A tiered mentorship framework in an Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Programme

Introduction: Mentoring is a vital component of a well-rounded medical teaching environment, as evidenced by its implementation in many residency programmes. This study aims to evaluate the perceived value of mentoring by faculty and near-peer mentoring to the orthopaedic surgery resident. Methods: An online survey comprising multiple choice questions and scaled-response questions with a few open-ended questions was created and distributed to all residents, from residency years 2 to 5, within an orthopaedic residency programme in Singapore to gather their views on a tiered mentorship programme. Results: 100% of surveyed residents responded. 68.4% of junior residents had a senior resident mentor while 84.8% of all residents had a faculty mentor. Junior residents generally viewed senior resident mentors as being crucial and beneficial for training, with scores comparable to those for faculty mentors. Residents who had mentors, in particular those who had chosen their own mentors, tended to be more satisfied than their counterparts. The most desired characteristics of mentors among the residents included approachability, willingness to share, being able to give feedback and experience. 66.7% of residents felt that near-peer mentorship should be required in the residency programme but only 30.3% of them felt that it should be formalised. 78.8% of residents surveyed felt that mentorship by faculty was required. Conclusion: Residents viewed mentoring by faculty and near-peer mentoring as being beneficial and crucial to their orthopaedic residency training. We propose that an ideal mentoring programme should be tiered, allow choice of mentors and include near-peer mentoring as a requirement but not necessarily monitored.