Diverse Mentoring Connections Across Institutional Boundaries in the Biomedical Sciences: Innovative Graph Database Analysis.

BACKGROUND: With an overarching goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in biomedical sciences, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) developed a web-based national mentoring platform (MyNRMN) that seeks to connect mentors and mentees to support the persistence of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical sciences. As of May 15, 2024, the MyNRMN platform, which provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools, has facilitated more than 12,100 unique mentoring connections between faculty, students, and researchers in the biomedical domain. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections facilitated by our web-based platform between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional and geographic boundaries. Using an innovative graph database, we analyzed diverse mentoring connections between mentors and mentees across demographic characteristics in the biomedical sciences. METHODS: Through the MyNRMN platform, we observed profile data and analyzed mentoring connections made between students and faculty across institutional boundaries by race, ethnicity, gender, institution type, and educational attainment between July 1, 2016, and May 31, 2021. RESULTS: In total, there were 15,024 connections with 2222 mentees and 1652 mentors across 1625 institutions contributing data. Female mentees participated in the highest number of connections (3996/6108, 65%), whereas female mentors participated in 58% (5206/8916) of the connections. Black mentees made up 38% (2297/6108) of the connections, whereas White mentors participated in 56% (5036/8916) of the connections. Mentees were predominately from institutions classified as Research 1 (R1; doctoral universities-very high research activity) and historically Black colleges and universities (556/2222, 25% and 307/2222, 14%, respectively), whereas 31% (504/1652) of mentors were from R1 institutions. CONCLUSIONS: To date, the utility of mentoring connections across institutions throughout the United States and how mentors and mentees are connected is unknown. This study examined these connections and the diversity of these connections using an extensive web-based mentoring network.

Peer mentoring in pharmacy programs: Recommendations for implementation based on a review of available literature.

BACKGROUND: Stress experienced by pharmacy students is on the rise and is negatively impacting student success. Pharmacy accreditation standards encourage schools to promote student success and well-being. Peer to peer student support is a largely under-investigated strategy to address this. The objective of this manuscript is to conduct a literature review on the development of peer mentoring programs for pharmacy students and describe best practices for successful implementation into pharmacy programs. METHODS: This literature review identified studies using major databases, including PubMed, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Education Resources Information Center. Search terms included [(peer mentor*) AND pharmacy]. Any study that involved peer assessment, peer tutoring, or peer learning within a course, faculty mentors only, non-pharmacy students, and/or did not implement a mentor-mentee relationship, was excluded. RESULTS: Three studies met the criteria for inclusion. Mentorship programs varied with regard to duration, mentor recruitment, participant incentives, and overall structure. Various methods of analyses were employed. Despite major differences between the included studies, three themes were identified regarding development of peer mentoring programs: participation, support, and pairing. Active engagement led to higher perceived benefit and both mentors and mentees found the programs beneficial, agreed to recommend the programs to others, and provided positive feedback. IMPLICATIONS: Successful mentoring programs should aim to incorporate the following characteristics to some degree: mandatory participation by mentor and mentee as well as support for mentors with training and faculty oversight. Peer mentoring programs have a positive impact on participants. More studies are needed to assess the effects of peer mentoring in pharmacy programs. This is the first known review of peer mentoring within pharmacy programs and identifies a gap in knowledge in this area. There is a paucity of data surrounding peer mentoring in pharmacy and its potential value as a tool to improve student well-being.

