• Kathleen M Richards, Mary K Lester, Melissa J Chin, and Bruce C Marshall.
• Pulmonary Function Laboratory, Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah 84113, USA. leen.richards2@imail.org
• Respir Care. 2013 May 1;58(5):764-9.

BackgroundIn 2008 the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation launched the Respiratory Therapy Mentoring Program, which pairs a respiratory therapist (RT) relatively new to CF (apprentice) with a highly experienced RT (mentor) from a similar CF care center. We wished to determine if we had achieved our short-term goal of increasing CF-specific knowledge among the apprentices who participated in the program.MethodsSelected apprentices were each matched with a mentor, based on characteristics of CF population, clinical setting, center size, and geographic location of their care centers. Apprentices completed a CF-specific RT knowledge self assessment tool prior to and after a site visit to their mentor's center. Mentors also completed a post site visit knowledge self assessment tool regarding their apprentice.ResultsThirty-seven apprentices completed a pre and post site visit knowledge self assessment tool. The median pre and post site visit scores were 12 and 31 (P < .001) respectively. The mentors' post site visit scores of their apprentices (median 29, P = .07) did not significantly differ from the apprentices' post site visit scores.ConclusionsThe results of this preliminary evaluation suggest that the RT mentoring program has achieved its short-term goal of increasing CF-specific knowledge among RTs relatively new to CF care.

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