ABSTRACT #42

FEMALE MEDICAL STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTORSHIP IN OPHTHALMOLOGY: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Megan E. Paul, Helen Liu, Stephanie Ying, Nisha Chadha

PURPOSE AND GOALS: Despite increasing matriculation of women into United States (US) medical schools, female representation in surgical fields remains unequal. Ophthalmology is not immune to these gender disparities, with females comprising only 35-45% of trainees and 26.1% of AAO membership. This study seeks to explore female medical students’ (MS) attitudes towards mentorship in ophthalmology to inform future recruitment and mentorship interventions in the field.

METHODS: An email was sent to US MS recruiting female-identifying students to participate in a 30-minute focus group (FG) utilizing the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) listserv and individual US Ophthalmology Interest Groups (OIGs) listservs in 2022. Participants were randomly assigned to FGs of 5-7 students facilitated by MS study investigators. FGs centered around understanding MS mentorship preferences and experiences that have influenced their interest in ophthalmology. Sessions were transcribed, stripped of identifiers, and analyzed for common themes. Finally, an optional post-interview survey was sent to participants to elicit feedback and learn about the impact of the session on their interest in ophthalmology.

EVALUATION PLAN: We plan to use qualitative methods to analyze key themes and discussion points emerging from the FGs. For the optional post-survey, summary statistics will be used for preliminary data analysis. Quantitative data including Likert scale questions will be assessed using ANOVA and Student’s T Tests, whereas categorical data will be analyzed using Chi-squared testing.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS: To date, this study has been conducted with 5 FGs including 24 medical students. To date, 3 key themes have been identified as follows: 1. While participants specifically sought female mentors, they were limited in comparison to males. 2. Participants felt male mentors were more often in positions of power and could thus provide more career support. 3. Participants felt that near-peer mentorship from senior medical students was valuable. In the optional post-survey, 23 of 24 (95.8%) students participated, with 69.6% noting that having a female mentor was important to them, though 61.2% of participants felt that there was a disparity in female ophthalmology mentors at their institution. Several noted that the FGs validated their experience that identifying female mentors can be challenging.

REFLECTIVE CRITIQUE: Female MS sought female mentors but felt that there was a disparity of those in positions of power compared to male mentors. Mentorship programs for female students and faculty could assist with recruiting a more diverse group of future ophthalmologists. Limitations of this work include possible selection bias, limited sample size, and the qualitative nature of the study. Future work should focus on exploring how medical students’ perceptions of female mentorship differ from those of academic leadership and interventions to increase diversity of ophthalmology mentorship.