The importance of osteopathic mentorship during medical school, residency, and beyond for surgical subspecialties: review of literature.

Abstract

Context: Quality mentorship for medical students and resident physicians throughout their medical education has been shown to be beneficial in supporting students in their academic and professional endeavors. There is no standardized approach for providing mentorship across institutions, and many students feel that they do not receive adequate mentorship. There is a paucity of literature about osteopathic mentorship, which is important to address due to the unique set of challenges faced by osteopathic medical students and residents.

Objectives: This review aims to evaluate the quality and availability of osteopathic mentorship in medical education and to identify areas of improvement and barriers for implementing structured mentorship programs across institutions.

Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed and ClinicalKey was conducted to explore current practices for mentorship within the training world of medicine, focusing on osteopathic mentorship throughout medical school and residency training. Recommendations for improving mentorship and developing standardized approaches were derived.

Results: Mentorship was strongly associated with improved specialty choice and residency match outcomes. Students prioritized honest feedback (75.4 %), responsiveness (70.8 %), and networking (60.8 %). Structured mentorship programs demonstrated high effectiveness, including a 100 % categorical surgery match rate in one cohort and significant perceived benefit (p<0.05). Osteopathic students reported limited mentorship (59.0 %) and significantly greater degree-based bias than allopathic peers (73.7 % vs. 16.0 %; p=0.001), with fewer research and mentorship opportunities. Targeted mentorship initiatives increased specialty interest (odds ratio [OR]=1.43; p=0.003) and improved match outcomes.

Conclusions: Mentorship has been demonstrated to be beneficial in medicine for both medical students and residents. Mentorship is very valuable to help osteopathic medical students match competitive specialties for residency and to maximize their potential. Residents at training programs with established and well-structured mentorship programs demonstrated greater satisfaction and success.