Insights
Innovative mentoring for female medical students Ersilia DeFilippis, Elizabeth Cowell, Milna Rufin, Stephanie Sansone and Yoon Kang Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA
W
omen in medicine, including female medical students, face continuing and unique challenges within the field. Despite the increasing proportions of female medical students enrolled in US medical schools, gender-specific mentoring programmes are lacking. Surveys of fourth-year medical students reveal that women report a deficiency of mentors (of either gender) as a significant barrier to their education.1 As recently as 2014, women in certain specialties expressed continued dissatisfaction with mentoring when compared with their male colleagues.2 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. Female medical students and faculty members
were recruited by e-mail. In the pilot year, 29 female faculty members participated as mentors, and 58 medical students from all years participated as mentees. Each mentoring group included a faculty member and junior and senior students to create opportunities for both faculty member– student and student–student mentoring.
negotiation and gender in the workplace. Faculty guides, including references to relevant articles, were provided to the mentors prior to each session. Individual mentoring groups were also encouraged to meet periodically outside of this three-event structure, to better address each student’s personal and professional goals.
The programme aimed to create sustainable, longitudinal mentoring experiences for a robust community of female medical students and faculty members. As mentors were recruited, programme leadership provided expectations for participation, including methods to connect with mentees. Three major events were held throughout the year to build community rapport and to offer informative programming. Each event included breakout group discussions on topics like work–life balance, salary
An anonymous, voluntary survey was distributed to mentors and mentees at the end of the year. The institutional review board of Weill Cornell approved this study. Participants were asked what they hoped to achieve through their involvement in the programme. Mentor responses included: ‘to provide leadership for budding doctors’, and to ‘show women in training that it is possible…to have a full career and life and family’. Mentees wanted ‘to meet women whose lives [they] could see [themselves] living’.
Women in certain specialities expressed continued dissatisfaction with mentoring when compared with their male colleagues
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2015; 12: 1–2 1
Several students noted that their relationship with mentors had already affected their medical education
The survey used five-point Likert scales to assess programme satisfaction, where 5 was the highest rating. Overall, 71 per cent of participants (n = 43) ranked the programme as a four or five out of five. Furthermore, 77 per cent felt strongly that the programme provided opportunities for mentoring, and 82 per cent felt that the programme filled an institutional need. In its first year, the programme made great strides in its mission to foster a strong, supportive community of women. Several students noted that their relationships with mentors had already affected their medical education in a tangible way. One student reported that she sought guidance from her mentor on a medical ethics topic, which later became the basis for an evidence-based paper. Another student noted that her mentor was instrumental in helping her to create an individualised third-year elective in neonatology. Beyond forming a relationship with one mentor, mentees were also able to interface with other faculty members and senior students through this programme, and ultimately gained greater access to a diverse network of women in medicine at different stages of their careers.
By facilitating relationships between female medical students and doctors, the programme is beginning to bridge an important gap in personal and professional advancement for women at our institution. Indeed, the programme created excitement among its participants, 93 per cent of whom expressed an eagerness to continue in the programme. We recognise that there is room for future improvement. Some mentors’ demanding and unpredictable schedules posed limitations on their ability to attend group events and to schedule individual meetings with students. Furthermore, although most students were matched with mentors based on the student’s expressed field of interest, there were not enough doctors from specialties like general surgery or otolaryngology to accommodate every request. This inability to match every student based on specialty interest, along with certain mentors’ limited attendance, may have affected the engagement and overall satisfaction of a small number of students. This programme has continued to grow at our institution and has now reached 90 participants.
We hope to take the strengths of our programme and incorporate them into pre-existing mentoring programmes at our institution, so that all students may benefit. This is the first mentoring programme for female medical students to be described in the literature. Our programme provided both vertical and horizontal relationships between near-peers and faculty mentor– student mentee pairs. Furthermore, it allowed for personal and professional development for both students and faculty members. In conclusion, the programme described here serves as an example of an effective model that can be used at other institutions to enhance the mentorship of female medical students and faculty members. REFERENCES 1.
Bright CM, Duefield CA, Stone VE. Perceived barriers and biases in the medical education experience by gender and race. J Natl Med Assoc 1998;90:681–688.
2.
Tomer G, Xanthakos S, Kim S, Rao M, Book L, Litman HJ, Fishman LN. Perceptions of Gender Equality on Work-Life Balance, Salary, Promotion and Harassment, Results of the NASPGHAN Task Force Survey. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2015;60:481–485.
