et al. (2002)	Quantitative and qualitative Single center study at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University during the 1999–2001 academic years N = 18 faculty members	To facilitate faculty in their career development, the authors implemented and evaluated an innovative collaborative, or peer-group, mentoring program at their medical school. The 80-h Collaborative Mentoring Program spanned 8 months and consisted of an initial three-day session followed by a full-day program once a month for 6 months	9.5	19
Dobie et al. (2010)	Qualitative N = 30 physician mentors Single center study at the School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington	Each mentor is assigned six students at matriculation with gender balance and representation from throughout the five state region; there is no attempt to match specialty or other interests. Mentors then reports their perspectives on mentoring medical students during the third year of the program implementation	NA	26
Areephanthu et al. (2015)	Quantitative Analyses of ICR course enrollment and applications to the PSMRF program of data from all medical students who attended UKCOM between 2007 and 2014	NA	13.5	NA
Boninger et al. (2010)	Qualitative Case study Describing and comparison of scholarly projects between two medical schools namely The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University	Scholarly projects entail mentored study in a single topic area and may include classical hypothesis-driven research, literature reviews, or the creation of a medically related product	NA	NA
Santoro et al. (2010)	Quantitative Single center study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine during the 2000–2006 academic years N = 188 individuals	Participants participated in the College of Medicine’s Clinical Research Training Program, which is a 2-year training program entails a didactic course of study in statistics, epidemiology, data analysis, research ethics, grant writing, and scientific	10.5	NA
DeFilippis et al. (2016)	Case study Single center study at the Weill Cornell Medical college N = 29 mentors and 58 medical students	To improve mentorship opportunities for female medical students, a pilot mentoring programme for women in medicine was established in the autumn of 2013 at Weill Cornell Medical College	NA	NA
Zier and Coplit (2009)	Quantitative Case study Single center study at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine N = 4 students	The Individual Scholarly Project and Independent Research Experience (INSPIRE) was created to enable fourth-year students to conduct mentored, independent scholarly projects to develop critical thinking skills and intellectual independence. INSPIRE featured weekly sessions in which students shared their progress, heard about the careers of physician scientists, and participated in presentation skills workshops	10.5	10
Coates et al. (2008)	Quantitative Intervention, pre and post study Case study Single center study at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California–Los Angele	Fourth year students underwent a The College Program, where students would affiliate with a network of faculty whose specialties reflected a particular type of thought process. These colleges would serve as the foundation for their curricular program and mentoring needs as they transitioned to their eventual careers	13.5	NA
Hauer et al. (2005)	Qualitative Single center study at The University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine during the 2001 academic year N = 24 fourth year medical students	NA	NA	21
Kwan et al. (2015)	Quantitative Case study Single center study at the Queen’s University School of Medicine during the 2012–2013 academic years N = 115 medical trainees	115 medical trainees attended large- and small-group mentoring sessions lasting 2 h each	8	NA
Kosoko-Lasaki et al. (2006)	Quantitative Case study Dual center study at Creighton University and Wake Forest University N = 130 students	Mentoring program were established in Creighton University and Wake Forest University to assist women and minority students and faculty in being accomplished in their academic pursuits	11	NA
Garmel (2004)	Case study	NA	NA	NA
Fornari et al. (2014a, b)	Quantitative N = 14 medical school	Medical schools had their own mentoring programs. Evaluation was done to compare the development of these mentoring programs	13.5	NA
Usmani et al. (2011)	Qualitative and Quantitative Single center study at the Bahria University Medical and Dental college, Karachi, Pakistan N = 22 mentors	The Bahria University Medical and Dental College (BUMDC) implemented a structured mentorship programme since the foundation of college. There are 200 students of first and second year MBBS; thus the mentor mentee ratio is approximately 1:10	13.5	NA
Kalet et al. (2002)	Case study Involves students during the first two years of medical school N = 78	Student-mentoring program is to advance the professional development of our students during the first 2 years of medical school through regular group meetings with skilled, trained faculty facilitators The Master Scholar Program features five theme-based societies composed of students and faculty who share interests in the theme. The themes are for examples bioethics/human rights, health policy/public health, arts/humanities in medicine, biomedical/health sciences, medical informatics/biotechnology)	NA	NA
Murr et al. (2002)	Case study Single center study at the University of California San Francisco	UCSF has developed a formal structure to advise medical students. A selection committee, chaired by the associate dean of student affairs, appointed five faculty mentors to head advisory colleges. These five colleges serve as the advising and well-being infrastructure for the students	NA	NA
Lin et al. (2015)	Quantitative Intervention, Post study Single center study at the China Medical University Hospital during the 2013–2014 academic year N = 118	China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) redesigned a clinical mentoring program that was first instituted in 2001, aimed at enhancing the learning life of clerks, improve their socialization, and provide counseling services, particularly regarding their clinical learning progress	13	NA
Haubert et al. (2011)	Qualitative and Quantitative Intervention, Pre and Post study Single study center at the Ohio State University College of medicine during the 2008–2009 academic years	Five programs designed to involve surgeons as educators in the medical school curriculum were implemented. The first program, started in 2008, introduced surgical faculty into the first-year medical student anatomy dissection laboratories. Other programs initiated in 2008 included: Surgical Clinical Correlates in Anatomy, which involved faculty teaching through cadaver surgery; Clinical Pathologic Conferences in Anatomy, a surgeon-led conference based on clinical cases; and a women’s faculty-student mentorship program. Table Rounds, a surgeon-led anatomy review that used clinical scenarios to quiz students was begun in 2009	12.5	NA
Scheckler et al. (2004)	Case study Single center study at The University of Wisconsin Medical School	The Class Mentor Program at the University of Wisconsin Medical School is a mentorship program of an entire class of students for their full 4 years by a single senior clinician where the Class Mentor dedicates 50% of the time to mentorship efforts	NA	NA
Stanton et al. (2007)	Case study Describe an explicit approach to integration used at Harvard Medical School since 2003 that aims to enhance students’ learning in medical school and throughout their medical careers: the Mentored Clinical Casebook Project	The MCCP was implemented at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 2003. It is a yearlong project in which each participating medical student works with one clinician and one patient. The student spends as much time as possible with the patient in office and hospital appointments and also visits the patient’s home. The student, in consultation with his or her mentor, defines all the components of the patient’s health situation (including the patient’s story, the pathophysiology of the health problem, socioeconomic issues, cultural issues, etc.)	NA	NA