Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 9:3:1032317.
doi: 10.3389/frhs.2023.1032317. eCollection 2023.

Supporting the future of medicine: Student mental health services in medical school

Elijah W Hale  1 , Rachel A Davis  1   1
Affiliations

Supporting the future of medicine: Student mental health services in medical school

Elijah W Hale et al. Front Health Serv. .

Abstract

Background: Mental health issues are common among United States medical students, and the AAMC has established recommendations for student mental health services provided by medical schools. Few studies directly compare mental health services at medical schools across the United States and, to our knowledge, none analyze how well schools adhere to the established AAMC recommendations.

Objective: To determine whether mental health services at United States medical schools adhere to established guidelines.

Methods: From October 2021 to March 2022, we obtained student handbooks and policy manuals from 77% of the accredited LCME United States medical schools. The AAMC guidelines were operationalized and placed into a rubric format. Each set of handbooks was independently scored against this rubric. A total of 120 handbooks were scored and the results were compiled.

Results: Rates of comprehensive adherence were very low, with only 13.3% of schools displaying adherence to the full set of AAMC guidelines. Partial adherence was higher, with 46.7% of schools meeting at least one of three guidelines. Portions of guidelines whose requirements reflected a standard for LCME accreditation displayed a higher rate of adherence.

Conclusion: The low rates of adherence across medical schools, as measured by handbooks and Policies & Procedures manuals, represents an opportunity to improve the mental health services within United States allopathic schools. An increase in adherence could be a step towards improving the mental health of United States medical students.

Keywords: handbook evaluation; mental health support; policy; student mental health and wellness; student services.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

RAD served as Medical Director of Student and Resident Mental Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus until June 2022. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
School document adherence to criteria, in percentage of total schools analyzed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Young C, Caceres J, Jackson A, Lee WW, Philips A, Rea M, et al. UME Wellness Programming and Strategies for Evaluating Wellness Programs: A National Review. https://www.aamc.org/media/56246/download?attachment (Accessed August 1, 2022).
    1. Rotenstein LS, Ramos MA, Torre M, Segal JB, Peluso MJ, Guille C, et al. Prevalence of depression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation among medical students: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. (2016) 316(21):2214–36. 10.1001/JAMA.2016.17324 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dyrbye LN, West CP, Satele D, Boone S, Tan L, Sloan J, et al. Burnout among U.S. Medical students, residents, and early career physicians relative to the general U.S. Population. Acad Med. (2014) 89(3):443–51. 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000134 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Association of American Medical Colleges. Recommendations Regarding Health Services for Medical Students (1992). https://www.aamc.org/professional-development/affinity-groups/gsa/health... (Accessed November 1, 2021).
    1. Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Functions and Structure of a Medical School: Standards for Accreditation of Medical Education Programs Leading to the MD Degree 2021-22. (2017). https://lcme.org/publications/#Standards (Accessed November 10, 2021).

LinkOut - more resources