Impact of Mentorship, by Gender, on Career Trajectory in an Academic Anesthesiology Department: A Survey Study.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Mentorship has been identified as a key component of success in business and in academic medicine. METHODS: After institutional review board approval of the study, an email survey was sent to anesthesiologists in one anesthesiology department to assess mentorship status. A survey link was sent to nonrespondents at 2 weeks and 4 weeks. All participants were deidentified. The identification of a mentor was compared by gender, academic rank, and years of practice. RESULTS: Among 233 anesthesiologists, 103 (44.2%) responded to the survey. More than 90% of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that having a mentor is important to career success. Of the 103 respondents, 31 (30%) indicated they had a mentor. Overall, 84% of the identified mentors were men; however, this percentage differed significantly between men and women respondents (95% versus 60%; P = .03). Characteristics associated with having a mentor included younger age (P = .007), fewer years since finishing training (P = .004), and working full time (P = .02). For respondent age and years since finishing training, there was some evidence that the association was dependent on the gender of the respondent (age-by-gender interaction, P = .08; experience-by-gender interaction, P = .08). DISCUSSION: Anesthesiologists in this department believed that mentorship led to more academic success. Few women mentors were reported, and women were unlikely to identify a mentor once advanced past an assistant professor rank. Most respondents believed that mentorship was important for overall career success, but only approximately one-third identified a mentor at the time of the survey.