Is student mentoring career-defining in surgical disciplines? A comparative survey among medical schools and medical students for mentoring programs

GND
1162629525
ORCID
0000-0001-5815-7498
Affiliation
Department of Obstetrics, Jena University Hospital ,Jena ,Germany
Hertling, Stefan Ferdinand;
GND
1131573455
Affiliation
Dieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin ,Berlin ,Germany
Back, David Alexander;
GND
120936208
ORCID
0000-0002-8365-1188
Affiliation
Department of Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University Jena ,Jena ,Germany
Wildemann, Britt;
GND
123039762
Affiliation
Department of Obstetrics, Jena University Hospital ,Jena ,Germany
Schleußner, Ekkehard;
Affiliation
Module Integration Optics, Jenoptik Light and Optics Division ,Jena ,Germany
Kaiser, Mario;
GND
1027367941
Affiliation
Department of Orthopaedics, Jena University Hospital ,Eisenberg ,Germany
Graul, Isabel

Objective Facing a shortage of young surgeons, this study aimed to examine the availability of mentoring programs and if this can counteract this lack. Summary background data Medical mentoring programs have proven to be decisive to influence students’ later career decisions. Since their structure may depend on the medical school and the effort of single disciplines, the offers are often very heterogeneous. Methods Anonymous online-questionnaires were developed and distributed among medical students in Germany and the dean for teaching of the medical schools from July 2019 to January 2020 in Germany. Data of the availability of mentoring programs, their structure and the impact of surgery were collected. Results Forty three medical schools participated, with 65% offering mentoring programs. 18 of medical schools had no additional funding available for this. Surgical subjects participated in these programs in only 30%. Additionally, 1,516 medical students participated in the second survey. A total of 70% had already participated in a mentoring program with a significantly higher proportion of men. Of these, 94% stated that this was helpful and had an impact on their career planning, without any gender differences. 95% would participate in structured surgical mentoring programs and 95% agreed that this could have an impact on their career planning. Conclusion Mentoring programs may be able to influence career planning, nevertheless participation by surgical specialties has been low. Becoming more active in providing mentoring programs with a special focus on women and offering more surgical content can be a way to counteract the lack of surgical trainees.

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License Holder: Copyright © 2022 Hertling, Back, Wildemann, Schleußner, Kaiser and Graul.

Use and reproduction:
This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.