Mentoring the new third year internal medicine trainees.

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, training for doctors specialising in general internal medicine (GIM) has been re-structured. The internal medicine training (IMT) programme replaced and lengthened core medical training (CMT), from 2 to 3 years. The intention is that trainees gain a further year of supervised experience before sub-specialism. From August 2021, the novel role of the “internal medicine trainee year 3 (IMT3) Doctor” has existed. As before, trainees rotate through varying medical specialities alongside on-call and out-of-hours GIM commitments. Hospital service provision demand has meant that many rotating IMT3 Doctors are still being expected to perform in less well-supervised specialist roles but are newly under the guise of still being trainees. This has created unique challenges from a learning and practice point of view. Mentorship in medical education has been found to be effective in supporting the transfer of learning needed to address ‘performance gaps’ in medical students becoming doctors.1 These gaps describe occasions in clinical practice where an individual exceeds their performance capacity. In the transition from student to doctor, mentorship programmes can increase individual confidence in preparation for clinical practice and allow new doctors to reflect on their professional development. Little is published on the use of mentorship in later stages of training. Our mentorship innovation aimed to address a new gap, which anecdotally exists for IMT3 doctors in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, mentors were able to give holistic support as the year progressed, supporting mentees to reflect on their educational and professional development. Through formal feedback before and after the first 10 months of this programme, we gained resoundingly positive responses. IMT3s felt particularly supported in professional examination and interview practice. They commented that by discussing issues in a non-threatening group environment and via the online chat forum, they could be reassured by their mentors on a regular basis that they were making safe and sensible clinical decisions, ultimately increasing their confidence in practice. Concerns raised by the mentees with regards the on-call/out-of-hours commitments were directly fed back to senior managers via the mentors and changes were made much to the satisfaction of IMT3s. A formal mentorship programme can be an adjunct to meeting the educational needs of doctors in training and help dictate which teaching methods and tools are of most value to learners. Mentors also benefited from the programme by developing their own teaching and leadership skills. Cerys A. Morgan, Murray A. J. Hudson, and Edward Hoy involved in concept of and implementation of mentorship programme. Murray A. J. Hudson involved in writing manuscript. Cerys A. Morgan and EH involved in revisions of manuscript.