Background: Scholarship is crucial in academic medicine. However, most URiM medical students don’t feel prepared to engage in scholarly activity, especially due to lack of mentorship. The URiM Mentorship Platform is a peer mentoring platform at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), designed to organize collaborative networks and interactions between students and faculty with common research interests.
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to survey students who participated in the URiM program to explore perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the platform in increasing scholarly productivity.
Description: A Qualtrics survey containing questions on perspectives on the effectiveness of the platform was emailed to URiM medical students who had participated in the mentorship program at MCW (n = 22). Responses were anonymous and presented using descriptive statistics. Out of 22 students, 12 responded to the survey, with a response rate of 55%. 9 were peer mentors and 3 were mentees. Most respondents were second year medical students (41.67%), while the remainder (33.33% and 35%) were in the first and third years, respectively. 58.33% reported involvement with a scholarly project through a Kern Institute funded program. 83.33% had projects accepted at a national meeting, with only 66.67% eventually presenting at a national meeting. Most students (10/12) felt supported by the peer mentor on the team. A lower majority of students felt supported by the faculty member on the team (58.33%). 75% of respondents believed that the peer mentoring program met/exceeded expectations for promoting scholarship. 91.67% felt that the program helped increase scholarly productivity. Respondents emphasized an increase in scholarly activity, networking, and mentorship opportunities as a benefit of the program. Comments on feedback on improving the effectiveness of the program included expanding to accommodate more students, structured interactions between students and faculty, and diversifying mentee-mentor pairings between classes.This program was repeated for the year 2022-2023; more results to follow which will be showcased at SHM Converge.
Conclusions: Our findings highlight that URiM students at MCW perceive the benefits of participating in a peer mentoring group and its role in promoting scholarly productivity and student development. Our survey results suggest there can be a benefit to expanding such platforms and establishing similar peer/faculty mentoring groups at other institutions as well.