Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
J Cancer Educ. 2022 Aug;37(4):1053-1065. doi: 10.1007/s13187-020-01919-7. Epub 2020 Nov 26.
The mounting global cancer burden has generated an increasing demand for oncologists to join the workforce. Yet, students report limited oncology exposure in undergraduate medical curricula, while undergraduate oncology mentorships remain underutilised. We established an undergraduate oncology society-led mentorship programme aimed at medical students across several UK universities to increase medical student oncology exposure. We electronically recruited and paired oncologist mentors and medical student mentees and distributed a dedicated questionnaire (pre- and post-mentorship) to compare mentees' self-reported cancer specialty knowledge and oncology career motivation after undertaking a 6-week mentorship. We also determined students' interest across specialties and subspecialties and measured mentor availability via percentage programme uptake. Statistical analysis included univariate inferential tests on SPSS software. Twentynine (23.4%) of 124 oncology specialists agreed to become mentors. The mentorship was completed by 30 students across three medical schools: 16 (53.3%) Barts, 10 (33.3%) Birmingham, and 4 (13.3%) King's; 11 (36.7%) mentored by medical oncologists, 10 (33.3%) by clinical/radiation oncologists, and 9 (30%) by surgical oncologists. The mentorship generated a statically significant increase in students' knowledge of the multidisciplinary team and all oncology-related specialties including academia/research but not interest towards a career in oncology. Undergraduate oncology mentoring is an effective educational, networking and motivational tool for medical students. Student societies are a valuable asset in cultivating medical student oncology interest by connecting students to faculty and increasing mentor accessibility. Further research should focus on developing an optimal mentorship structure and evaluating long-term outcomes of such educational initiatives.
全球癌症负担不断增加，导致对肿瘤学家加入劳动力队伍的需求不断增加。然而，学生报告称，本科医学课程中接触肿瘤学的机会有限，而本科肿瘤学指导仍未得到充分利用。我们建立了一个由本科生主导的肿瘤学社团领导的指导计划，旨在为英国几所大学的医学生增加医学学生对肿瘤学的接触。我们通过电子方式招募和配对肿瘤学家导师和医学学生学员，并分发专门的问卷（指导前后），以比较学员在接受 6 周指导后自我报告的癌症专业知识和肿瘤学职业动机。我们还确定了学生对各专业和亚专业的兴趣，并通过计划参与率衡量导师的可用性。统计分析包括在 SPSS 软件上进行单变量推理测试。29 名（23.4%）24 名肿瘤学专家同意成为导师。该指导计划由三所医学院的 30 名学生完成：16 名（53.3%）来自 Barts，10 名（33.3%）来自 Birmingham，4 名（13.3%）来自 King's；11 名（36.7%）由肿瘤内科医生指导，10 名（33.3%）由临床/放射肿瘤学家指导，9 名（30%）由外科肿瘤学家指导。该指导计划使学生对多学科团队和所有与肿瘤学相关的专业（包括学术界/研究）的知识有了显著的提高，但对肿瘤学职业的兴趣没有提高。本科肿瘤学指导是一种有效的教育、网络和激励工具，适用于医学生。学生社团是培养医学生肿瘤学兴趣的宝贵资产，它将学生与教师联系起来，并增加导师的可及性。进一步的研究应侧重于开发最佳指导结构，并评估此类教育计划的长期结果。