Exploring the impact of the mentoring new nurses for transition and empowerment program led by clinical nurse educators in South Korea: A mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: "New nurses" are those with less than a year of work experience at a hospital. To address the challenges of new nurses caused by their limited experience, the Mentoring New Nurses for Transition and Empowerment Program (MNTEP) was designed based on the Stress-Appraisal-Coping Model of Lazarus and Folkman. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the impact of the MNTEP, in which clinical nurse educators teach stress-coping strategies, on the clinical transition of new nurses in South Korea. DESIGN: This study used a mixed-methods design with a pretest-posttest non-equivalent comparison group and focus group interviews (FGIs). SETTINGS: The research was conducted at a hospital in South Korea. PARTICIPANTS: The intervention and comparison groups comprised 30 and 28 new nurses, respectively. Also, 12 MNTEP participants were subjected to three separate FGIs. METHODS: To comprehensively assess the program's effects, quantitative data were collected through self-report surveys, while qualitative data were obtained from March 2022 to March 2023 using semi-structured interviews that allowed for open-ended responses. RESULTS: There were significant differences in mean self-efficacy scores (t = 2.45, p = 0.017) and perceived social support from clinical nurse educators (F = 4.51, p = 0.038) between the intervention and comparison groups. Additionally, significant changes were observed in the field adaptation pre-test and post-test scores within the intervention group (t = -3.12, p = 0.004). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of active and passive coping strategies. FGIs yielded two main themes: (1) gaining positive energy through empowerment and solidarity; and (2) clinical nurse educators sharing strategies for improved role adaptation and capacity building. CONCLUSIONS: MNTEP led by clinical nurse educators positively influenced new nurses' self-efficacy and facilitated their transition to clinical settings. These findings underscore the importance of mentorship programs and clinical nurse educators.

Exploring the dark side of informal mentoring: Experiences of nurses and midwives working in hospital settings in Uganda.

Mentoring literature explores the dark side of mentoring as factors such as gender and race and how they affect the overall mentoring experience. The sociocultural context of the nursing and midwifery professions presents unique characteristics warranting a qualitative exploration of negative mentoring experiences. We aimed to characterise the dark side of mentoring based on informal mentoring relationships occurring among nurses and midwives working in hospitals. Utilising semistructured interviews in a qualitative descriptive design and reflexive thematic analysis, we examined the perceptions of 35 nurses and midwives from three public hospitals located in the Western, Northern and North-western regions of Uganda. Findings emerged in four overarching themes mentoring process deficits, mentoring relational problems, organisational challenges in mentoring and implications of negative mentoring experiences. Our study findings underscore that, while mentoring is frequently beneficial, it can also be interspersed with negative experiences arising from relational dynamics, particular mentoring processes and the overarching hospital environment. Notably, nurses and midwives actively transformed these challenges into opportunities for growth and self-improvement, while introspectively examining their roles in contributing to these negative experiences. Such a proactive approach highlights their resilience and steadfast commitment to professional development, even in the face of adversity.

An ecosystem approach to mentoring research faculty in schools of nursing: The pacific northwest interdependence mentoring model.

BACKGROUND: Mentoring can facilitate faculty career development and retention. Given ongoing challenges in academic nursing (e.g., shrinking number of experienced mentors), it is necessary to revisit and improve upon existing mentoring models and practices to support current and future nurse researchers. PURPOSE: To describe the development of a new faculty-to-faculty research mentoring model. METHODS: Construction of a model describing mentoring needed by research-focused nurse faculty based on analysis of the literature alongside the authors' personal experiences. FINDINGS: The Pacific Northwest Interdependence Mentoring Model (PIMM) describes academic nursing as an ecosystem that fosters caring, trust, solidarity, equity, openness, and interdependent relationships among research faculty, administration, institutions, and funding sources. DISCUSSION: Although mentoring environments differ in unique strengths, weaknesses, mission, culture, and values, the PIMM's approach could be applicable for many schools of nursing and beyond to support the growth of the nursing discipline.

Understanding Factors Influencing Nursing Faculty Departure and Intentions.

BACKGROUND: There is a known shortage of nursing faculty in academia. Understanding factors influencing the shortage will help to develop strategies to reduce it. PURPOSE: The purpose was to identify the underlying factors influencing the decisions of current and former nursing faculty to leave or consider leaving their teaching roles. METHODS: A cross-sectional state-level survey was distributed to licensed registered nurses and advanced practice registered nurses. The survey covered demographics, employment status, compensation, tenure, mentorship experiences, and significant factors affecting their decision-making. RESULTS: Of 496 nursing faculty responses (221 current, 275 former), low compensation, unrealistic workload, retirement, lack of appreciation, and personal/family issues were noted as significant reasons for leaving or considering departure. CONCLUSIONS: The study gives voice to various factors influencing nursing faculty's intention to leave and emphasizes the need to address issues of compensation, workload, and mentorship to mitigate faculty shortages.

