Abstract
ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic restricting clinical practice and exacerbating the lack of medical staff. There is currently a lack of young residents who are deciding on further training in gynecology and obstetrics. Design: review and prospective, cross-sectional study. Setting: the aim of this study was to investigate if structured mentoring programs can counteract this deficiency. Population: medical students took part from Germany in the clinical phase.MethodsAn anonymous questionnaire was developed and distributed to students from January to October 2020. Epidemiological data, questions about mentoring experiences, necessity and their expected influence on career planning were collected and statistically evaluated. Main outcome measures: structured mentoring-programs can influence the choice of subject. In particular, men are still underrepresented. Research on the topic of mentoring during in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics is completely lacking.ResultsA representative number of 927 medical students took part in the survey. 22% (170/906) of the students had already participated in a mentoring program with a significantly higher proportion of men (69%; 117/170; p < 0.001). Of these, 94% (453/170) said this was helpful. 6% (55/906) wanted to pursue a career in gynecology and obstetrics. When asked about their appreciation for structured mentoring programs in gynecology and obstetrics, 95% (880/906) would participate and 94% agreed (871/906) that this could have an impact on their choice of specialist and career planning.ConclusionsAn active provision of mentoring programs and more content can be a way of counteracting the shortage of residents in gynecology and obstetrics.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic affecting clinical practice everyday
The number of manuscripts in the last 35 years is small, in the last 5 years there has been a significant increase in the literature on mentoring in gynecology and obstetrics
To become more active in this direction, to offer mentoring programmes and to offer more gynaecological and obstetric content, can be a way to counteract the shortage of trainees
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic affecting clinical practice everyday. There is a shortage of staff at every level of competence. The loss of attractiveness increases with the number of semesters: at the beginning of medical studies, a third of all students can imagine further training as a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, while this initial interest is almost halved by the end of the practical year [6]. Many students at the beginning and during their studies lack a view of the professional perspective and an idea of future everyday work [10]. The aim of this study is to check whether the students are of the opinion that specific mentoring programs from gynecology and obstetrics can change the future career planning of the students and change their choice of the specialist in favor of gynecology and obstetrics
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