Corresponding author’s contact details: Dr Yoon Kang, 1305 York Avenue, 10th Floor, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10021, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Funding: None. Conflict of interest: None. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to acknowledge the President’s Council of Cornell Women and Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, Laurie Glimcher, for her support of this mentoring programme. Ethical approval: The institutional review board at Weill Cornell Medical College approved this study. doi: 10.1111/tct.12408
2 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2015; 12: 1–2
Innovative mentoring for female medical students Ersilia DeFilippis, Elizabeth Cowell, Milna Rufin, Stephanie Sansone and Yoon Kang Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA
W
omen in medicine, including female medical students, face continuing and unique challenges within the field. Despite the increasing proportions of female medical students enrolled in US medical schools, gender-specific mentoring programmes are lacking. Surveys of fourth-year medical students reveal that women report a deficiency of mentors (of either gender) as a significant barrier to their education.1 As recently as 2014, women in certain specialties expressed continued dissatisfaction with mentoring when compared with their male colleagues.2 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. Female medical students and faculty members
were recruited by e-mail. In the pilot year, 29 female faculty members participated as mentors, and 58 medical students from all years participated as mentees. Each mentoring group included a faculty member and junior and senior students to create opportunities for both faculty member– student and student–student mentoring.
negotiation and gender in the workplace. Faculty guides, including references to relevant articles, were provided to the mentors prior to each session. Individual mentoring groups were also encouraged to meet periodically outside of this three-event structure, to better address each student’s personal and professional goals.
The programme aimed to create sustainable, longitudinal mentoring experiences for a robust community of female medical students and faculty members. As mentors were recruited, programme leadership provided expectations for participation, including methods to connect with mentees. Three major events were held throughout the year to build community rapport and to offer informative programming. Each event included breakout group discussions on topics like work–life balance, salary
An anonymous, voluntary survey was distributed to mentors and mentees at the end of the year. The institutional review board of Weill Cornell approved this study. Participants were asked what they hoped to achieve through their involvement in the programme. Mentor responses included: ‘to provide leadership for budding doctors’, and to ‘show women in training that it is possible…to have a full career and life and family’. Mentees wanted ‘to meet women whose lives [they] could see [themselves] living’.
Women in certain specialities expressed continued dissatisfaction with mentoring when compared with their male colleagues
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2015; 12: 1–2 1
Several students noted that their relationship with mentors had already affected their medical education
The survey used five-point Likert scales to assess programme satisfaction, where 5 was the highest rating. Overall, 71 per cent of participants (n = 43) ranked the programme as a four or five out of five. Furthermore, 77 per cent felt strongly that the programme provided opportunities for mentoring, and 82 per cent felt that the programme filled an institutional need. In its first year, the programme made great strides in its mission to foster a strong, supportive community of women. Several students noted that their relationships with mentors had already affected their medical education in a tangible way. One student reported that she sought guidance from her mentor on a medical ethics topic, which later became the basis for an evidence-based paper. Another student noted that her mentor was instrumental in helping her to create an individualised third-year elective in neonatology. Beyond forming a relationship with one mentor, mentees were also able to interface with other faculty members and senior students through this programme, and ultimately gained greater access to a diverse network of women in medicine at different stages of their careers.
By facilitating relationships between female medical students and doctors, the programme is beginning to bridge an important gap in personal and professional advancement for women at our institution. Indeed, the programme created excitement among its participants, 93 per cent of whom expressed an eagerness to continue in the programme. We recognise that there is room for future improvement. Some mentors’ demanding and unpredictable schedules posed limitations on their ability to attend group events and to schedule individual meetings with students. Furthermore, although most students were matched with mentors based on the student’s expressed field of interest, there were not enough doctors from specialties like general surgery or otolaryngology to accommodate every request. This inability to match every student based on specialty interest, along with certain mentors’ limited attendance, may have affected the engagement and overall satisfaction of a small number of students. This programme has continued to grow at our institution and has now reached 90 participants.
We hope to take the strengths of our programme and incorporate them into pre-existing mentoring programmes at our institution, so that all students may benefit. This is the first mentoring programme for female medical students to be described in the literature. Our programme provided both vertical and horizontal relationships between near-peers and faculty mentor– student mentee pairs. Furthermore, it allowed for personal and professional development for both students and faculty members. In conclusion, the programme described here serves as an example of an effective model that can be used at other institutions to enhance the mentorship of female medical students and faculty members. REFERENCES 1.
Bright CM, Duefield CA, Stone VE. Perceived barriers and biases in the medical education experience by gender and race. J Natl Med Assoc 1998;90:681–688.
2.
Tomer G, Xanthakos S, Kim S, Rao M, Book L, Litman HJ, Fishman LN. Perceptions of Gender Equality on Work-Life Balance, Salary, Promotion and Harassment, Results of the NASPGHAN Task Force Survey. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2015;60:481–485.
Corresponding author’s contact details: Dr Yoon Kang, 1305 York Avenue, 10th Floor, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10021, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Funding: None. Conflict of interest: None. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to acknowledge the President’s Council of Cornell Women and Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College, Laurie Glimcher, for her support of this mentoring programme. Ethical approval: The institutional review board at Weill Cornell Medical College approved this study. doi: 10.1111/tct.12408
2 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2015; 12: 1–2
