Formal versus Informal Surgical Mentorship Among Canadian Medical Students: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Survey

Mentorship influences medical students' interest in surgical careers, yet it remains unclear whether mentorship arising through structured programs is experienced differently from mentorship that develops informally. Adapting the survey of the Mentorship Across Academic Programs in Surgery study, and guided by mentoring theory distinguishing career and psychosocial functions, we conducted an exploratory cross-sectional online survey of Canadian medical students. Of 84 respondents, 40 (47.6%) reported surgical mentorship (formal, n = 18; informal, n = 22) and formed the analytic sample. Global perceived mentorship quality, rated with a single item, did not differ significantly between formal and informal mentorship (p = 0.291). Higher perceived quality was associated with frequent meetings (p = 0.025), mentor-mentee specialty concordance (p = 0.012) and perceived compatibility (p = 0.0002). Overall, 77% of mentored students reported increased interest in a surgical career, with no characteristic significantly associated with this change. Students with informal mentors rated research opportunities and clinical skill development higher (median 5 versus 3). In this pilot sample, we identified characteristics that were possibly linked to how students rated their mentorship. These hypothesis-generating findings support formal programs that give mentees input into matching and structured research and clinical exposure, evaluated in larger cohorts.