Mentoring in Pediatric Oncology: A Report from the Children's Oncology Group Young Investigator Committee

A formal Mentorship Program within the Children's Oncology Group (COG) was established to pair young investigators (mentees) with established COG members (mentors). Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement promoting mentorship programs, there are no publications describing and evaluating national mentorship programs in pediatric subspecialties. In this study, a series of internal program evaluations were performed using surveys of both mentors and mentees. Responses were deidentified and analyzed to determine the utility of the program by both participant satisfaction and self-reported academic productivity. Results indicated that mentees were generally satisfied with the program. Mentor-mentee pairs that met at least quarterly demonstrated greater academic productivity than pairings that met less frequently. This formal mentorship program appeared to have subjective and objective utility for the development of academic pediatric subspecialists.