Mentorship Families Improve the Overall Experience in the Eastern Vascular Society Mentorship Program

A survey was created to evaluate the implementation of mentorship families and mentor preference matching in the Eastern Vascular Society (EVS) mentorship program.

Mentees applied to the EVS mentorship program and selected preferred mentor characteristics. Mentorship families included attending surgeon, a surgical resident, and one or more medical student(s). Surveys were sent to evaluate their experience. Respondents who participated in the EVS mentorship program prior to the implementation of the family design (previously one-to-one style) were able to compare their experiences on a scale of 0-10.

There were a total of 80 participants in a single year after implementation of the new mentorship family program (27 mentors, 53 mentees) with a survey response rate of 53.8% (43 responses) and 31 experienced both mentorship programs. Respondents self-identified as 52% women, 45% men, 65% White, 15% Asian, 8% Hispanic, and 5% Black or African-American. In total, 70.5% of respondents indicated that their goals were met by the mentorship program. Mean rating of group communication, goals met, and overall experience for families (N = 30) was 6.8, 7.5, and 7.4, respectively. All three categories improved when compared to prior years with one-on-one mentoring (N = 21): 6.8 vs. 4.8, 7.5 vs. 5.3, and 7.4 vs. 5.6; (All P < 0.05).

Mentorship families and mentee preference matching improved group communication, goals met, and overall experience compared to the traditional one-on-one mentoring for participants in the EVS mentorship program. Other surgical societies with mentorship programs should consider transitioning to a group style based on these results.