A Comprehensive Medical Student Career Development Program Improves Medical Student Satisfaction With Career Planning

Abstract

In 1999, the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) initiated a new career development program (CDP). The CDP incorporates the 4-phase career development model described by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Careers in Medicine (CiM). The CDP offers self-assessment exercises with guidance from trained counselors for 1st- and 2nd-year medical students. Career exploration experiences include Career Seminar Series luncheons, shadow experiences with faculty, and a shadow program with second-year (M2) and fourth-year (M4) medical students. During the decision-making phase, students work with trained faculty career advisors (FCA). Mandatory sessions are held on career selection, preparing the residency application, interviewing, and program evaluation. During the implementation phase, students meet with deans or counselors to discuss residency application and matching. An "at-risk plan" assists students who may have difficulty matching. The CiM Web site is extensively used during the 4 stages. Data from the AAMC and UMMS Graduation Questionnaires (GQ) show significant improvements for UMMS students in overall satisfaction with career planning services and with faculty mentoring, career assessment activities, career information, and personnel availability. By 2003, UMMS students had significantly higher satisfaction in all measured areas of career planning services when compared with all other U.S. medical students.

Just fun or a prejudice? – physician stereotypes in common jokes and their attribution to medical specialties by undergraduate medical students

“…Finding the right specialty for postgraduate medical training seems to be a difficult process for undergraduate medical students [ 1 ]. To provide orientation in the jungle of medical specialties some medical schools offer career-development courses or programs for undergraduate medical students even starting as early as in the preclinical years [ 2 , 3 ]. Physician shadowing experiences have also been shown to increase medical students’ interest in a specialty [ 4 ].…”

More mentoring needed? A cross-sectional study of mentoring programs for medical students in Germany

“…Among medical students, having a mentor significantly increases the odds of participating in research during medical school [6]. Formal mentoring programs were found to support medical students' career planning [7-10] and enhance students' research productivity and academic orientation [11-13]. Mentoring contributes to professionalism and performance of medical students [13-16] and increases their overall well-being [8-10,17].…”

Criteria of medical students for the selection of their future clinical specialisation: a cross-sectional survey at the Medical Faculty of Rostock

“…Comparable is also the offer of the Columbia University which already offers from the first semester informal talks, observations in several fields, individual career consultation interviews and discussion rounds [12]. Also the University of Michigan Medical School offers support in the area of career planning, which focus on self-evaluation exercises under the guidance of professional consultants and mentoring by students of higher semesters, which lead to a significantly higher degree of satisfaction in all areas of career planning in students [13]. It is plausible to establish such programs in German universities as well.…”