Moral Elevation, Physician Role Models, and Selected Markers of Professional Identity Formation and Well-Being: A Secondary Analysis from Two National Surveys.

OBJECTIVES: Moral elevation is the underlying emotion that arises when witnessing admirable acts, and it is theorized to be the psychological mechanism driving the impact that positive clinical role models have on medical students' professional identity formation (eg, growth in professional virtues, higher sense of meaning, and well-being). This proof-of-concept study explores the development of the Moral Elevation Scale in Medicine by testing the association of moral elevation with various markers of professional identity formation. METHODS: A secondary data analysis of two nationally representative samples of 960 medical students and 2000 physicians was performed. Respondents completed validated measures of moral elevation as well as markers of professional identity formation, including patient-centered virtues (empathic compassion, interpersonal generosity, mindfulness) and measures of well-being (life meaning, life satisfaction, spirituality, burnout). RESULTS: The study obtained adjusted response rates of 56.2% (1047/1863, physician survey) and 48.7% (448/919, student survey). The national estimates for mean moral elevation in medical students and physicians are 4.34/5.00 and 4.22/5.00, respectively. In medical students and physicians, high moral elevation was associated with higher empathic compassion (student odds ratio [OR] 1.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.67; physician OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.23-1.65) and, similarly, generosity. In addition, higher moral elevation in the physician cohort was associated with greater life meaning (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.25-3.32) and similarly spirituality. CONCLUSIONS: In medical students and practicing physicians, self-reported experiences of high moral elevation with physician role models were associated with higher self-reported measures of patient-centered virtues, spirituality, and life meaning. Our Moral Elevation Scale in Medicine demonstrates preliminary promise as a measure to assess environmental precursors needed for virtue development in professional identity formation, but further reliability and validity testing of this measure is needed.

Gender trends of authors presenting at a regional vascular surgery meeting.

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized a potential gender disparity within a regional society like the Southern Association of Vascular Surgery (SAVS) when compared with vascular surgery demographics in the region. To assess this, we analyzed meeting and membership participation at the SAVS compared with regional data from the Society of Vascular Surgery as well as board certification in vascular surgery published by the American Board of Surgery (ABS). METHODS: The published programs from the SAVS Annual Meeting from 2012 to 2019 were analyzed for membership, presenter gender, type, topic, discussant gender, moderator gender, postgraduate course presenter gender, and manuscript publication demographics. The ABS was petitioned and yearly Vascular Surgery diplomate (ABS-VS) gender from member states of the SAVS was examined for the same period. Fisher's exact Student's t-test and analysis of covariance were used. RESULTS: There were 257 total presentations (184 podium, 71.6%; 73 poster, 28.4%). A total of 61.4% (n = 43) of presentations by females were podium presentations, compared with 75.4% (n = 141) by males (P = .03). Females were less likely to be published when compared with their male counterparts (41.8% vs 58.7%, P = .02). The percentage of female gendered presenters statistically increased over the time period examined compared with a decrease in male presenters (R2 = 0.61, m = 1.27 vs R2 = 0.08, m = -0.35, P = .02). Female presenters had a female discussant 10.5% of the time compared with male presenters who had a male discussant 95.1% of the time (P < .0001). Females comprised 3.8% ± 1.1% of SAVS yearly membership compared with 12.0% ± 4.6% ABS-VS diplomates among SAVS member states (P < .0001). SAVS female membership significantly lagged behind the increase in ABS-VS female diplomate rate (P = .001). Only 39.1% of SAVS members were cross-listed in Society of Vascular Surgery membership rolls, with a total of 464 potential SAVS members, 11.2% or 52 of whom are female. CONCLUSIONS: We found that female presenters at the SAVS Annual Meeting were less likely to be podium presenters, interface with other female discussants, and publish manuscripts when compared with their male counterparts. Statistically, female members were underrepresented within the SAVS membership rolls when compared with known boarded female vascular surgeons among southern member states. This gender gap highlights a unique opportunity to enhance and potentially increase mentorship opportunities for female trainees who are presenting and/or attending this regional vascular surgery meeting.

Identifying institutional factors in general surgery resident wellness and burnout.

