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Comment
. 2024 Nov 1;159(11):1252-1260.
doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2024.3390.

Mentorship of Junior Surgical Faculty Across Academic Programs in Surgery

Jingjing Yu  1 , Perisa Ruhi-Williams  1 , Christian de Virgilio  2 , Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi  3 , Helen E Ovsepyan  4 , Steven D Wexner  5 , Katharine A Kirby  6 , Fatemeh Tajik  1 , Angelina Lo  1 , Aya Fattah  1 , Farin F Amersi  7 , Kristine E Calhoun  8 , Lisa A Cunningham  9 , Paula I Denoya  10 , Henry R Govekar  11 , Sara M Grossi  12 , Jukes P Namm  13 , V Prasad Poola  14 , Robyn E Richmond  15 , Christine H Rohde  16 , Mayank Roy  5 , Tara A Russell  17 , Nicola Sequeira  18 , Anaar E Siletz  19 , Tiffany N Tanner  20 , Brian T Valerian  21 , Maheswari Senthil  1
Affiliations
Comment

Mentorship of Junior Surgical Faculty Across Academic Programs in Surgery

Jingjing Yu et al. JAMA Surg. .

Abstract

Importance: Because mentorship is critical for professional development and career advancement, it is essential to examine the status of mentorship and identify challenges that junior surgical faculty (assistant and associate professors) face obtaining effective mentorship.

Objective: To evaluate the mentorship experience for junior surgical faculty and highlight areas for improvement.

Design, setting, and participants: This qualitative study was an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study including an anonymous survey on mentorship followed by semistructured interviews to expand on survey findings. Junior surgical faculty from 18 US academic surgery programs were included in the anonymous survey and interviews. Survey responses between "formal" (assigned by the department) vs "informal" (sought out by the faculty) mentors and male vs female junior faculty were compared using χ2 tests. Interview responses were analyzed for themes until thematic saturation was achieved. Survey responses were collected from November 2022 to August 2023, and interviews conducted from July to December 2023.

Exposure: Mentorship from formal and/or informal mentors.

Main outcomes and measures: Survey gauged the availability and satisfaction with formal and informal mentorship; interviews assessed broad themes regarding mentorship.

Results: Of 825 survey recipients, 333 (40.4%) responded; 155 (51.7%) were male and 134 (44.6%) female. Nearly all respondents (319 [95.8%]) agreed or strongly agreed that mentorship is important to their surgical career, especially for professional networking (309 respondents [92.8%]), career advancement (301 [90.4%]), and research (294 [88.3%]). However, only 58 respondents (18.3%) had a formal mentor. More female than male faculty had informal mentors (123 [91.8%] vs 123 [79.4%]; P = .003). Overall satisfaction was higher with informal mentorship than formal mentorship (221 [85.0%] vs 40 [69.0%]; P = .01). Most male and female faculty reported no preferences in gender or race and ethnicity for their mentors. When asked if they had good mentor options if they wanted to change mentors, 141 (47.8%) responded no. From the interviews (n = 20), 6 themes were identified, including absence of mentorship infrastructure, preferred mentor characteristics, and optimizing mentorship.

Conclusions and relevance: Academic junior surgical faculty agree mentorship is vital to their careers. However, this study found that few had formal mentors and almost half need more satisfactory options if they want to change mentors. Academic surgical programs should adopt a framework for facilitating mentorship and optimize mentor-mentee relationships through alignment of mentor-mentee goals and needs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Wexner reported personal fees from Baxter, BD, Glaxo Smith Kline, Intuitive Surgical, Livsmed, Medtronic, Olympus, OstomyCure, Stryker, Takeda, and Virtual Ports outside the submitted work; having a patent for Intuitive Surgical with royalties paid, a patent for Karl Storz Endoscopy America with royalties paid, and a patent for Unique Surgical Innovations with royalties paid; and serving as a member of the data safety monitoring board for JSR/WCG/ACI (chair), Polypoid (chair), and Boomerang. Dr Rohde reported consultation from BD and Johnson & Johnson outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.. Formal vs Informal Mentorship Experience
A. Proportion of junior surgical faculty with formal vs informal mentors. B. Satisfaction with mentorship.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

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