A growing population of children with chronic illness must transition from pediatric to adult healthcare. Medical students receive little formal training about the needs of these young patients. Strategies for educating students about how to address medical and psychosocial consequences of these conditions are needed. Interventions pairing medical students as mentors for young adults with chronic illness may provide dual benefit for both patient and student. To establish the feasibility of developing this type of program, we surveyed 165 medical students about their extra-curricular and clinical experiences as well their interest in and expectations for a patient mentoring experience.
Keywords: chronic illness; clinical experience; extra-curriculars; mentoring; needs-based assessment; survey research.