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The Impact of Same Gender Speed-Mentoring on Women's Perceptions of a Career in Surgery – A Prospective Cohort Study

Georgi, M; Morka, N; Patel, S; Kazzazi, D; Karavadra, K; Nathan, A; Hardman, G; (2022) The Impact of Same Gender Speed-Mentoring on Women's Perceptions of a Career in Surgery – A Prospective Cohort Study. Journal of Surgical Education 10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.05.014. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mentoring is critically important for the personal and professional development of a surgeon. Early career stage mentoring by same-gender role models may help ameliorate the gender imbalance in surgery based on our understanding of barriers for women pursuing surgical careers. A novel method of establishing these relationships is speed mentoring. This study aims to examine the impact of a one-day speed-mentoring session with same gender mentors on a cohort's perceptions of a career in surgery. DESIGN: This prospective pre-post study compared attitudes and perceptions of a career in surgery before and after a speed-mentoring session with female surgeons. Mentees were assigned into groups of 1 or 2 and were paired with a female surgeon for 8 minutes. Each mentee group then rotated to another mentor for the same amount of time and this process continued for a total of twelve sessions. Mentees completed a 19-point questionnaire before and after the speed mentoring intervention. Setting: This multicenter study included participants from across the United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: Inclusion criteria were female gender and medical student or foundation year doctor (internship year 1 or 2) status. Three hundred and forty participants participated in the intervention, 191 were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Following intervention, the percentage of participants who agreed that having a family would negatively impact a woman's surgical career progression significantly decreased from 46.6% to 23.0%. The percentage of participants who agreed that an “old boys’ club” attitude exists in surgery also significantly decreased (73.8%-58.1%). The percentage of participants who agreed it was more difficult for a woman to succeed in her surgical career than a man significantly decreased (73.8%-64.9%). One hundred and eighty-three (96%) participants agreed that mentorship is important for career progression and 153 (71.2%) participants stated that they did not have someone who they considered a mentor. CONCLUSIONS: Conducting a speed mentoring program with same-gender role models significantly changed female medical students’ and junior doctors’ perceptions of women in surgery. The results suggest that such programs may be effective tools for facilitating mentor-mentee relationships and could be employed by surgical organizations to encourage a diverse uptake into surgery.

Type: Article
Title: The Impact of Same Gender Speed-Mentoring on Women's Perceptions of a Career in Surgery – A Prospective Cohort Study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.05.014
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.05.014
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association of Program Directors in Surgery. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Keywords: Women in surgery, Mentoring, Speed- mentoring, Diversity in surgery
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Surgical Biotechnology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Targeted Intervention
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10150720
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