BACKGROUND: Effects of the institutional macrocosm on general surgery resident wellbeing have not been well studied. We sought to identify organizational factors that impact resident wellness and burnout. METHODS: Using a modified Delphi technique, an open-ended survey and two subsequent iterations were distributed to wellness stakeholders at two institutions to identify and stratify institutional factors in six burnout domains. RESULTS: Response rates for each survey round were 29/106 (27%), 30/46 (65%) and 21/30 (70%). Top factors identified in each domain were: CONCLUSION: A modified Delphi technique prioritized institutional wellness and burnout factors. Top factors identified were compensation, vacation time, and autonomy. These results can direct future scholarship of barriers/facilitators of resident wellbeing.

An analysis of gender disparities amongst United States medical students, general surgery residents, vascular surgery trainees, and the vascular surgery workforce.

Gender diversity in medicine continues to be a critical topic, and gender diversity within surgical fields remains an overarching challenge. In the following review, we objectively address the data available in terms of training slots for women in general and vascular surgery and within the vascular surgery workforce. Overall, women comprise 36% of active physicians in the 2019 Association of American Medical Colleges data. The number of women in surgical fields is lower representing 22% in general surgery, 9% in neurosurgery, 6% in orthopedic surgery, 17% in plastic surgery, 8% in thoracic surgery, and 15% in vascular surgery. Also notable is the lower academic ranks held by women in surgery. The proportion of women instructors in surgery in 2020 was 61%, assistant professors 30%, associate professors 23%, and full-time professors only 13.5%. There are multiple opportunities across the divisional/institutional/societal domains in which mentorship and sponsorship can promote gender equity and inclusion. Recruitment and retention of women and minorities into the vascular academic and private practices is essential to ensure best patient outcomes and quality of care for our patients. We hope that by shedding light on this topic, there will be greater awareness and improved strategies to address the disparities within institutions.

Interview experience, post-interview communication, and gender-based differences in the integrated vascular surgery residency match.

OBJECTIVE: Integrated vascular surgery residency (IVSR) applicant perspective about the match process has been rarely studied, yet this has important implications on trainee recruitment. We sought to better understand the nature of the interview process and post-interview communication and its impact on students' ranking choices. METHODS: A voluntary and anonymous survey was sent to students who matched to IVSR in 2020, inquiring about interviews, post-interview communications, and factors influencing students' rank lists. RESULTS: Seventy of the 73 matched students completed the survey (96% response rate; 23 female and 47 male respondents). Applicants reported they were asked questions about other programs of interest (81.4%), top choice programs (65.7%), marital status (32.9%), family planning (7.1%), and religion (1.4%) during interviews. Female applicants were more frequently asked questions about family planning (17.4% vs 2.1%; P < .01) and marital status (52.5% vs 23.4%; P < .01) compared with male applicants. After interviews, 92.9% of applicants notified their top choice program of their ranking preference. Of applicants, 61.4% received post-interview communication with regards to ranking from at least one program, initiated by program directors in 81.3% of instances. Among these applicants, 58.1% reported that the post-interview communication had an impact on their rank list, and 46.5% matched at a program by which they were contacted. Of applicants, 5.7% were asked by a program to reveal their ranking of the program, and 11.4% were promised by a program to be ranked first if the applicant reciprocally ranked them first. Female and male applicants weighed program culture, operative volume, mentorship, and prestige equally in making their rank list. Male applicants weighed the sub-internship experience more significantly; however, female applicants weighed the sub-internship experience, personal relationships in certain cities, dedicated professional development years, and large female representation in the program more heavily (P < .02). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the interview experience and impactful factors for the vascular surgery match. Both female and male applicants were asked a high number of questions about personal matters unrelated to medical school performance. Female applicants, however, experienced a higher proportion of these instances, particularly regarding family planning. These findings demonstrate the factors that are important to applicants in the match process and raises awareness of potential challenges in the interview and recruitment process.

Analysis of authorship trends in vascular surgery demonstrates a sticky surgical floor for women.

