Cross-Cultural Mentorship in Military Family Medicine: Defining the Problem

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Physician Development
• Diversity in Medicine

Background:

• Mentorship is crucial for physician recruitment, career progression, and retention.
• Physicians from underrepresented in medicine (URiM) groups often face "minority tax" challenges impacting their careers.
• Cross-cultural mentoring skills can improve mentorship effectiveness for URiM physicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine mentorship practices among military family physicians.
• To assess the prevalence of mentorship relationships with URiM physicians.
• To evaluate awareness and management of minority tax issues within mentorship.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study utilizing voluntary, anonymous survey data from the 2021 Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians (USAFP) Annual Meeting Omnibus Survey.
• Data collected from USAFP members attending the 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting.
• Descriptive statistics and chi-squared tests were employed for analysis.

Main Results:

• Over half of respondents lacked URiM mentees or recent scholarly collaboration with URiM colleagues.
• Only 54.7% could identify and address minority tax issues.
• URiM physicians were significantly more likely to have URiM mentees, recognize minority taxes, and express confidence in discussing racism.

Conclusions:

• Structured programs are necessary to enhance cross-cultural mentorship knowledge and skills.
• Further research is required to identify effective implementation strategies for supportive mentorship programs.