Power of mentorship for civilian and military acute care surgeons: identifying and leveraging opportunities for longitudinal professional development

Lisa Marie Knowlton; William Jason Butler; Ryan Peter Dumas; Brittany K Bankhead; Jonathan P Meizoso; Brandon Bruns; Jan-Michael Van Gent; Haytham M A Kaafarani; Matthew J Martin; Nicholas Namias; Deborah M Stein; Matthew D Tadlock; R Shayn Martin; Kristan L Staudenmayer; Jennifer M Gurney

doi:10.1136/tsaco-2022-001049

Power of mentorship for civilian and military acute care surgeons: identifying and leveraging opportunities for longitudinal professional development

Trauma Surg Acute Care Open. 2023 Feb 27;8(1):e001049. doi: 10.1136/tsaco-2022-001049. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lisa Marie Knowlton^{1

2}, William Jason Butler³, Ryan Peter Dumas⁴, Brittany K Bankhead⁵, Jonathan P Meizoso⁶, Brandon Bruns⁷, Jan-Michael Van Gent⁸, Haytham M A Kaafarani⁹, Matthew J Martin¹⁰, Nicholas Namias⁶, Deborah M Stein¹¹, Matthew D Tadlock¹², R Shayn Martin¹³, Kristan L Staudenmayer¹⁴, Jennifer M Gurney¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Division of General Surgery, Section of Acute Care Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
² Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Stanford, California, USA.
³ General Surgery, US Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, USA.
⁴ Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical, Dallas, Texas, USA.
⁵ Division of Trauma, Burns, and Critical Care, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA.
⁶ DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery, Ryder Trauma Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.
⁷ Department of Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas, USA.
⁸ Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁹ Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, LAC USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
¹¹ Department of Surgery, Program in Trauma, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
¹² 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, US Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Camp Pendleton, California, USA.
¹³ Department of Surgery, Division of Acute Care Surgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
¹⁴ Division of General Surgery, Section of Acute Care Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Trauma Surgery, San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, USA.

Abstract

Across disciplines, mentorship has been recognized as a key to success. Acute care surgeons, focused on the care of trauma surgery, emergency general surgery and surgical critical care, practice in a wide variety of settings and have unique mentorship needs across all phases of their career. Recognizing the need for robust mentorship and professional development, the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) convened an expert panel entitled 'The Power of Mentorship' at the 81st annual meeting in September 2022 (Chicago, Illinois). This was a collaboration between the AAST Associate Member Council (consisting of surgical resident, fellow and junior faculty members), the AAST Military Liaison Committee, and the AAST Healthcare Economics Committee. Led by two moderators, the panel consisted of five real-life mentor-mentee pairs. They addressed the following realms of mentorship: clinical, research, executive leadership and career development, mentorship through professional societies, and mentorship for military-trained surgeons. Recommendations, as well as pearls and pitfalls, are summarized below.

Keywords: education, medical; general surgery; teaching.

Publication types

Editorial