Speed dating for mentors: a novel approach to mentor/mentee pairing in surgical residency

Resident-resident mentoring offers significant benefits. Previous works have shown that the quality of the mentorship pairing is important, but techniques of pairing have seldom been described. We describe a system for mentor-mentee pairing that we call "Speed Dating for Mentors" (SDM).

The SDM activity took place in an academic general surgery residency program in the Northeast. Senior residents met with junior residents (JR) in 90-second intervals. On completion of interviews, residents documented their top three choices-this was used to create senior-junior resident pairings. A cross-sectional Likert survey was conducted with univariate analysis of satisfaction with the SDM event.

Forty-two surgical residents participated in SDM-23 junior residents and 19 senior residents-resulting in 23 mentor-mentee pairings. Fourteen pairs were generated, where both mentor and mentee were among top three choices, seven pairings generated where either/or was a top three choice, and two pairings were assigned; six pairs were assigned for nonattendees. A total of 36 surveys were completed-28 (78%) respondents participated in SDM compared to eight (22%) who did not. Eighty-five percent of respondents who attended were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their pairing compared to only 12% of nonattendees (P = 0.001).

"Speed dating" is a novel approach to forming mentorship pairings and identifying mentors/mentees with similar interests. Residents who attended the event were satisfied with the event and with the outcome of their mentor/mentee pairing. Further investigations are warranted to determine what effects resident mentoring has on resident performance, stress levels, and well-being.