To the Editor,


Mentorship, the process whereby a senior faculty or staff member instructs a more junior trainee, is a key aspect of medical education. Mentorship has been shown to contribute to career advancement, improved clinical acumen, and increased productivity in later years as a staff physician.1,2

Interest in anesthesiology mentorship has increased following a call in 2012,3 when both residency programs themselves and external groups such as the American Society of Anesthesiologists suggested prioritizing it. Unfortunately, there has not been a Canada-wide resident and medical student study.

We surveyed Canadian anesthesia program directors about the characteristics desired in a mentorship program. The primary objective was to determine the state of mentorship offered by anesthesia residency programs in Canada.

The survey was developed from previous surveys.4 We included questions that pertained more to medical students, such as factors affecting decisions regarding residency. We further asked general questions about whether program directors were happy with their residency considering past or present mentorship programs.

The survey was created on Google Forms (Google Form, Mountain View, CA, USA) with 23 questions (Appendix). Five-point Likert scales, with 5 being “very important” and 1 being “not at all important” were used.

Initial contact was made to the anesthesia program directors at their annual meeting in June 2020. Four email reminders were sent within three weeks of first contact. The survey was closed on 15 July 2020. All results collected were anonymous.

All data were aggregated in Excel (Microsoft, Richmond, VA, USA). Mean scores for each question were calculated.

Fourteen of 17 (83%) Canadian anesthesia program directors completed the survey. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) experience in the program director role of program directors was 4 (2) years (range, 2–7). Two of the 14 (14%) programs had mentorship programs for both medical students and residents, whereas ten (72%) had a mentorship program for only residents. Two had no mentorship program at all.

Program directors perceived mentorship of residents [mean (SD) score: 4.2 (0.8)] as more important than that of medical students [mean (SD) score: 3.2 (1.1)] compared with for residents (Figure). Mentorship was considered as an important use of faculty resources [mean (SD) score: 3.7 (0.7)]. The majority of program directors believed that mentorship should begin early in an anesthesiologist’s career [mean (SD) score: 4.4 (0.8)], that it is important for career advancement [mean (SD) score: 3.9 (0.7)], that it is good for an academic career [mean (SD) score: 4.0 (1.3)], and that it is somewhat important for faculty retention [mean (SD) score: 3.8 (1.1)].

FIGURE
figure 1

Mentorship attitudes for Canadian program directors in anesthesia. Dark blue equals not very important (1 on scale), orange equals somewhat important, grey is neutral (3 on scale), yellow is somewhat important, and light blue is very important (5 on scale).

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All (14/14) program directors stated mentorship assists with career planning, with many believing it helps with understanding the culture of a department (13/14, 93%), work-life balance (12/14, 86%), clinical guidance (11/14, 79%), and research (11/14, 79%).

Compensation of mentors was considered a somewhat important aspect to develop a robust mentorship program [mean (SD) score: 3.4 (1.1)]. Most believed that on average there was enough time to perform mentorship, though this was the lowest mean score of all questions [mean (SD) score: 2.9 (0.8)]. Similarly, program directors felt that informal mentoring methods are better than organized, formal mentoring structures [mean (SD) score: 3.5 (1.2)]. Face-to-face mentorship was perceived as the best means of mentorship [mean (SD) score: 4.4 (0.6)].

Gender [mean (SD) score: 2.5 (0.9)] and race [mean (SD) score: 2.3 (1.2)] were not seen as decidedly important factors in assigning a mentorship and mentee.

Limitations exist in this study. Given the nature of the survey, the responses may reflect those with a bias towards mentorship. Would a program that ranks mentorship highly also have a structured mentorship program? This remains to be answered.

Previous research has shown that there was a call among Canadian program directors to develop more structured mentorship. A recent Canadian study showed mentorship was a key factor for nearly one-third of students in determining their career.5 It appears that mentorship can help showcase the anesthesiologist’s actual reality of work, by providing support on both professional and personal aspects, and by explaining how anesthesia is likely to evolve.

This survey shows that, although Canadian program directors agree upon the benefits of mentorship, there remains much room for improvement of anesthesia mentorship programs for residents and especially for medical students.