Abstract
There is limited research on outcomes of mentorship programs for new and experienced clinicians. This study shows the subjective and objective improvements in job success that a mentorship program tailored to new hire experience levels can provide.
Primary Author and Speaker: Erika Dobson
Additional Authors and Speakers: Nicole Williams
It is well documented that transitioning from student to novice clinician (NC) is stressful, and many qualitative studies tout the value of mentorship during this time (Lao et al., 2021). However, data measuring objective success of NCs in mentorship programs is limited. Additionally, there is limited research studying mentorship of the experienced clinician (EC) in novel practice settings, despite nearly half considering a change, per the American Occupational Therapy Association (2023). The aim of this study was to (i) understand the effects of a mentorship program on NC and EC objective success, and (ii) evaluate NC and EC self-perceptions after participation in a mentorship program. Participants (n=9) were new hires in two states from June 2022 to September 2024, participating in a Mentor Program (MP) if NC, and Sponsor Program (SP) if EC. Participants completed a self-reflection survey at day 7 (D7) and day 90 (D90), and objective data was collected from months 6 to 12, including productivity percentage (PP), adherence to prescribed treatment frequency (AF), and documentation posting lag (PL). Participants were excluded if they had incomplete objective data sets or missing survey results. Paired t-test analysis was used to compare survey results from D7 to D90 for the combined NC + EC groups, and averages of the NC group and EC group objective data were compared to practice wide averages. NC and EC groups demonstrated improved survey ratings from D7 to D90 across all questions, with one question regarding documentation efficiency reaching statistically significant improvement (p=0.01). NC and EC groups outperformed practice averages for PP and AF; ECs outperformed practice average for PL, while NCs underperformed by 0.23 days. Mentorship is profoundly valuable for novel and experienced clinicians alike. This study demonstrates the subjective and objective improvements in job success that a mentorship program tailored to new hire experience levels can provide.
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Lao, A., Wilesmith, S., & Forbes, R. (2021). Exploring the workplace mentorship needs of new-graduate physiotherapists: a qualitative study. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 38(12), 2160–2169. https://doi.org/10.1080/09593985.2021.1917023
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