The Role of Mentorship in Recruiting Medical Trainees into Neurosurgery: Results from a Multinational Cross-sectional Survey

Introduction: Limited gender and racial diversity in the global neurosurgical workforce hampers the potential for trainees to identify mentors who may share their lived experiences.

Methods: A survey with a section evaluating the role of mentorship experiences in pursuing a career in neurosurgery was distributed to medical students and unspecialized residents in 8 countries.

Results: 894 responses (805 complete, 89 partial) were received. 443 trainees (51.1%) self-identified as female.

44.5% (n=362) of all respondents indicated that having a female neurosurgeon mentor would increase their interest in neurosurgery. This varied by country, with a low of 24.5% (n=23) in Saudi Arabia to a high of 51.7% (n=90) in Uganda (p=0.0011). 59.1% (n=241) of females overall indicated that a female neurosurgeon mentor would increase their interest in neurosurgery, while 28.7% (n=108) of males overall indicated the same (p= < 0.0001). However, there was no difference by country among only female respondents (p=0.6726).

40.0% of overall respondents (n=321) indicated that having a neurosurgeon mentor with their same ethnicity/race would increase their interest in neurosurgery. This varied by country, with a low of 15.4% (n=6) in the United Kingdom to a high of 56.7% (n=98) in Uganda (p= < 0.0001). This also varied by respondent ethnicity/race, with 93.2% (n=82) of respondents who identified as only white indicating that their interest in neurosurgery would not change with a neurosurgeon mentor of their same ethnicity/race, compared to 44.5% (n=314) of respondents who identified as an ethnicity/race other than or in addition to white indicating that their interest in neurosurgery would increase with a neurosurgeon mentor of their same ethnicity/race (p= < 0.0001).

Conclusion : Our study found that interest in neurosurgery could potentially be increased if trainees had access to female neurosurgeon mentors or neurosurgeon mentors with their same ethnicity/race. Further work is needed in this space to optimize recruitment into the field.