OBJECTIVE: Prior research in vascular surgery has identified significant gender disparities in leadership positions, but few data exist regarding gender disparities in vascular publications. This study aims to evaluate authorship trends by gender in the three highest impact factor vascular surgery journals. METHODS: In this bibliometric analysis, PubMed was searched for articles published in the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, the Journal of Vascular Surgery, and Annals of Vascular Surgery from 2015 to 2019. The web-based application Genderize used predictive algorithms to classify names of first and last authors as male or female. Statistical analyses regarding trends in authorship were performed using Stata16. RESULTS: A total of 6457 articles were analyzed, with first author gender predicted with >90% confidence in 83% (4889/5796) and last author gender in 88% (5078/5796). Overall, 25% (1223/4889) of articles had women first authors, and 10% (501/5078) had women last authors. From 2015 to 2019, there was a slight increase in the proportion of articles written by women first authors (P = .001), but no increase in the proportion of articles written by women last authors (P = .204). The proportion of articles written by women last authors was lower than the proportion of active women vascular surgeons in 2015 (8% of articles vs 11% of surgeons; P = .015), 2017 (9% of articles vs 13% of surgeons; P < .001), and 2019 (11% of articles vs 15% of practicing surgeons; P < .001). The average number of last-author publications was higher for men (2.35 ± 3.76) than for women (1.62 ± 1.88, P = .001). The proportion of unique authors who were women was less than the proportion of active women vascular surgeons in 2017 (10% unique authors vs 13% surgeons; P = .047), but not in 2015 (9% unique authors vs 11% surgeons; P = .192) or 2019 (13% unique authors vs 15% surgeons; P = .345). Notably, a woman last author was associated with 1.45 higher odds of having a woman first author (95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.79; P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: Over the past 5 years, there has been no significant increase in women last authors among top-tier journals in vascular surgery. Women remain under-represented as last authors in terms of proportion of published articles, but not in terms of proportion of unique authors. Nevertheless, women last authors are more likely to publish with women first authors, indicating the importance of women-led mentorship in achieving publication gender equity. Support for women surgeons through grants and promotions is essential not only for advancing last authorship gender equity, but for advancing junior faculty and trainee academic careers.

Mentorship in Plastic Surgery: A Critical Appraisal of Where We Stand and What We Can Do Better.

SUMMARY: Mentorship is a critical tool for professional development and career success. In academic surgery, supportive mentorship affords higher job satisfaction, academic productivity, and diversity and inclusion. It protects against burnout and increasing academic surgery attrition rates. Women, underrepresented minorities, and junior plastic surgeons report lower job satisfaction and fewer mentorship opportunities. Given the unique challenges these groups face in a constantly changing health care system, the importance of mentorship cannot be overstated. Through a survey of American Society of Plastic Surgeons members, this study evaluated different aspects of mentorship to describe the current state in plastic surgery. Despite 94.05 percent of plastic surgeons believing that mentorship is valuable, only 15.16 percent reported a structured mentorship system, often without evaluation. Male and female participants agree that mentorship is needed for both professional (clinical judgment) and personal (work-life balance) development. Interestingly, women plastic surgeons felt it was important for mentees to have gender and race/ethnicity concordance to their mentors (p < 0.001). There was no agreement regarding the most effective method to implement mentorship programs, highlighting the challenges of this problem. Through thoughtful planning and commitment, mentorship programs can be instituted to benefit not just the mentee, but the mentor as well.

Does Gender Matter in Academic Surgery? Author and Mentor Gender Impact Publication Citations in Surgical Research.

OBJECTIVE: To examine female author representation within publications in the field of urology from the United States from 2000-2019. METHODS: All 25,787 articles with a U.S. correspondence address published in the two largest U.S. headquartered general urology journals, Urology and Journal of Urology, were analyzed from 2000-2019. Gender was assigned to each first and last author based on the author's first name. First names were matched to a database of U.S. Social Security Administration data to determine gender. RESULTS: Overall female authorship, female senior authorship, and female first authorship exhibited a significant upward trend from 2000 to 2019 (P <0.001, P <0.001, P = 0.002). As the number of female last authors increased, female last authors were significantly more likely to publish with female first authors, and significantly less likely publish with male first authors (P <0.001, P <0.001). Furthermore, we found a significant difference for female authors being less likely to get cited than male authors (p = 0.02), despite the greater proportion of females that authored research articles with higher citation counts compared to males (P <0.05). CONCLUSION: Despite the significant progress in female representation within urological publications, female-authored publications continue to constitute a smaller proportion of the urological literature and are less likely to be cited. Our study provides the first evidence on the current status of female underrepresentation within academic urology and literature productivity at this watershed moment. As the number of female urologists evolves, these findings will be of significant impact in the advancement of female investigators in urology.

