Innovation in medical education: summer studentships.
BACKGROUND
few doctors choose academic medicine as a career. Reasons suggested for this include a lack of exposure. Thus, we wished to broaden the opportunities available for undergraduate medical students to experience academic medicine, specifically medical education. The approach selected was to establish a programme of competitive Teaching Development Awards: the 'Summer Studentship Scheme'.


METHODS
this article describes the approach taken, including an overview of the organisation of the Summer Studentship Scheme, and provides preliminary data on gains from the programme. Twenty studentships were funded over a 3-year period. The projects covered a wide range of topics. Information on what the students gained from the projects and supervisor views of the programme were sought by questionnaire and self-reflective statements.


RESULTS
the academic gains to date include nine presentations at national conferences and four published papers. All student respondents (87%) agreed that they would recommend a summer studentship to another student. Supervising a studentship (86% response rate) was seen as a positive experience.


CONCLUSIONS
a relatively small level of funding can lead to great gains, in terms of academic output, internally, and in terms of external dissemination, as well as in gains to participating students and staff. We plan to track the career developments of participating students to see if they are more likely to pursue academic medicine as their peers.
Division of Medical and Dental Education, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Aberdeen, UK. jen.cleland@abdn.ac.uk
Jennifer
J
Cleland
Naomi
N
Engel
Ross
R
Dunlop
Christine
C
Kay
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D002321:Career Choice; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003657:Decision Making; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires