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Medical students (MS) are at higher risk for depression than their peers. Incoming U.S. MS completed a survey that included the validated RS-14, which measures resilience and its two subcomponents: self-assuredness and drive. Surveys were administered before classes started in 2019 (pre-pandemic-cohort; n = 178) and 2020 (pandemic-cohort; n = 181). Resiliency, self-assuredness, and drive were not different between cohorts. Demographic subgroup analyses revealed that underrepresented in medicine (URiM) MS in the pre-pandemic-cohort scored higher on drive (p = 0.007) than non-URiM MS (6.07 ± 1.00 vs. 5.59 ± 0.97); however, this difference was not significant in the pandemic-cohort. Additionally, students in the pandemic-cohort were more likely to agree that peer discussions about emotional challenges would be beneficial (p = 0.014). Qualitative analysis revealed that 45.9% of pandemic-cohort respondents felt more motivated to pursue medicine. This is the first study to report differences in drive between URiM MS cohorts matriculating before and during a pandemic, a positive correlation between multiple-mini-interview (MMI) scores and drive, and a negative correlation between MCAT scores and drive. Collectively, these results suggest that the circumstances of 2020 may have negatively influenced the drive of URiM students, positively impacted the receptivity of MS to peer discussions, and motivated students to pursue medicine.

Introduction: Medical students self-report insufficient training in topics of gender and sexuality in medicine, which may ultimately lead to negative health outcomes in patients for whom they willprovide care. This study aims to identify whether a studentinitiated lecture series on topics related to gender and sexual health leads to greater student comfort with discussing topics related to diverse sexual content.Methods: Medical students matriculated during two consecutive academic years were invited to participate in the lecture series. Investigators administered anonymous pre- and post-seriessurveys (n=152 and 105 respondents, respectively) using google forms. Respondents rated their comfort levels discussing relevant topics and provided narrative feedback concerning strengths andareas for improvement of the lecture series. Overlaps between the 95% confidence intervals around pre- and post-series percentage of students comfortable/very comfortable discussing each topicwere examined to compare pre- vs post-series comfort ratings. Narrative comments were reviewed for thematic feedback.Results: 105 medical students completed the lecture series, with 80% identifying as female. Self-assessed comfort levels across all seminar topics were greater in post- versus pre-lecture seriessurveys with the following topics showing the biggest differences (percentage of students “somewhat” or “very” comfortable [95% confidence intervals]: discussing sexuality with gender (68%[59-77] vs. 29%[22-36]) and sexual minority patients (84%[77-91] vs. 49%[41-57]), HIV prevention counseling (70%[61-78] vs. 20%[20-34]), identifying female genital cutting (44%[34-53] vs. 11%[6-16]), and discussing intimate partner violence (65%[55-74] vs. 33%[25-40]). Qualitative analysis indicated respondents found the lectures to be effective and believed they should be integrated into the required medical school curriculum. Conclusion: Our student-initiated lecture series was associated with greater student comfort discussing topics related to gender and sexuality with patients. This framework represents a usefulmethod to address gaps in medical education and has the potential to improve health outcomes in multiple populations.