Podcast | Practice of Medicine | January 31, 2022

The Importance of Mentoring Relationships

Mentoring is important for both professional and personal development in medical education. In this podcast, Drs. Andrew Sephien, Danielle Gulick, and Ambuj Kumar discuss why mentoring is necessary, as well as provide insight into common qualities and barriers that medical students believe are associated with successful mentors and mentoring relationships. They also detail what led them to conduct a study focusing on mentoring, the findings of which appear in their Southern Medical Journal article, “Prevalence of, Qualities, and Barriers Associated with Mentoring Relationships from Medical Students’ Perspective: A Multi-Institutional Cross-Sectional Study” that they coauthored with Drs. Leigh Hatch, Jordan Karsch, and Karim Hanna.

Earn CME Credit

Andrew Sephien, MD, is a second-year internal medicine resident at HCA Healthcare/USF Morsani College of Medicine: Citrus Memorial Hospital and a graduate of Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida. He currently serves as a Member of the Mentorship and Networking Subcommittee for the Southern Medical Association’s Physicians in Training Committee. Dr. Sephien’s interests in medicine are broad, including cardiology, critical care, and medical education. He has authored 12 peer-reviewed publications along with several presentations at national conferences.

Danielle Gulick, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida. She has been the director for the medical neurology course and medical pre-matriculation program since 2013 and has published manuscripts as a medical student advisor. In addition, Dr. Gulick has studied circadian dysfunction in neurological disorders including addiction. 

Ambuj Kumar, MD, MPH, is a tenured Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at USF Health at the University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL and a Full Member in the Department of Health Outcomes and Behavior at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. He is also the director of the Research Methodology and Biostatistics Core at USF Health which provides research support to all faculty members across USF Health. Dr. Kumar’s expertise and research interest broadly are in the area of Comparative Effectiveness Research. He has applied the methodology of comparative effectiveness research to address uncertainty related not only to the efficacy/harms of competing treatments or diagnostic tests, but also expanded it to other fields of behavioral sciences, genetic medicine, and imaging studies. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed high impact factor journal publications along with numerous presentations at national and international meetings. 

References and Resources

  1. Sephien A, Hatch L, Karsch J, et al. Prevalence of, qualities, and barriers associated with mentoring relationships from medical students’ perspective: a multi-institutional cross-sectional study. South Med J 2021 Dec;114:789-796.
  2. Association of American Medical Colleges. Total Enrollment by U.S. Medical School and Sex, 2010-2011 through 2014–2015. 2019. Available at: https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2020-11/2020_FACTS_Table_B-1.1.pdf. Accessed October 28, 2021.
  3. Sheri K, Too JYJ, Chuah SEL, et al. A scoping review of mentor training programs in medicine between 1990 and 2017. Med Educ Online 2019;24:1555435.
  4. Akinla O, Hagan P, Atiomo W. A systematic review of the literature describing the outcomes of near-peer mentoring programs for first year medical students. BMC Med Educ 2018;18:98.
  5. Cho CS, Ramanan RA, Feldman MD. Defining the ideal qualities of mentorship: a qualitative analysis of the characteristics of outstanding mentors. Am J Med 2011;124:453–458.