Sub-mentorship in neurosurgery: Pilot experience from a war-torn country

Background Mentorship is a high-quality educational process that provides exposure in clinical subjects to medical students. In the sub-mentorships system, mentees become mentors, directly connected to the senior mentor, and this stimulates early progress for all parties. We document the submentorship concept in neurosurgery and present our experience with this system in low and middle-income countries. Methods Over six years (2016–2022), we conducted 9 medical student mentorship programs covering 1116 mentees. Mentees underwent an integrated course based on 5 parameters: neurosurgery emergency rotation, neurosurgical intensive care unit, hands-on clinical laboratory training, operating room observership, and a research course. Students who showed an interest in neurosurgery were selected and prepared under the senior mentor’s supervision to be the program’s sub-mentors in future courses. Results A total of 27 medical students in different stages of training at various medical schools were trained to be sub-mentors. Of 149 research papers published, accepted, and submitted by our team, sub-mentor students participated in 73 projects. From around 500 neurosurgical procedures done over the past 4 years, students and sub-mentors attended 275. Conclusion Sub-mentorship can be a conduit for advancing the classical pattern of mentorship in neurosurgery. In addition, it may represent an avenue for capacity building in underserved areas or war-torn countries.