Building Learning Communities

Abstract

Learning communities, which are an emerging trend in medical education, create a foundation for professional and academic development through the establishment of longitudinal relationships between students and faculty. In this article, the authors describe the robust learning community system at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, which encompasses wellness, career planning, professional development, and academics.The Vanderbilt Advisory Colleges Program introduced in 2006 initially focused on two goals: promoting wellness and providing career advising. In the 2011-2012 academic year, the focus of the colleges expanded to incorporate an enhanced level of personal career advising and an academic component. In the four-year College Colloquium course, faculty selected as college mentors teach the medical humanities and lead sessions dedicated to student professional development in the areas of leadership, research, and service-learning. This academic and professional development program builds on the existing strengths of the colleges and has transformed the colleges into learning communities.The authors reflect on lessons learned and discuss future plans. They report that internal data and data from the Association of American Medical Colleges Medical School Graduation Questionnaire support consistently high and increasing satisfaction among Vanderbilt medical students, across the metrics of personal counseling, faculty mentoring, and career planning.

Association Between Learning Environment Interventions and Medical Student Well-being

“…Drolet and Rodgers 37 (n=116, MERSQI=6.5) evaluated the faculty advisor/mentor program after the addition of several components and found that 95% of students reported a positive experience with the Wellness Program. Fleming et al 38 (n=245, MERSQI=6.0) assessed the association of the most recent program iteration, including colleges, and found that more than 91% of students reported that colleges contributed at least somewhat meaningfully to their medical school experience. Real et al 39 (n=450, MERSQI=10.5) reported that students credited the program in general (and, more specifically, faculty mentors), the student-led programming committee, and annual retreats with lowering reported rates of burnout.…”

Group mentorship for undergraduate medical students—a systematic review

“…The majority of the programs ( n = 9) were longitudinal throughout the medical curriculum [ 25 , 26 , 29 , 31 – 36 , 42 , 43 ] whereas four programs were aimed at first year students [ 28 , 37 , 40 , 41 ] and one program at third year students [ 27 ]. Two programs ran through both the first and second year of medical school [ 30 , 44 ].…”

“…Faculty members or experienced physicians acted as mentors in almost all programs [ 25 , 27 , 29 – 33 , 38 , 39 , 42 – 44 ]. Some programs provided dual mentoring; frequently, the mentor pair consisted of a faculty member and a senior medical student [ 26 , 35 , 37 , 41 ].…”

“…In some programs [ 28 , 37 ], the mentors were volunteers. Only four studies [ 29 , 31 – 33 ] reported on financial compensation, which ranged from 12,000 USD [ 33 ] to 30,000 USD per year [ 31 ]. Furthermore, four studies reported on the amount and quality of faculty development for the mentor role, describing that the mentors were invited to workshops [ 25 , 28 , 37 ], seminars [ 42 ] and supervisory meetings [ 43 ] in order to prepare for group sessions and share experiences with colleagues.…”

“…[ 28 ] USA 2006 MS‑2 MS‑1 1:4 ( 2:8 ) N Y Y 8 1, 2 Fleming et al. [ 29 ] USA 2011 Faculty members MS‑1 to MS‑4 1:25–28 Y Y Y 6.5 1 Bhatia et al. [ 40 ] India 2009 Faculty members MS‑1 1:2–3 N N Y 8 1, 2 Goncalves et al.…”