A. Cochran1, W. B. Elder1, L. A. Neumayer2 1University Of Utah,General Surgery,Salt Lake City, UT, USA 2University Of Arizona,Tucson, AZ, USA
Introduction: The lack of same-sex mentors and senior female role models for female academic surgeons has been postulated as a source of isolation and cited as a limitation in career development. Inadequate mentoring also contributes disproportionately to junior female academic surgeons considering exit from academia. The goal of this study was to describe how successful mid-career and senior female academic surgeons describe effective professional mentorship.
Methods: A single interviewer conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 mid-career and senior female academic surgeons. Each interviewee was asked to discuss barriers they had experienced or observed during their academic surgical career. Participating surgeons were purposefully selected to maximize institutional, specialty, and ethnic diversity. Grounded theory methods were used to develop a theoretical model of the mentoring needs of female academic surgeons; the use of grounded theory allows for development of a theory grounded in the unique experiences and observations of female academic surgeons.
Results: Finding appropriate invested mentorship was described as a barrier to an academic surgical career by most interviewees (6/11); this theme was explicitly expanded during the course of their interviews through discussion of how they define mentorship and how it has impacted their career development. The theme most commonly described was the need for more than one mentor (9/11); the various participants described this need across the trajectory of their career, across disciplines to meet both clinical and scholarly needs, and even across institutions. Most interviewees also indicated a need for a mentoring committee or team if one is to succeed in academic surgery (6/11), with one surgeon stating, “Success is not in isolation.” Seven surgeons described the key quality of a mentor as being invested in the success of the mentee without personal gain to the mentor. Almost all interviewees described the primary work of mentoring as assisting the mentee to develop a strategy to achieve their goals (10/11). The majority of respondents recognized that while part of the work of the mentor is to insure regular engagement and interaction occurs, the mentee has a responsibility to come prepared with specific goals and issues requiring the mentor’s assistance (7/11).
Conclusion: Effective mentorship is often cited as a key to success for women in academic surgery, although no prior studies specifically delineate the characteristics of effective mentorship. A need for multiple mentors across time and disciplines was clearly identified from both a mentor and mentee perspective. The idea of “mentorizing” experienced individuals by actively seeking specific input was identified as an effective strategy for mentees. Finally, effective mentors are seen as those individuals who achieve no personal gain from their role but instead derive satisfaction from the success of others.