Building a virtual community of practice for medical students: The Global Emergency Medicine Student Leadership Program

Abstract

Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) facilitate distance learning and mentorship by engaging members around shared knowledge and experiences related to a central interest. The American College of Emergency Physicians and Emergency Medicine Residents' Association's Global Emergency Medicine Student Leadership Program (GEM-SLP) provides a valuable model for building a VCoP for GEM and other niche areas of interest. This VCoP facilitates opportunities for experts and mentees affiliated with these national organizations to convene regularly despite barriers attributed to physical distance. The GEM-SLP VCoP is built around multiple forms of mentorship, monthly mentee-driven didactics, academic projects, and continued engagement of program graduates in VCoP leadership. GEM-SLP fosters relationships through (1) themed mentoring calls (career paths, work/life balance, etc); (2) functional mentorship through didactics and academic projects; and (3) near-peer mentoring, provided by mentors near the mentees' stage of education and experience. Monthly mentee-driven didactics focus on introducing essential GEM principles while (1) critically analyzing