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Cited by 19Diversity and Career in MedicineCareer Development and DiversityMentoring and Academic Development

Virtual summer undergraduate mentorship program for students underrepresented in medicine yields significant increases in self-efficacy measurements during COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods evaluation

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Stephenson-Hunter, Cara, Franco, Stacey, Martinez, Alicia, Strelnick, A. Hal·2021·Health Equity
DOI 10.1089/heq.2021.0060PMC PMC8665814
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Abstract

Purpose: The barriers that Black and Hispanic/Latinx students underrepresented in medicine (URiM) face while seeking biomedical careers have been identified, including lack of career preparation and social support. Yet it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their decisions and progress toward their occupational goals. Methods: Adapting to the precautions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of our 2020 virtual summer URiM biomedical mentoring program, using both quantitative and qualitative pre- and post-program questionnaires to measure the students' perceptions of their preparation and self-efficacy for applying to health professional schools. Results: Themes were extracted from qualitative data through thematic analysis. When students were asked how the COVID-19 pandemic affected them, two themes and subthemes emerged: (1) loss of supportive environment, (1.1) challenging learning environment, (2) derailed or uncertain future, and (2.2) COVID-19 hitting home. When students were surveyed about their online experience at the end of the program, the themes (3) supportive community and (4) inspired and reinforced goals appeared. In addition, quantitative data examined through statistical analysis revealed that the students' career self-efficacy improved significantly after program participation. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has further challenged URiM students with pre-existing career obstacles. The outcomes also demonstrate that it is possible to virtually provide URiM students with socioemotional support and increase their career self-efficacy. Overall, frequent evaluations are encouraged to better understand the dynamic challenges of URiM students, improve the design of health career “pipeline” programs, and diversify the physician workforce to address racial health inequities.

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  • Program mentors, including medical students, residents, and physicians, can guide underrepresented students through the application process.

    “Moreover, program mentors, including medical students, residents, and physicians, can guide underrepresented students through the application process [11,16,20,24,25].”

    From Efficacy of Early Exposure Medical Programs for Underrepresented Students: A Systematic Review (2026) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Methods (Mentorship and Program description; page not provided) identify medical students as mentors and describe application-related workshops and admissions discussions. The Results (Qualitative assessment; page not provided) say mentors offered to review secondary medical-school applications. The copy does not identify residents or physicians as program mentors who guided students through applications; physicians appear as panelists and speakers. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Stephenson-Hunter, C., Franco, S., Martinez, A., & Strelnick, A. H.
Affiliations
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
Corresponding author
Stephenson-Hunter, Cara
ORCID
Venue
Health Equity
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2021-09-01
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
697-706
ISSN
2473-1242 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1089/heq.2021.0060
PMC
PMC8665814
OpenAlex
W3203851898
Cited by
19
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2
FWCI
4.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Health Equity (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mentoring and Academic Development
Keywords
career self-efficacy, COVID-19 pandemic impact, online mentoring, Black students, Hispanic/Latinx students, physician workforce diversity, socioemotional support, career preparation, racial disparities in health

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