Medical Student Wellness: An Essential Role for Mentors

Medical students experience significant stress and have high rates of depression and anxiety. Medical schools should have systems in place to identify these students and should have adequate resources available to support these students in obtaining professional assistance. One approach in promoting medical student Wellness is to train faculty who have longitudinal relationships with medical students in the identification and triage of students in distress. We describe a learning community of faculty (with longitudinal relationships with students) in the Stanford University School of Medicine (SUSoM), Educators for CARE (E4C), which has served as a valuable resource to promote medical student Wellness. In addition to the role learning communities have in promoting teaching and mentoring in medical schools, these programs can have a valuable role in promoting medical student Wellness. Research is needed to determine the most effective ways medical schools can promote and maintain medical student well-being during the challenging time of medical training.