IASSS acknowledges that medical students and young doctors are exposed to varying degrees of mentorship depending on their geographical location. As such, we aspire to establish an inclusive mentorship program which can be tailored towards the needs of all trainees. This will be a formal mentorship arrangement with structured content in which mentors offer guidance and support in numerous fields related to general surgery, global surgery and surgical research.
Through this program, we hope to encourage equitable access to mentorship and skill sharing across all countries and regions in an international collaboration. We also hope that this program would provide trainees with opportunities for important discussions, lay strong academic foundations, nurture a passion for surgery and provide guidance for informed decision-making.
1. To create a cross-continental database of willing, approachable mentors with expertise and/or knowledge in the fields of Surgery and Global Surgery and enthusiastic mentees that demonstrate a willingness to engage in the mentor-mentee relationship
2. To create a reproducible, cost-effective, sustainable and accessible mentorship framework that aims to match mentees to their “best-fit” mentors, with the aim of facilitating professional and personal development as well as providing appropriate psychological and emotional support
3. To partner with international surgical societies to create elective opportunities for students and pre-specialist doctors to promote and facilitate surgical education and interest worldwide
4. To systematically collect information to aid in the evaluation of our programs in order to assess outcomes and identify areas in need of improvement
