Cochrane Knowledge Translation virtual mentoring pilot scheme: what we learnt and what next?

Tags: Oral
Head K1, de Silva D2, Watts C1
1Cochrane Central Executive Team, 2The Evidence Centre

Background: Cochrane is testing mentoring to help build skills and capacity for knowledge translation. Mentoring is defined as “a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) assists another (the mentee) in developing specific skills and knowledge”. Such programmes are common in academic institutions and have been linked to enhanced productivity and self-confidence, but very little is known about whether mentoring works across a global community to support knowledge translation.

Objectives: Cochrane set up a ‘virtual’ knowledge translation mentoring pilot to test whether mentoring was feasible across the global Cochrane community and whether it would help participants develop confidence in knowledge translation.

Methods: The Cochrane Knowledge Translation team defined eligibility criteria for mentors and mentees, advertised and recruited participants, matched pairs of mentors and mentees and provided documentation and training. Over the six month period between September 2019 and March 2020, 12 people undertaking knowledge translation projects in Cochrane (mentees) were mentored by people who had experience of knowledge translation (mentors). It was planned that the ‘pairs’ would meet online for about 60 minutes per month for six months. The pilot was evaluated independently using a before and after design with surveys and interviews.

Results: This session will present the results for the implementation and outcomes from the pilot. In terms of the implementation, our initial findings included that there was high demand for the scheme and that applying online worked well. We have learnt that good matching and preparatory training is important and requires resources to implement.

Data on mentor and mentee outcomes is still being analysed. Early results indicate that those who took part reported increased knowledge and confidence. We are aware of some knowledge translation projects where mentoring has helped to bring tangible improvements.

We will present how the results from the pilot scheme will support our Cochrane’s future mentoring schemes both within knowledge translation and in other areas of the organization.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Although there was no direct patient and healthcare involvement in the mentoring scheme, the projects on which mentor and mentee pairs worked were knowledge translation projects. These projects aim to support the use of Cochrane evidence in our target audiences which includes patients and consumers. Future mentoring schemes may use the information gathered from this pilot to support mentoring in different audiences, which could include patients and healthcare consumers, potentially as both mentors and mentees.