STS Mentorship Program Participation and Identified Mentorship Needs

Purpose: Mentorship is critical in the development of successful careers in cardiothoracic surgery. Surgeons who identify effective mentors are more likely to achieve promotion and leadership roles, build successful clinical practices, attain academic success, and be satisfied in their career choice. We report the initial experience with the societal mentorship portal.

Methods: Recognizing the challenges cardiothoracic surgeons often face finding mentorship locally, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Career Development Workforce developed a web-based Mentorship Portal to facilitate mentorship in the cardiothoracic surgery community. In 2020, the STS Mentorship portal was launched, enabling requests for mentorship from surgeon mentees as well as soliciting participation of STS members as surgeon mentors. Participants provided basic demographic information. Mentors were asked to self-identify areas of expertise and mentees asked to identify their three highest priority mentorship needs. Short-form response questions were asked to understand motivation for participation. Descriptive statistics were performed to characterize the demographics of participating mentors and mentees and to examine the concordance of mentee needs and matched-mentor expertise. Hybrid textual analysis was used to identify themes motivating participation in the program.

Results: A total of 85 mentors (18% female, n=15) and 163 mentees (33% female, n=53) participated in the program. Among mentors, 51% (n=44) identified their primary specialty as Adult Cardiac Surgery, 14% (n=12) Congenital Heart Surgery, 32% (n=27) General Thoracic Surgery, and 2% (n=2) as Critical Care. Most mentors (79%, n=67) identified as academic surgeons, and 49% (n=42) hold leadership positions. All mentors self-identified expertise in career development and 91% (n=77) in technical skills. By contrast only 16% (n=14) identified as basic science mentors and 4% (n=3) in education and teaching. Mentee participants were primarily trainees with 55 medical students (34%) and 79 residents (48%) participating as compared with 31 attending physicians (19%) seeking mentorship. The majority (71%;n=115) expressed primary interest in Adult Cardiac Surgery compared to 13% Congenital Heart Surgery (n=22), and 9% General Thoracic Surgery (n=15). Mentees identified a variety of mentorship needs (Figure), with career development most common (84%). Mentees were matched with a mentor with expertise in their stated area of need in nearly all cases (98%;60/163) and in their specialty of interest in most (78%:127/163). Mentors identified the value of mentorship in their own careers and a desire to give back as primary reasons for participation.

Conclusion: Mentorship plays a vital role the development of a successful career in cardiothoracic surgery. The STS mentorship program has created a new opportunity for members to connect with mentors outside of their institution. Participants in the program identified the greatest need for mentorship in ongoing career development and building professional networks. Currently, mentee needs nearly double the number of participating mentors. Recruitment of new and diverse mentors at all stages of their careers will be valuable to ensuring the continued success of this program. Facilitating a culture of mentorship is important to ensure a successful cardiothoracic surgery workforce.

Identify the source of the funding for this research project: The project is a directly funded effort of the STS Career Development Workforce