Oak Solomon, Glickman Cynthia, McMackin Katherine
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ, USA.
Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ, USA.
J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2025 Mar 17;12:23821205251329659. doi: 10.1177/23821205251329659. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.
Obtaining a clinical research mentor is a major barrier for medical students interested in research.
To increase access to research, a Near-Peer Mentor Program (NPMP) was developed to pair medical students with resident mentors to submit case reports to an annual in-hospital research conference.
Students and residents were recruited via surveys and paired based on students' specialty interests. Support in the form of templates, instructions and timelines were given. To evaluate the program's impact, we reviewed the number of pairs' projects at the conference, awards, and who advanced their projects to publications and conferences from 2019 to 2022.
During the study period, 173 students enrolled. The majority 106 (61.2%) were interested in medical specialties, followed by 47 (27.2%) in surgery and surgical subspecialities, and 20 (11.6%) undecided. All students were paired. One hundred and seventy (98.3%) had projects under resident mentors matching their specialty interests. One hundred and fifty (82.9%) completed the program and submitted a case report to the conference. Years with NPMP led to a 122% (55 in 2019 vs 122 in 2020) and 232% (50 in 2021 vs 166 in 2022) increase in medical student conference posters compared to the previous year without NPMP. In both years, NPMP students won all top 3 awards for best case report. Additionally, 10 pairs produced 6 peer-reviewed publications, 5 conference abstracts, and 2 conference oral presentations as first authors.
The NPMP successfully promoted medical student participation in clinical research. The program substantially increased student poster presentations and subsequent publications and presentations stemming from them.
对于有志于从事研究的医学生而言，找到一位临床研究导师是一项主要障碍。
为了增加研究机会，开发了一个近伴导师项目（NPMP），让医学生与住院医师导师配对，以便向年度院内研究会议提交病例报告。
通过调查招募学生和住院医师，并根据学生的专业兴趣进行配对。提供模板、说明和时间安排等形式的支持。为评估该项目的影响，我们回顾了2019年至2022年配对项目在会议上的数量、奖项，以及将项目推进到发表和会议展示的人员情况。
在研究期间，173名学生报名参加。大多数106名（61.2%）对医学专业感兴趣，其次是47名（27.2%）对外科及外科亚专业感兴趣，20名（11.6%）未确定。所有学生都成功配对。170名（98.3%）学生在与他们专业兴趣匹配的住院医师导师指导下开展项目。150名（82.9%）学生完成了该项目并向会议提交了病例报告。与没有NPMP的上一年相比，有NPMP的年份医学生在会议上展示的海报数量分别增加了122%（2019年为55份，2020年为122份）和232%（2021年为50份，2022年为166份）。在这两年中，参与NPMP的学生获得了最佳病例报告的全部前三名奖项。此外，10对师生以第一作者身份发表了6篇同行评议论文、5篇会议摘要和2次会议口头报告。
NPMP成功促进了医学生参与临床研究。该项目大幅增加了学生海报展示数量以及后续由此产生的发表和展示。
