Mentorship and early career mentorship

Abstract

Mentorship is important for the personal and professional development of a surgeon. Surgical mentoring includes technical and non-technical skills necessary for clinical activities, career improvement, leadership acquisition and research development. Mentors are important in different phases of surgical career, conferring various forms of support. The most delicate period for a surgeon is the transition between the role of trainee and physician, and the first few years are crucial to the trajectory of future career. While in the past, the main limitation for mentorship opportunities was the lack of available mentors at a single institution, more recently, long-distance mentorship opportunities have overcome this barrier. This is of particular importance for women and underrepresented minorities in surgery, who benefit the most from same gender and same ethnicity role model. Furthermore, having the opportunity to establish productive relationships with mentors from other institutions and/or countries will prevent the possibility of leading to dependence between mentee and mentor within a single institution. This review aims to investigate different forms of mentorships, with a specific interest in early career support, long-distance mentorship and opportunities for underrepresented minorities in surgery.