Development of a Novel Mentorship Platform to Foster Relational Mentoring, Empowered Vulnerability, and Professional Identity Formation in Undergraduate Medical Education.

PROBLEM: Mentorship is valuable to medical students undergoing professional identity formation. Many institutions lack infrastructure to facilitate the personalized mentoring that supports students' integration of new professional identities with their personal identities and values. APPROACH: The authors developed a novel mentorship platform called Weave via a multistep, iterative design process, incorporating in-person and survey-based student and faculty feedback. Features of Weave include clear communication of mentorship offerings and expectations, plus opportunities to engage mentors based on professional and personal (identity-based) attributes. Faculty at Harvard Medical School who created a mentor profile within the first 3 months of launch and students who visited the website within the same period were invited to complete usability surveys in February 2019; students were invited to complete impact surveys in August 2020. OUTCOMES: Fifty-two of 132 invited faculty members (39.4%) and 80 of 185 students (43.2%) completed the usability surveys. Most of these faculty (86.5%) and students (73.8%) reported navigating the website was easy/very easy; 36 faculty (69.2%) created a mentor profile within 10 minutes. Key innovations highlighted by faculty and students were the listing of personal attributes and identities of diverse faculty; centralized, increased access to faculty mentors; ease of use; and provision of clear expectations. Nearly all students who completed the impact surveys agreed that Weave allowed them to connect with a faculty mentor whom they would not have found through other sources and to learn about the dimensions of diverse faculty. NEXT STEPS: Weave is a customizable online mentorship platform that fosters empowered vulnerability and increases dialogue between medical students and faculty based on professional and personal interests and identities. Weave may be expanded to other mentoring contexts and adapted for implementation at other institutions to help cultivate an institutional culture that values mentoring and to strengthen broader diversity and inclusion efforts.

Transition to Independent Research Funding Among National Institutes of Health K Grant Awardees at Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery.

BACKGROUND: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports mentored research career development awards (K awards) to increase the pipeline of independently funded scientists. This study analyzed the portfolio of K grants that were awarded to orthopaedic surgery departments and characterized the factors that were associated with successful transition to independent NIH research funding, including R01 grants. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of K-award recipients in orthopaedic surgery departments in the United States from 1996 to 2018. A query was performed on the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) database for NIH grants that were awarded to departments of orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, otolaryngology, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, and urology. Rates of transition to independent research funding were compared by specialty for K grants that were awarded from 1996 to 2011. The percentage of faculty with mentored research career development awards and the return on investment (ROI) were calculated. An internet and Scopus (Elsevier) database search determined the investigator characteristics. The factors that were associated with successful transition to independent funding were determined via chi-square and unpaired t tests. RESULTS: Sixty K-award recipients were identified in orthopaedic surgery departments. Most were men (77%) and research scientists (53%). Fifty percent of the K-award recipients transitioned to independent research funding. Research scientists had the highest rate of transition to independent research funding (71%, p = 0.016) relative to clinicians (0%) and orthopaedic surgeons (40%). Higher levels of publication productivity were associated with successful transition to independent research funding. Similar rates of transition to independent research funding existed among surgical specialties (p = 0.107). Orthopaedic surgery had the lowest percentage of faculty with a K award (1.4%) but had the highest ROI (198%) of these awards. CONCLUSIONS: Orthopaedic surgery had similar rates of transition to independent research funding when compared with other surgical specialties but had a lower prevalence of K awards among faculty. Orthopaedic surgeon-scientists have lower rates of transition to independent research funding when compared with their research-scientist colleagues. These findings highlight a need for greater support to foster the pipeline of future NIH-funded orthopaedic investigators. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: As the largest support of biomedical research in the U.S., the NIH is an important stakeholder in orthopaedic innovations and discoveries. This study highlights barriers in the procurement of NIH funding across surgical specialties and affirms the need for greater resources toward supporting NIH funding in orthopaedic surgery.