From Recruitment to Belonging: A Multidimensional Mentoring Program for Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Residents.

BACKGROUND: Mentorship is crucial to physicians' professional development, with well-documented benefits. However, residents from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URiM) often face barriers to accessing high-quality mentorship. Despite this gap, few structured programs exist that deliberately tackle these barriers, leaving an important opportunity to enhance support for URiM trainees. AIM: To design and implement a multidimensional URiM mentorship program. SETTING: Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Internal Medicine Residency. PARTICIPANTS: URiM residents. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The core components of the URiM mentorship program are personalized dyadic pairings, mentorship communities, speed mentoring, and mentorship trainings, especially across differences. PROGRAM EVALUATION: In 2024, a residency-wide mentorship survey compared the URiM Mentorship Program to the Usual Mentorship Program offered to all other residents. DISCUSSION: Of the 49 survey respondents, 31 were in the Usual Mentorship Program and 18 in the URiM Mentorship Program. In the URiM Program, 94% viewed their mentor as primary or part of their network, versus 39% in the Usual Program. Satisfaction with faculty assignments was 83% in the URiM Program compared to 48% in the Usual Program. The URiM Mentorship Program demonstrated stronger mentor-mentee connections and greater satisfaction, underscoring the benefits of a structured approach to mentorship.