Presented By: Heather Christensen, University of Cincinnati
Co-Authors: Isabella Ramicone, University of Cincinnati

Purpose
Medical students have limited exposure to medical education (MedEd) or teaching practice prior to residency. To mitigate this, our institution offers a longitudinal elective: "teaching in medical education" (TiME). First-year (M1) medical students learn MedEd principles and conduct near-peer teaching sessions as second- and third-year (M2/3) students. This provides ample teaching practice; however, robust evaluation of student teaching remains limited due to faculty resources. Given the importance of feedback, we piloted a peer-mentorship program within TiME. A self-guided curriculum was developed for M4s to describe effective mentorship and bolster knowledge of learning theories and teaching principles, and to provide quality feedback. 

Method
Fourth-year (M4s) TiME students applied to mentor small-groups of M2 student-teachers and M3 apprentices. M4s hosted sessions with M2/3s to discussing difficulties faced by student-teachers, provide teaching advice, and attend/evaluate M2-teaching sessions. In this pilot, we analyzed the demographics of M4 mentors and used chat-GPT (AI) to identify themes in M4s' narrative application responses. Impact of this program will be measured upon conclusion of this pilot year (in March). 

Results 
Of the M4 TiME cohort (n=25; 56% female, 44% male), six students applied to be a mentor (83% female; 33% male) and nine M3s applied to be a mentor-apprentice (56% female; 44% male). The mentors closely reflected the gender distribution of the M2 mentees (70% female; 30% male). Applications had an overall positive and reflective sentiment. AI-generated themes from responses to "Why do you desire to be a mentor?" included: commitment to growth, desire to give back, and curiosity. 

Conclusion 
The pilot peer-mentorship program successfully launched. Ongoing data collection includes perception of community amongst the mentor groups, impact of mentorship on M2 student teaching, effectiveness of teaching evaluation, and confidence in M4 mentor-leadership.