Increasing Medical Student Interest in Nephrology.

BACKGROUND: Interest in nephrology careers is declining, possibly due to perceptions of the field and/or training aspects. Understanding practices of medical schools successfully instilling nephrology interest could inform efforts to attract leading candidates to the specialty. METHODS: The American Society of Nephrology Workforce Committee's Best Practices Project was one of several initiatives to increase nephrology career interest. Board-certified nephrologists graduating medical school between 2002 and 2009 were identified in the American Medical Association Masterfile and their medical schools ranked by production. Renal educators from the top 10 producing institutions participated in directed focus groups inquiring about key factors in creating nephrology career interest, including aspects of their renal courses, clinical rotations, research activities, and faculty interactions. Thematic content analysis of the transcripts (with inductive reasoning implementing grounded theory) was performed to identify factors contributing to their programs' success. RESULTS: The 10 schools identified were geographically representative, with similar proportions of graduates choosing internal medicine (mean 26%) as the national graduating class (26% in the 2017 residency Match). Eighteen educators from 9 of these 10 institutions participated. Four major themes were identified contributing to these schools' success: (1) nephrology faculty interaction with medical students; (2) clinical exposure to nephrology and clinical relevance of renal pathophysiology materials; (3) use of novel educational modalities; and (4) exposure, in particular early exposure, to the breadth of nephrology practice. CONCLUSION: Early and consistent exposure to a range of clinical nephrology experiences and nephrology faculty contact with medical students are important to help generate interest in the specialty.

Enhancing Nephrology Career Interest through the ASN Kidney TREKS Program.

The Kidney Tutored Research and Education for Kidney Students (TREKS) Program is a product of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Workforce Committee that seeks to connect medical and graduate students to nephrology. This program starts with a weeklong camp-like course introducing participants to renal physiology through classic and modern experiments. Next, each student is matched with a nephrology mentor at his or her home institution to foster a better understanding of a nephrology career. Lastly, the students are encouraged to participate in scholarly activities and attend the ASN Kidney Week. Now in its third year, with a total of 84 participants, survey data suggest early success of the program, with a self-reported 40% increased interest in nephrology fellowship and/or research careers. In addition, students give high ratings to the course components and mentorship pairings. Continued student tracking will be necessary to determine the long-term program effect.

Kidney Mentoring and Assessment Program for Students: a guide for engaging medical students in nephrology.

BACKGROUND: The American Society of Nephrology's (ASN) Workforce Committee created a unique program called the Kidney Mentoring and Awareness Program for Students to engage medical students in the fight against kidney diseases and interest them in careers in nephrology. METHODS: The program provided a framework and 2 years of funding to three medical schools to organize and carry out health screenings in underserved areas of their communities as well as a structure for student mentoring by the practicing nephrologists. RESULTS: The Workforce Committee identified three medical schools (Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN and University of Louisville, Louisville, KY) and engaged faculty at each school to serve as advisors. The ASN committed funding to the groups for 2 years, after which the groups became self-sufficient. Three nephrologists participated in each chapter, building on existing relationships with community groups to identify sites and carry out kidney screening events. CONCLUSIONS: We report here the experience of those chapters and a blueprint for other schools interested in setting up a similarly structured program to interest students in nephrology while working with community groups to spread awareness of the major underlying causes of kidney disease.