In 2022, the American Association of Medical Colleges reported that for the fourth consecutive year, women made up the majority of medical school applicants, matriculants, and total enrollment, with 56% of first-year medical students identifying as female.¹ Meanwhile, during the same year, the AUA Annual Census indicated that 11.6% of practicing urologists in the United States were women.² There is a discrepancy between representation of females in the urology workforce and female urology trainees. Over the last decade, female practicing urologists increased by 104%, while the increase in female urology residents was only 28%.³ The declining rates of women entering urology residencies compared to the current workforce suggests a longer trajectory toward gender parity. Thus, it is crucial for female medical students interested in urology to have access to mentorship.

The Society of Women in Urology (SWIU) is a national organization dedicated to supporting women in urology by providing professional development opportunities, networking events, and resources. SWIU seeks to diversify the urology workforce by promoting equity and advancing women in their professional careers. Launching this fall, the medical student-led SWIU “SWIUdents” chapter began the first-ever international mentorship program to pair women medical students with urology residents and fellows. As the Mentorship Committee, our goal is to create a program to connect women urologists across the globe with future generations of hopeful urologists to improve the pipeline toward career success for women interested in the field.

What Is a Mentor?

Mentoring is defined as a one-to-one relationship in which an expert or a senior person voluntarily gives time to teach, passes on their insight, facilitates personal development, encourages wise choices, and helps the mentee through their professional transitions.⁴ Sponsorship, another form of support seen in medicine, is focused on career advancement and advocacy, facilitating networking and creating targeted opportunities.⁵

A mentor takes on a role as a career architect for their mentee, enlightening the path of professional growth by sharing insights into research prospects and academic pursuits.⁶ A mentor can help a mentee set realistic goals, navigate challenges, and make informed decisions about their future career. In return, a mentee provides their mentor an opportunity to give back and sculpt trainees who will become future leaders in the field. A mentee can have many different mentors throughout their career, and each may serve different roles. For example, a mentee may have one mentor that they rely on for research advice and another that they rely on for career development.

Mentorship may even reach beyond the professional realm into the personal. Through their unique perspectives and insight, mentors can offer solace, encouragement, and guidance. These discussions, particularly between female mentors and mentees in urology with shared experiences, may include advice regarding family planning and promoting physical and mental well-being.

What Is the Role of Mentorship in Urology?

Mentorship in urology has been shown to be associated with improvements in personal development, career guidance, research productivity, and prevention of burnout.⁷ Access to mentorship is critical to increase the trainee workforce in urology, as mentorship is associated with medical student applications to urology residency.⁸ Mentors may help dispel myths about urology that students sometimes perceive, such as the idea that urology is a specialty focused solely on the male genitalia.⁹ Exposure to urology is also underrepresented in clinical coursework and rotations, with 48% of surveyed medical schools indicating they had no urology lectures, and only 5% stating they had a mandatory urology clerkship.¹⁰ Through mentorship, more students may be recruited to this specialty.

For women, mentorship is particularly important to find guidance and navigate this historically male-dominated field. One study showed that 25% of women who left an academic position in urology cited lack of mentorship as a major factor.¹¹ As recently as 2010, up to 29% of female urologists did not have a mentor, highlighting the gap in access to mentorship and the importance of creating mentorship opportunities in urology.^12,13

Why Is Woman-to-Woman Mentorship Important?

Women mentoring women is more possible now than ever before. The benefits include increasing the number of women in historically male-dominated surgical specialties, sharing advice regarding scenarios that are unique to women such as childbearing during training, and discussing advice for promotion and equitable pay. Increasing and further supporting hopeful female urology applicants helps increase the number of successful applicants. Supported female urology residents continue to become the pool for fellowship programs, leading to more female urology fellows.¹⁴ One recent study utilized a population-based model to predict the trajectory of the urology workforce, showing that if there is continued logistic growth in the proportion of women entering urology, 38% of practicing urologists will be female by 2062.¹⁵ This highlights the continued importance of promoting mentorship of women in urology to increase representation in the field.

Beyond just creating gender parity, several studies show that females are beneficial in the surgical workplace. Notably, in a study that examined postoperative outcomes of 1 million patients, those who were treated by a female surgeon were less likely to experience death, hospital readmission, and major medical complications postoperatively.¹⁶ Female mentorship has also been shown to benefit both male and female mentees. In the undergraduate research setting, female mentors have been shown to favorably influence the undergraduate research experience of both male and female students.¹⁷ Mentees with female mentors were more likely to report that their research experience had prepared them for their future careers.

What Are Some Challenges of Mentorship Relationships?

One of the most common challenges mentorship relationships face is maintaining effective communication. Finding a communication style and frequency that suits both parties is critical. Often, mentees can feel like an inconvenience to the mentor’s busy schedule; however, despite the work demands, talking to the mentee often leaves the mentor feeling reinvigorated in their field of work. To help overcome this, mentees should consider that mentors were once in a similar position and appreciate the opportunity to help.

Successful mentor-mentee relationships depend on mutual respect, clear communication, and understanding. Mutual respect entails valuing each other’s perspectives, experiences, and time, with both parties adhering to schedules and setting boundaries as needed. For example, a mentor may have a busy operating week or an upcoming grant proposal and be unable to meet or provide feedback. A mentee may be studying for their board exams and ask for more time to complete a research project. The key to mutual respect is clear communication of expectations. Recognizing that both individuals have unique preferences, cultural differences, and strengths and weaknesses, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mentorship. Approaching mentorship with an open mind and being adaptable to each other’s needs ensures a fulfilling and effective mentorship experience for both mentors and mentees.

The SWIUdents Mentorship Program

The SWIUdents Mentorship Committee acknowledges that mentorship of medical students within urology—female mentorship especially—is a cornerstone of surgical skill training, professional development, knowledge transfer, and quality patient care. In response to this, the SWIUdent mentorship program pairs residents and fellows with medical students at institutions globally. Ultimately this will be the first international female mentorship network for medical students pursuing urology with hopes to expand across several institutions. Additionally, this program will provide formal mentorship opportunities for medical students who do not have access to mentors, such as attending a medical school that does not have a home urology program.

The SWIUdents Mentorship Committee (the authors) discuss how we envisioned our mentorship model to look and created an easy-to-follow guide for mentors and mentees. This guide addresses communication guidelines and discussion topics to help facilitate the mentor-mentee relationship. Some exciting future plans include mentorship meet-ups at regional and national events such as AUA conferences and the annual SWIU Annual Clinical Mentoring Conference. We plan to significantly incorporate mentor and mentee feedback as we pilot the program. We hope the program will grow each year and hope to expand to other mentorship models in the future. The SWIUdents Mentorship Committee looks forward to what will come from your mentor-mentee relationships!

For more information on SWIU and to join our community: https://swiu.org/home.aspx

For more information on the SWIUdents Mentorship Committee: Our pilot mentorship program has concluded mentor and mentee pairings for the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Stay tuned on the SWIU social media pages @SWIUorg on X and Instagram for further updates!

To learn more about the SWIU Annual Clinical Mentoring Conference and how to apply for travel support:

https://swiu.org/meetings/upcoming-meetings/general-meeting-information.aspx

https://swiu.org/awards/resident-travel-award.aspx

Please feel free to reach out to us at:

dalton63@rowan.edu

sstrausser@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

sasha.jv@gmail.com