The value of mentorship in a surgical career is widely recognised. It has benefits for both the mentor and the mentee in relation to job satisfaction and career success. The GMC’s Good Medical Practice stresses that doctors have a duty to taking on mentoring roles (Domain 3, paragraph 42) and a report examining the opportunities for women within medicine by Baroness Deech (2009) highlighted access to mentorship programmes as its number one recommendation. 

The British Hip Society Executive recognise that there is a lack of diversity amongst its membership and amongst hip surgeons in the UK. Women and some minority groups are under-represented both when compared to the population we serve and to medical school graduates. Evidence suggests that establishing a mentorship scheme will help address these imbalances. We want to highlight the diversity that we do have in our society and increase the visibility of surgeons from less well-represented groups. Through the mentor scheme we hope to encourage and support everyone with an interest in hip surgery, regardless of their background, race, gender, sexuality or self-definition of belonging. 

We propose that the mentorship can be as formal or informal as you find comfortable. As a mentor you will be able to identify what level of medical student, trainee, or colleague you’d be happy to mentor.  Mentorship can take the format of telephone calls, face-to-face meetings or offering the opportunity to visit each other in the workplace (restrictions permitting)! We encourage mentors to share their experiences both within and outside of work and have designed a short form which will lead to a “mentor profile” being created. We plan to set up an interactive page on the BHS website with mentor profiles around the country, which potential mentees can browse to find someone with background, experience or interests that might align with their own. Potential mentees will do this through emailing the mentorship scheme so a mentor's personal details are not displayed on the website. There is no obligation to take on a mentee and you can opt out of the programme or “switch off” your profile whenever required, to ensure no one feels overwhelmed by the prospect of signing up. 

If this scheme sounds like something you’d like to be involved with then we would ask you to respond by completing the form below.

If you have any questions or points that you wish to clarify then please do not hesitate to contact us.  

Best wishes

BHS Mentorship Scheme