The McMaster Racialized Resident Mentorship Program Evaluation Protocol: Evaluating a racialized resident to racialized staff physician mentorship network on resident sense of belonging and medical training outcomes

ABSTRACT The McMaster Racialized Resident Mentorship Program Evaluation will formally evaluate the effectiveness of a racialized resident mentorship network at increasing racialized residents’ sense of belonging to the medical training environment and reducing the racial attainment gap in medical careers. The program is composed of three phases. Phase 1 is an acceptability study of the collection of race0based data from all matriculating residents at McMaster University. Phases 2 and 3 will focus on family medicine residents. Phase 2 is a formal program evaluation of a mentorship network connecting matriculating racialized residents with racialized physician mentors, intended to run for 24 months and using repeat focus groups to explore the impacts of the program on residents’ sense of belonging. Phase 3 is a cross sectional study of graduating family medicine residents, examining associations between residents’ identities and attainment within residency training. The program evaluation will involve formal mentor training, a mentor Community of Practice, and mentor and resident focus groups examining experiences within the program and sense of belonging to the Department of Family Medicine and their training sites. The program process inputs will include: the number of faculty who attend mentor training, and the number of racialized faculty mentors and racialized residents who register for the program; attendance at the Community of Practice; and attendance at focus groups of mentors and residents. An exit survey will assess the number of residents who participated in the program, the duration of participation, expected graduation time, number of mentor meetings. Short term outcomes will be measured at the phase 1 survey and at program enrollment and include: resident awareness of racialized mentors, and sense of support and sense of belonging. Long-term outcomes for the program will be assessed in phase 3, examining associations between resident social identities (including race) and family medicine residency training outcomes. The project results will represent the first investigation of racial attainment in postgraduate medical training in Canada, with changes in residents’ sense of belonging and attainment during residency as indicators of Mentorship program effectiveness.