Abstract
Aim: Wāhine Connect is a peer-mentoring organisation established in 2017 by a medical clinician to address an unmet need by enabling peer-to-peer wāhine mentorship in medicine and health in Aotearoa New Zealand. This retrospective descriptive study reports the demographic and work profiles of women seeking mentoring, their reasons for seeking mentoring and satisfaction with their experience of the programme.
Methods: Mentees' registration data were analysed to describe demographic characteristics of women seeking mentorship and the reasons women chose to seek mentorship. The survey data on mentorship experience were analysed to describe mentee satisfaction with the Wāhine Connect programme and their mentors.
Results: From October 2017 to December 2023, 642 women participated in the Wāhine Connect mentorship programme. The mean age of mentees was 34 years. The most frequent ethnicities were NZ European (59.8%) and Asian (19.2%). Over 85% of participants were doctors (n=546), with 100 working in primary care and 387 pre-vocationally registered. Of the 39 reasons for accessing mentoring, the three most highly rated were "lack of confidence" (41.6%), "juggling training/work with raising a family" (35.8%) and "balancing your work/career needs with those of your partner" (30.8%). Of 208 respondents to the post-programme evaluation survey, 97.6% rated the value of the mentoring programme as excellent/very good/good, and the quality of the match between mentee and mentor was rated excellent/very good/good by 96.6%.
Conclusions: Women in Aotearoa New Zealand seek mentoring for many reasons and a mentoring service is needed. This need is likely to persist and should be supported by our healthcare system.