An Innovative Educational and Mentorship Program for Emergency Medicine Women Residents to Enhance Academic Development and Retention

Abstract

Given the discrepancy between men and women's equal rates of medical school matriculation and their rates of academic promotion and leadership role acquisition, the need to provide mentorship and education to women in academic medicine is becoming increasingly recognized. Numerous large-scale programs have been developed to provide support and resources for women's enrichment and retention in academic medicine. Analyses of contributory factors to the aforementioned discrepancy commonly cite insufficient mentoring and role modeling as well as challenges with organizational navigation. Since residency training has been shown to be a critical juncture for making the decision to pursue an academic career, there is a need for innovative and tailored educational and mentorship programs targeting residents. Acknowledging residents' competing demands, we designed a program to provide easily accessible mentorship and contact with role models for our trainees at the departmental and institutional levels. We believe that this is an important step towards encouraging women's pursuit of academic careers. Our model may be useful to other emergency medicine residencies looking to provide such opportunities for their women residents. RÉSUMÉCompte tenu de l'écart qui existe entre les hommes et les femmes en ce qui concerne l'égalité des taux d'inscription dans les écoles de médecine mais l'inégalité des taux de promotion et de nomination à des rôles de direction, la nécessité d'offrir du mentorat et de la formation aux femmes en médecine universitaire s'impose de plus en plus. De nombreux programmes appliqués à grande échelle ont été élaborés afin de fournir du soutien et des ressources aux femmes en vue de leur perfectionnement et de leur maintien en médecine universitaire. Sont souvent invoqués, dans les analyses des facteurs qui jouent un rôle dans cet écart, le manque de mentorat et de modèles de rôle ainsi que les difficultés de s'y retrouver dans les organisations. Des études ayant démontré que la résidence constituait une étape cruciale dans la poursuite d'une carrière universitaire, il est nécessaire d'avoir des programmes novateurs et adaptés de formation et de mentorat, qui ciblent les résidentes. Reconnaissant les demandes concurrentielles des résidentes, les auteurs ont élaboré un programme qui vise à offrir aux stagiaires des possibilités de mentorat et d'établissement de relations avec des modèles de rôle, et ce, tant au niveau du département qu'au niveau de l'établissement. Les auteurs croient qu'il s'agit là d'une étape importante afin d'inciter les femmes à poursuivre une carrière universitaire. Le modèle décrit ici peut se montrer utile dans d'autres programmes de résidence en médecine d'urgence en vue d'offrir aux résidentes ce genre de possibilités.

Gender Disparities in Academic Emergency Medicine: Strategies for the Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion of Women

“…Specific strategies to combat female resident burnout include dedicated mentorship and sponsorship programs with female faculty who could serve as potential role models for young trainees . Female residents should be included in conversations about wellness and combating burnout during residency.…”

The perceived organizational impact of the gender gap across a Canadian department of medicine and proposed strategies to combat it: a qualitative study

“…The impact of the existing gender gap on the organizational effectiveness and workplace culture of academic medical centers has yet to be explored. Furthermore, there is scant evidence that supports interventions to counter the gender gap in academic medicine [ 26 – 28 ]. Academic physicians may have suggestions regarding potential strategies to bridge this gap based on their experiences.…”

Development and Implementation of the Inaugural Anatomy Education Research Institute (AERI 2017)

“…The aspect of mentorship in education research is essential, and other health sciences mentorship research illustrates its importance. Previous research with nurses (Nowell et al, 2017), emergency medicine residents (Bhatia et al, 2015;Perry et al, 2015), and medical faculty (Pololi et al, 2015;Mylona et al, 2016) has described the importance of mentorship programs for these populations, as these programs provide an ongoing support structure for junior learners that may extend well past the duration of the program. In fact, Pololi et al (2015) and Mylona et al (2016) found in their surveys of academic health centers that when mentoring is inadequate, faculty are more likely to express dissatisfaction with and potentially leave their institution.…”