Perceived Mentoring Practices in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship Programs.

The survey was self-reported and created by the investigators, and it was only field-tested rather than validated. The response rate was low enough that respondents may have had different views than nonrespondents. Recent graduates answered about mentoring years after fellowship, so recall may have affected responses. The study reports perceptions at one time point and does not link mentoring to patient care or career outcomes over time. Open-ended survey answers provide less depth than interviews and did not allow the researchers to clarify each respondent's meaning. The small number of completed responses limited the ability to connect specific characteristics with mentoring perceptions.

The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.

Do not read this as evidence that mentoring improves patient care or therapist training. It reports perceptions from a survey of developmental-behavioral pediatrics fellows and recent graduates. It does not measure patient outcomes or mentoring for therapists.