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.