Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health

Learning Objectives: To implement a peer mentorship program and assess its impact on the levels of stress and self-esteem of fourth year medical students.

Background: Residents and medical students often face significant stress during their training which negatively impacts their wellbeing and job satisfaction. Peer mentoring is a dynamic social construct shown to have a positive effect on psychosocial wellbeing, stress reduction, and job satisfaction. We hypothesize that implementing a buddy system between emergency medicine (EM) residents and fourth year medical students will have a beneficial effect towards decreasing stress levels and improving self-esteem during their EM rotation.

Objectives: To implement a peer mentorship program and assess its impact on the perceived levels of stress and self-esteem of fourth year students.

Curriculum design: We implemented a 5-week 1:1 peer-mentoring program between 27 students and current EM residents at a Level I Trauma center over three rotation months. Prior to the rotation, they each received an email introducing the buddy system and outlining suggested topics and a meeting frequency of three times. Students completed surveys incorporating the 10 item Perceived Stress Scale and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale both one week prior and on the last day of the rotation. Random numbers were assigned for anonymity.

Impact: In total, 25 of 27 pre and post surveys were collected. Preliminary data shows that 84% of buddy pairs met at least three times, 92% of students perceived the intervention positively, and 84% believed it contributed to their overall wellbeing. This is an easy platform to implement with no cost or constraints on a residency program. By implementing peer-mentorship early it can have a rapid positive effect, foster a larger network of mentorship, and improve the psychological safety of trainees.