Promoting padawans: a survey examining the state of mentorship in neurosurgical training in the United Kingdom

Background Mentorship has long since been acknowledged as an integral part of Neurosurgical training. The authors sought to evaluate the state of mentorship in Neurosurgical training in the United Kingdom (UK). Methods A 28-point questionnaire was sent to all neurosurgical trainees in the UK and Ireland via the British Neurosurgical Trainee's Association (BNTA), comprising 180 trainees. Results There were 75 responses (180 trainees on the mailing list, 42% response rate). Despite all respondents reporting it to be at least somewhat important to have a mentor, 16% felt they had no mentors. The mean number of mentors was 2.91 with 72% of respondents having more than 1 mentor. In terms of the content of mentorship relationships, 63% were comfortable discussing career related topics with their mentor to a high or very high degree but only 29% felt comfortable discussing their general wellbeing. With regards to allocated educational supervisors, 43% thought this person to be a 'low' or 'very low' source of mentorship. The three most important traits of the ideal mentor as reported by respondents were: someone chosen by them (48%), working in the same hospital (44%) and having received formal mentorship training (36%). Conclusions The current perception of mentorship in Neurosurgery from the surveyed trainees is mixed. A healthy majority of trainees benefit from mentorship of some kind, whilst a significant minority feel underserved. The surveyed trainees feel mentorship is slanted more towards clinical and professional aspects of development than it is towards personal ones. Suggestions for future insight would be an evaluation of senior registrar and consultant sentiments towards mentorship, whilst exploration into more flexible models for establishing mentoring relationships may help to address the heavy importance of trainee choice which is voiced by this survey's results.