Faculty Mentorship Programs in Orthopaedic Surgery Departments in the United States

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Object:Mentorship of junior faculty has been considered an important factor in having a productive and satisfying career in various fields of academic medicine; however, there is a lack of research investigating faculty mentoring in orthopaedic surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the number of orthopaedic surgery departments in the United States that have faculty mentorship programs.Methods: A multiple-choice online survey about the presence and characterization of faculty mentorship programs was sent to the 164 department chairs of ACGME-accredited orthopaedic surgery residency programs in the United States in July 2017. Survey results were collected and statistically analyzed using 1-sample χ2 test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and Fisher exact tests.Results:Fifty-seven of 159 successfully contacted orthopaedic department chairs completed the survey, yielding a 36% response rate. Twenty-nine of 57 (51%) chairs reported having a faculty mentorship program, of which 62% were formalized. The most cited reason for a department not to have a faculty mentorship program was lack of time (89%).Conclusion:Based on these findings, approximately 50% of ACGME-accredited orthopaedic surgery departments have some form of faculty mentorship. More studies are needed to clarify the state of faculty mentorship in orthopaedics and its potential effects.