Implementation of a Mentoring Program for Mentee-Mentor Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction Mentoring is a unique educational workplace relationship that can support both the mentee and mentor’s skill, knowledge, social, and emotional needs. The primary aim of this longitudinal pilot study was to implement a formal mentoring program to assess its effect on mentee and mentor satisfaction. Methods Data was collected from two hospitals in New South Wales, Australia in late 2018 and early 2019. Junior doctors (mentees) and senior medical staff (mentors) were asked to complete pre-, mid-, and oost-program surveys, with questions relevant to mentee-mentor satisfaction, interactions, and participation. Mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression models were used to assess the program effect on mentee-mentor satisfaction, while Fishers’ exact test was used to evaluate mentee-mentor interactions and participation. Results Although there was evidence of upwards trends in the proportion of mentees and mentors who reported their satisfaction in the program as excellent and rated their work satisfaction as being very influenced by the program, both trends were statistically non-significant. While our study was likely underpowered, high participation rates provide promising evidence of the program’s acceptability and feasibility. Conclusion Though not reaching statistical significance, study results suggest that the implementation of a mentoring program has the potential to increase satisfaction levels among its participants, be they mentees or mentors. It is recommended that future studies recruit larger samples thereby having sufficient statistical power. Furthermore, causality should be explored in more detail through a multi-site randomized controlled trial design.