Inter-Institutional Collaborative Opportunity For Medical Students in the Neurosciences: Annual Student Interest Group in Neurology (SIGN) Forum
Harli Weber1, Michelle You2, Roxanna Nahvi3, Audrey Huang2, Harini Sarva4, Allan Perel5, Mill Etienne6
1Brigham & Women's Hospital, 2New York Medical College, 3Johns Hopkins Hospital, 4Weill Cornell Medicine, 5Richmond University Medical Center, 6Good Samaritan Hospital
Objective:
To explore the impact of a student-led educational forum between SIGN chapters in the New York Tri-State Area on student perceptions regarding collaborative opportunities for mentorship and interest in the neurosciences.
Background:
Many factors influence medical student specialty decisions, including early clinical exposure through clerkship rotations, medical school culture, mentorship opportunities, and peer influences. State-wide and national conferences provide an excellent platform to further expose medical students to their area of interest, while providing them with networking opportunities. Student involvement at these conferences, particularly through student-led educational forums, is one potential avenue to further encourage inter-institution collaboration among local SIGN chapters, similar to how conferences provide attending physicians a space for networking and collaboration.
Design/Methods:
The SIGN forum takes place at the New York State Neurological Society (NYSNS) annual meeting, providing students at various institutions a platform to share ideas and network. During a dedicated one-hour session, each SIGN chapter presents on their recent initiatives and accomplishments with the second half of the forum reserved for networking among medical students. In 2023, all student attendees were invited to complete a voluntary de-identified survey to provide feedback.
Results:
A total of 13 students completed the feedback survey. 100% of students agreed that participating in the forum was a valuable experience, helped inspire ideas for their own chapters to implement, and were interested in collaborating with local SIGN chapters in the future. None of the respondents had previously attended this annual meeting, and 100% of respondents noted that they either definitely or may attend the meeting next year.
Conclusions:
The SIGN Forum was successful in providing students with an opportunity to share ideas across institutions, network with peers, and attend an annual conference. These student-led initiatives serve as an effective platform for promoting career development in the clinical neurosciences for medical students.
Disclaimer: Abstracts were not reviewed by Neurology® and do not reflect the views of Neurology® editors or staff.