The Impact on Peer Mentorship following Implementation of a Competency-Based Residency Curriculum in Canadian Radiation Oncology Training Programs

Purpose Peer mentorship provides professional and personal support between physicians with similar experiences and levels of training. While peer mentorship has shown to benefit academic success and professional growth, little data has examined contextual factors, such as curricular change, that may affect the quality of these relationships. This study aims to explore the impact of a new, nationwide Radiation Oncology (RO) residency curriculum, known as Competence by Design (CBD), on peer mentorship experiences between Canadian RO residents. Materials and Methods A qualitative study, with a social constructivist approach, was conducted with two groups of Canadian RO residents. The first were those in the academic year before CBD implementation (non-CBD cohort), and the second were those in the inaugural year of CBD (CBD cohort). Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted to explore experiences of peer mentorship as it related to curriculum change. Interviews were transcribed and analysed with deductive and inductive methods until data saturation. Results Between April and December 2021, 14 participants (6 non-CBD and 8 CBD residents) from 8 out of 10 eligible English-speaking RO training programs across Canada participated. Three major themes were identified: (i) the CBD-cohort identified fewer opportunities for peer mentorship, with specific concerns regarding new evaluation processes and uncertainty about the later stages of training; (ii) there was minimal impact on specialty-specific learning; and (iii) peer mentorship thrived when occurring as spontaneous in-person interactions. Conclusions Inaugural residents of a CBD curriculum perceived fewer opportunities for peer mentorship. There were specific concerns about new evaluative processes, though this did not affect specialty-specific learning. Peer mentorship was most impactful as informal and in-person interactions. Our findings suggest that unintended consequences of curriculum change may be mitigated by improving communication about new training objectives and increasing opportunities for informal interactions between residents.