4.5 Mentorships
Exposure to CT surgery whether in an extracurricular environment, within the medical school, or via the aforementioned methods of intervention, enhances the probability of networking and obtaining a mentor in CT surgery. Mentorships are pivotal in maintaining interest, providing technical training and career counselling amongst current CT trainees. The tailoring of mentorships to individual trainee needs may also be useful in improving career experience (32).
An analysis of the national training surveys on the GMC website from 2012 to 2019 indicated that whilst there was little variation on overall trainee satisfaction across the UK, trainees were least satisfied with teaching (62.63%), rota design (61.91%), and workload (45.07%); the only area that had less than 60% satisfaction (10). Successful mentorships offering all-rounded support could have a positive effect on career satisfaction amongst CT trainees.
Future research
The research generated on the subject thus far is to be commended however, more study on global trends in medical student career choice and respective decision-making is opportunistic. This will offer variations in perceptions of interest, differences in barriers in immersing in a career in CT surgery, and efficiency of exposure programmes offered internationally.
Primarily, the barriers to medical students pursuing a career in CT surgery should be better understood in order to prioritise addressing challenges such as the length of training pathway, burnout rate, and opportunity of progression. With CT surgery becoming increasingly specialised as related fields like interventional cardiology expand, the perceived specialty versatility by medical students is to be assessed. This calls for more qualitative studies to truly assess the nature and significance of deterrents.
With mentoring and simulation programmes as the most favoured approaches to stimulate interest, better assessment is required on the effectiveness of these programmes in terms of method of delivery, taught content, type of interaction, duration, and best-suited audience. For example, longer follow-ups to analyse the proportion of participants enrolling in CT surgery training is suggested. Besides, medical students tend to change their career interests from preclinical years to clinical years. For this reason, the type of programme whether simulation, mentorship, or clinical apprenticeship as well as the time of exposure are to be evaluated (13). Further research on existing mentorship programmes could be done to produce clearly defined goals to ensure that everyone gains the most from their mentors in every aspect including academic and emotional support (32). Other forms of incentives such as research experiences should be included in the discussion. It should also be determined whether to target these programmes at already interested students or students with no declared interest. Another key point in increasing the attractiveness of the specialty is accessibility, the inclusion of more female CT surgeons in mentorships along with widening access schemes is recommended. The impact of same-sex mentorships or the presence of successful female CT surgeons on influencing their attitudes towards a CT career could be researched to affect change in female interest levels in a CT career. With the rising prominence of social media, it can potentially be used as a tool to build a network of same-sex mentors (33) and comparative studies could be done between obtaining mentorships via a scheme in medical school/trainee years and social media.
Furthering research about current student perspectives on CT surgery and career promotion strategies may only be as beneficial if supported with actionable incentives and guidelines for both medical education and career progression within the field.