R. Phitayakorn1, R. Hodin1 1Massachusetts General Hospital,General And GI Surgery,Boston, MA, USA
INTRODUCTION
Mentoring of junior faculty by senior faculty is an important part of promotion/tenure and enhanced job satisfaction. However, the best method to implement and assess the results of a department-wide mentorship program in surgery is unclear.
METHODS
We implemented a departmental faculty mentoring program in July 2014 that consisted of both structured and informal meetings between junior faculty mentees and assigned senior faculty mentor. All senior faculty mentors attended a brief mentor training session. We then developed an evidence-based mentorship instrument that featured standardized metrics of academic success. This instrument was completed by each mentee and then reviewed at the junior faculty’s annual career conference with their division chief. A survey was distributed in July 2015 to assess junior faculty satisfaction with the new mentorship program.
RESULTS
Junior/senior faculty consisted of 6/3 women and 16/11 men respectively. Junior faculty were 38±3 years of age and had been an attending for 4±3 years. Mentorship meetings occurred approximately 3 times during the year (range=0 to 10). Total meeting time with senior mentors was a mean of 90 minutes (range=0 to 300 minutes). Over 75% of junior faculty were very or somewhat satisfied with the mentorship program and would like to continue in the program. The best aspect of the program was the opportunity to meet with an accomplished surgeon outside of their division. Opportunities to improve the program included better matching of mentor to mentee by disease or research focus. Interestingly, almost the entire junior faculty tended to have at least 2 other mentors besides the mentor assigned to them in this program.
In terms of program outcomes, junior faculty agreed that the mentorship program improved their overall career plans and enhanced their involvement in professional organizations, but did not help with academic productivity, home/work balance, and overall job satisfaction.
CONCLUSIONS
A mandatory, structured mentorship program with senior surgeons benefits most junior faculty in terms of academic advancement. More research is required to understand the best method to pair mentors and mentees and more objective measurements of academic surgery success.