Big Sister Big Brother Pilot Program: A Novel Resident Mentorship Project

Introduction: Transition from medical school into residency is difficult, particularly for foreign medical graduates (FMGs). Early career mentoring is known to be beneficial. Although mentorship is encouraged, formal programs are seldom in place and are often ineffective. Objective: To study the impact of resident driven mentorship program (Big Sister Big Brother Program) in improving medicine residency experience of new interns. Methods: The study was conducted in the Internal Medicine Residency Program in University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Centre between September 2012 and October 2013. Residents were assigned with incoming interns on 1:1 basis to act as their mentors. Residents were to meet with the interns every month and address their concerns in an informal atmosphere. We developed a 17-item questionnaire to assess participants’ perceptions, satisfaction and experience with mentorship. Results: Overall 61% respondents were males and 43% were Caucasian. Majority (61%) were categorical internal medicine and 45% were FMGs. Only 57% interns reported satisfaction with mentorship and 60.5% said the transition was easy with respect to personal life. After introduction of mentorship program, interns reported improvement in ease of transition with respect to personal life (OR 4.5, CI 1.1–18.4), which was more pronounced in FMGs (OR 10.5, CI 1.1–98.9). Intern class also reported improvement in ease of approaching mentor (OR 4.5, CI 1.1–18.1). Conclusion: In traditional faculty driven mentorship, accessibility to faculty is the biggest hindrance. Our study showed resident mentors have a positive impact on quality of life, ease of approaching mentors, and improve comfort level of new interns. This is especially beneficial for FMGs who have to adapt to new culture, and workplace. We have formally incorporated this program into our orientation curriculum.