Surgical Trainee Opinions in the United Kingdom Regarding a Three-Dimensional Virtual Mentoring Environment (MentorSL) in Second Life: Pilot Study

Background Medical mentoring is becoming increasingly complex with the evolving needs of trainees and the complexities of their personal and social lives. The Internet is an enabling technology, which increasingly facilitates interaction with multiple people at a distance. Web 2.0 and 3.0 technology shows promise in furthering this facilitation. Objective The objective of our study was to establish opinions among doctors in postgraduate surgical training regarding mentoring and whether these doctors would readily accept virtual mentoring following a brief experience. Methods On the 12th of February 2012, an introductory teaching class was arranged by The London Postgraduate School of Surgery for doctors in training. Participants were introduced to a novel virtual mentoring system and asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their opinions before and after the demonstration. Results A total of 57 junior doctors attended. Among them, 35 completed questionnaires pre- and postdemonstration. Regarding usefulness of a 3D virtual environment for mentoring, 6/35 (17%) agreed or strongly agreed and 20/35 (57%) were unsure prior to the session. Following 20 minutes using MentorSL, this significantly increased to 14/35 (40%) agreeing or strongly agreeing with 11/35 (31%) unsure (P<.001). Prior to using MentorSL, regarding usefulness of voice communication for virtual mentoring, 11/35 (31%) agreed or strongly agreed and 18/35 (51%) were unsure. Following 20 minutes using MentorSL, 19/35 (54%) agreed or strongly agreed and 10/35 (29%) were unsure of usefulness. Regarding ease of use of navigation, search mentor, meeting scheduling, and voice communication features, 17/35 (49%), 13/35 (37%), 15/35 (43%), and 16/35 (46%) participants agreed or strongly agreed, respectively. Regarding usefulness of telementoring, 24/35 (69%) agreed or strongly agreed, increasing to 28/35 (80%) following the introduction. For usefulness of multiple mentors, initially 24/35 (69%) agreed or strongly agreed increasing to 29/35 (83%). For overall satisfaction, 30/35 (86%) reported good or adequate and 19/35 (54%) agreed or strongly agreed with using the system again. Conclusions These data suggest that a short introduction on how to use virtual systems may result in significant participation and use of virtual mentoring systems.