Background/Purpose: Despite the importance of mentorship, there are few formalized mentorship organizations in fellowship training programs. Rheumatology is a field with increasing popularity[1], and mentorship is suggested as one of many reasons for this trend[2], yet no formalized mentorship programs in adult Rheumatology fellowships have been described at the time of this writing. In the 2022-2023 academic year, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Rheumatology fellowship program implemented a formalized mentorship program for trainees. Trainees identified a faculty member to serve as their mentor and pairs met quarterly to discuss educational, personal, and career goals. It was hypothesized that this program would improve trainee satisfaction overall compared with fellows who had completed fellowship without formal mentorship.

Methods: Data from previously graduatedPenn Rheumatology Fellows and currentPenn Rheumatology Fellows was collected via anonymous survey.

Results: 32 fellows with graduation years from 2016 – 2024 were surveyed and 26 responded, with an 81% overall response rate of current and former Penn Rheumatology fellows.

In the group of former fellows, 28% did not identify a faculty mentor and 72% did. Cited barriers to having a mentor included lack of time, lack of faculty interest, and the absence of the establishment of a formal mentoring relationship with faculty. In the current fellow cohort, 100% identified mentors.

Fellows who graduated prior to the mentorship program reported 11.8% more satisfaction with perceived effectiveness of their mentor’s ability to advance their clinical skills (p-value 0.01).

Fellows who experienced the formalized mentorship program were 12.1% more satisfied with their assigned mentor’s ability to help them network and increase opportunities for professional development; they also were 12.1% more satisfied with their mentor’s sponsorship and advocacy during training (p-value 0.03).

There were no differences between the two cohorts of fellows with respect to their mentor’s impact on their post fellowship career planning, perceived research productivity, and guidance through handing sensitive or challenging issues that arose during fellowship.

Overall, perceptions of the fellowship program independent of mentorship were largely positive, without statistically significant differences between the two cohorts of fellows.

Conclusion: Implementation of formalized mentorship programs in fellowship leads to improved trainee perceptions of faculty investment in their careers through sponsorship and networking; however, this small, single program survey did not show the establishment of a formalized mentor-mentee relationship improved trainee perceptions of improved clinical skills, research productivity, or ability to handle challenging interactions during fellowship.

[1] Tran, Mathias, and Panush, “Has Rheumatology Become a More Attractive Career Choice?”
[2] Kolasinski et al., “Subspecialty Choice.”

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/perceptions-of-rheumatology-fellows-on-mentorship-quality-after-implementation-of-a-formalized-mentorship-program/