Development of an effective mentorship program for preclinical medical student global health research training: An evaluation of a pilot mentorship program

Abstract

As medical student interest in global health soars, so too does the desire by students to do research in international settings. However, very few medical students receive formal training in research skills. Mentorship is a key component of any research endeavour by students. The University of Texas Medical Branch focuses preclinical rotations on value-adding, mentored scholarly projects, developed with host site collaborators. The structure of this program allows preclinical students to engage meaningfully with international partners, who serve as research mentors. Mentorship is critical to successful development, implementation, and dissemination of scholarly projects. This paper describes a qualitative evaluation of a pilot mentorship program, which included semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with mentors and students who participated in the 2015 global health preclinical experience. Overall, mentors and students were satisfied with the mentorship experience. Challenges to mentoring were insufficient time and lack of student accountability to deadlines. Students reported satisfaction with the mentor relationship. The common theme from student interviews was the importance of communication. The better the communication, the better the experience.

Keywords

• global health research
• global health education
• mentorship
• research training
• preclinical medical students