Akia D Caine1, Jacob Schwartzman1, Anastasia Kunac2. 1. Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey. 2. Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Department of Surgery, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey. Electronic address: kunacan@njms.rutgers.edu.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: 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). METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSIONS: "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.
BACKGROUND: 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). METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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). CONCLUSIONS: "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.
Authors: Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz; Yannis Valtis; Michael Sundberg; Niraj Sharma; Elizabeth Petersen; C Nicholas Cuneo Journal: Ann Med Date: 2022-12 Impact factor: 5.348