Mentorship for Early Career Family Physicians: A Needs Assessment
Author(s): Viola Antao, Susan Hum, Ryan Banach
Purpose: To assess the practice needs and preferred mentorship supports/resources of new family medicine graduates as they transition to independent practice.
Background: Family Medicine is facing challenges with recruiting trainees and retaining early-career family physicians (ECFPs) interested in comprehensive primary care. The DFCM’s strategic plan (2022) identified the need to “strengthen supports for graduates in their first five years of practice by offering extended mentorship (R.2.3).” Funding was obtained through a Faculty Development Educational grant to conduct a needs assessment identifying what “extended mentorship” or peer navigation supports would be requested. In addition, requests for support were addressed utilizing respondent identified formats including: connection with a peer navigator for a one-to-one coffee chat, or access to a list of curated resources available (OMA, CFPC etc).
Methods: A needs assessment survey study of ECFPs from DFCM will be conducted to determine their professional needs and preferred mentorship supports. Participants will be recruited from the central DFCM’s mailing list of those who signed up to receive ‘support for new graduates,’ and from Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Alumni group. The online Qualtrics survey will take a few minutes to complete. A modified Dillman approach will be used to implement the study, which will run February - April 2024. Participants who request coffee chat support will be invited to complete a follow-up evaluation survey to assess its helpfulness.
Results: The personal and practice needs/challenges of ECFPs, tailored mentorship supports, and characteristics of an ideal mentor will be collated. The usefulness of process, coffee chats and curated resources will also be assessed.
Conclusions: Survey results will inform approaches, recommendations, resources, and strategies to enhance DFCM’s mentorship program in alignment with the needs and priorities of ECFPs, thus supporting them to have long, satisfying, and productive careers.