Opportunities for Increasing Diversity in Orthopaedics Through Virtual Mentorship Programs. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Orthopaedic surgery lags in recruiting women and under-represented minorities (URMs). In addition, women and URMs hold fewer leadership roles across orthopaedic subspecialties. This inequity is geographically heterogeneous, with female URM residents and attendings being more concentrated in some areas of the country. For instance, practicing female orthopaedic surgeons are more prevalent in Northeast and Pacific programs. Mentorship and representation in leadership positions play a notable role in trainee recruitment. Video communication platforms offer a novel mechanism to reach historically under-represented students across the country. We reviewed five established mentorship programs focused on women and URMs. Each program emphasized a longitudinal relationship between mentors and mentees. In reviewing these programs, we sought to identify the successful components of each program. Leveraging and integrating effective components already established by conventional mentorship programs into virtual programming will aid in optimizing those programs and improve geographic equity in access to mentorship resources. It is critical to extend the principles of successful mentorship programs to technology-enabled programs moving forward.

publication date

  • November 22, 2023

Research

keywords

  • Orthopedic Procedures
  • Orthopedic Surgeons
  • Orthopedics

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85184809675

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.5435/JAAOS-D-23-00638

PubMed ID

  • 37994494

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 32

issue

  • 4