Medical Student Mentorship in the COVID-19 Era

Objective: To determine the perspective of then third- and fourth-year medical students regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mentorship. Methods: The authors distributed a modified Likert scale questionnaire (score: 1-10) to third- and fourth-year medical students at two large US allopathic medical schools from the class of 2021 and 2022. Responses to each survey item were analyzed to characterize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mentorship relationships in medical school. A score of 1-5 was considered “disagree” and a score of 6-10 was considered “agree”. Results: A total of 144 responses were collected with a response rate of 16.2%. Overall, 80.6% (n=116) of respondents agree that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on their medical school experience. Nearly half (41.0%, n=59) expressed concern over the lack of mentorship opportunities, and 66.0% (n=95) reported that the pandemic made it more difficult to form or maintain connections with their mentors. Importantly, 43.6% (n=61) of respondents reported that having close mentoring relationships reduced the impact of the pandemic on their medical training. While many respondents (79.9%, n=114) did not change career plans due to the pandemic, most students were concerned about evaluating prospective residency programs (88.9%, n=128). Notably, M3s had much lower confidence than M4s in their ability to choose a specialty (5.9 vs. 8.2, p = 6.43e-08). Conclusions: This investigation illustrated the concerns that medical students had regarding access to mentorship opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that these findings encourage medical schools to evaluate and expand their current mentorship programs.