BACKGROUND
Podcasting has become a popular medium for medical education content. Educators and trainees at all levels are turning to podcasts for high quality asynchronous content. While numerous medical education podcasts have emerged in recent years, few exist which are student-run. Student-run podcasts are a novel approach to supporting medical students. Near-peer mentoring has been shown to promote medical student personal and professional identity formation. Student-run podcasts offer a new medium to deliver near-peer advice to medical students in an enduring and accessible way.
OBJECTIVE
This article describes the creation of the UnsCripted Medicine Podcast (UMP), a student-run medical education podcast at a large public medical school.
METHODS
Planning and preparatory phases spanned six months. Defining a target audience and establishing a podcast mission were key first steps. Efforts were then directed towards securing funding, obtaining necessary equipment, and navigating the technical considerations of recording, editing, and publishing a podcast. In order to ensure high professionalism standards, key partnerships were created with faculty in the College of Medicine (COM).
RESULTS
The UnsCripted Medicine Podcast has published 53 episodes in its first two years. The number of episodes released per month ranges from 0 to 5 with a mean of 2.0. The podcast has a Twitter account with 217 followers. The show has an average 4.8/5 rating on Apple Podcasts from 24 ratings. The podcast has hosted 70 unique guests including medical students, resident physicians, attending physicians, nurses, physicians’ family members, GME leadership, and educators.
CONCLUSIONS
Medical student-run podcasts are a novel way to support medical student community and foster professional identity formation. Podcasts are widely available and convenient for listeners. Additionally, podcast creators can publish content with low barriers of entry compared to other forms of publishing. Medical schools should consider supporting student podcast initiatives to augment community, facilitate professional identity formation, and prepare the rising physician taskforce for the technological frontier of medical education.