BMJ Open (Aug 2023)

Global Mentorship in Neurosurgery for Medical Students Study (the GloMNMS Study): a multinational multi-institutional cross-sectional audit

  • ,
  • Chandrasekaran Kaliaperumal,
  • Mrinmoy Kundu,
  • Katarzyna Julia Minta,
  • Daniel Sescu,
  • Dominique Da Luz,
  • Katarzyna J Minta,
  • Dominique la Luz,
  • Chadrasekaran Kaliaperumal,
  • Bilal Ahmad,
  • Marc Alasmar,
  • Baraa Mamoun Abdalla Mohamed Ali,
  • Muhammad Usama Bin Ali,
  • Moath Ahmed Ghaleb Saif Almekhlafi,
  • Ahmed K Alsenan,
  • Livia Nardeli Araujo,
  • Alexandra Aspinall,
  • Anuradha Biswakarma,
  • Nebojsa Brezic,
  • Chan Yat Nok,
  • Sofía Villavicencio Clayton,
  • Collins Ighaba Dambo,
  • Samuel Oreoluwa David,
  • Panagiota Fallon,
  • Celine Ghorayeb,
  • You Goh,
  • Rivona Harricharan,
  • Shirel Abigail Gonzalez Hernandez,
  • Gvantsa Lashkhi,
  • Lee Shi Yun,
  • Liew Wei Lun,
  • M N Nischith,
  • Huda Ezzulddin Mohsin,
  • Thelma Nduluma,
  • Anson Angel Nelson,
  • Pamela Pagador,
  • Aiuska Panta,
  • Sujaal Premjith,
  • Riti Raj,
  • Priyanka Ravichandran,
  • Pavel Riabec,
  • Zoe Shaked,
  • Subaniya Thayaparan,
  • Akshaya Venkitesh,
  • Kyriacos Evangelou,
  • Kubra Tamer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071696
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 8

Abstract

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Objectives To assess the perception of global mentorship in neurosurgery among medical students across the world. Secondary aim included investigating the factors affecting the availability and benefits of providing global mentorship scheme in neurosurgery at a medical student level.Setting The Global Mentorship in Neurosurgery for Medical Students Study was a multinational cross-sectional audit that included medical students currently in the years 1–6 and intercalating programmes. They were invited to complete an online survey between 11 March and 1 May 2022.Participants The survey was disseminated to 243 medical university ambassadors worldwide from 60 countries who distributed the survey within their respective medical student cohorts across the duration of the study.Results Overall, 2962 of 3017 (98.2%) responses from medical students from 60 countries worldwide were included; 1439 of 2962 (49%) and 1523 of 2962 (51%) were from years 1–3 and 4–6 medical students including intercalating degree programmes, respectively. 1712, 1502 and 1359 of responses gathered indicated that possible reasons for the lack of neurosurgical mentorship are lack of time and resources from trainees in neurosurgery, time within medical school’s curriculum and awareness of societies in neurosurgery/neurology. 1276 and 1065 of medical students surveyed reported that it could also be due to lack of funding and overall inaccessibility within the area meaning there are few networking opportunities available.Conclusions This pilot study indicates that there is a scope for improvement regarding the availability and accessibility of neurosurgical mentorship programmes worldwide at a medical student level. The evaluation suggested that medical students would most benefit from the neurosurgical mentorship in the future by means of increased numbers of mentors within their universities, accessibility to neurosurgical departments and the ability to choose mentorship globally via a unified digital platform.