Background: Medical school is crucial in giving students both the knowledge and the professional identity required to be a doctor. While there are numerous formal options at our medical school for senior medical students to assist in the former, there are far fewer for the latter. Our group is investigating the possibilities of senior medical students guiding the professional identity formation of their juniors in all medical schools.
Methods: We are reviewing the current literature following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement. Of 881 papers taken from PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, 261 were duplicates and removed from consideration. Next, three reviewers independently screened by title and abstract for relevant scholarly papers using the criteria below:Exclusion Criteria:· No focus on medical students as teachers (mSAT) programs.· Unclear description of mSAT program structure, features, or strategies.· Focus on improving medical students’ content knowledge or non-teaching skills. Inclusion Criteria:· Studies that identify challenges or barriers to scaling up and maintaining mSAT programs.· Studies discussing innovative strategies for enhancing the scalability and sustainability of mSAT programs. 431 papers were screened out. For the remaining 189 papers, a full-text review and data extraction is planned.
Results: Junior medical students seem to prefer their near peers in professional identity discussions due to the socio-cognitive congruency. Gross anatomy dissection and patient death are critical milestones in forming professional identities, and student-led reflections have shown promise.There is some evidence indicating that medical student-led medical ethics education can be effective.
Conclusions: Per our review, as individuals actively shaping their professional identities, senior medical students are well-positioned to start their juniors on the same journey and benefit from this teaching themselves; however, this possibility is not yet being fully utilized. Integrating mSAT into formal professionalism curricula could improve the quality and depth of professional identity formation at Wayne State and other medical schools.