Support groups for women in medical school: a first-year program

This report presents a workable model for a support system for first-year women medical students at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The students met in small groups at weekly intervals with women faculty members from the Department of Psychiatry throughout the academic year. Role conflicts which confront these young women professionals entering a "masculine" field as a minority group are described. There is an elaboration of those factors, both personal and institutional, which serve either to promote or deter conflict resolution and the acquisition of a satisfactory professional and female identity. A discussion of group formation and processes and a year-end evaluation are included. Both students and faculty assessed the program as having provided a needed and constructive setting in which to explore the problems and identities of women professionals and to develop close supportive relationships with women colleagues.