Identifying Components of Success Within Health Sciences-Focused Mentoring Programs Through a Review of the Literature

Identifying the Professional Development Needs Among Early Career Doctorally Prepared Oncology Professionals

This study aimed to identify the professional development needs of early career doctorally prepared professionals in psychosocial oncology. We used a cross-sectional descriptive survey design to assess professionally related skills deemed most important to participants' academic excellence and promotion, skills they felt most and least confident to engage in, and those they were most interested to learn more about. Seventeen participants completed the survey and were, on average, 39.3 years of age (range 29-55 years) and had completed doctoral or post-doctoral training 3.1 years previously (range 0-5 years). Participants identified seeking external funding as not only the most important skill to achieve their academic excellence and promotion, but also as the skill they felt least confident to engage in. They felt most confident to engage in career planning and getting published and were most interested to learn more about how to negotiate a career/position. Participants also expressed interest in having access to a forum wherein they could collaborate with others and receive mentorship from expert oncology professionals with doctoral degrees. The findings from this study point to the need for professional development opportunities for oncology professionals before and after they complete their doctoral or post-doctoral training. Study participants' perspectives offer insights about topics that may be enhanced in doctoral and post-doctoral mentorship programs.

Mentorship Landscape and Common Practices in an Academic Pharmacy Association

OBJECTIVES

To explore the landscape of mentorship within professional associations in pharmacy academia, including reviewing available literature and describing currently available programs within the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and recommend key considerations for the development of mentorship programs within professional associations.

FINDINGS

A literature review of mentorship programs within professional associations for pharmacy academics was conducted, with a total of 5 articles identified and summarized. Additionally, a survey was conducted to determine the landscape of available mentorship programs within American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy affinity groups to capture unpublished experiences. Information regarding common characteristics and assessment methods was collected for groups that have mentorship programs, while needs and barriers were collected for those who did not.

SUMMARY

Literature, while limited, supports positive perceptions of mentorship programs within professional associations. Based on the responses and working group experience, several recommendations are proposed for mentorship program development, including the need for clearly defined goals, relevant program outcomes, association support to reduce redundancies and promote participation, and, in some cases, implementation of an association-wide program to ensure access to mentorship.

Communication in Pharmacy Higher Education to Improve Work-life and Mitigate Burnout

Objective. To identify the content, style, timing, tone, and initiation of communication that best connotes "reassurance of worth" from peers and supervisors in pharmacy academia.Methods. This study employed semi-structured interviews to acquire in-depth information from pharmacy faculty through a purposive sampling process. Academicians who had published in the area of work-life and/or were deemed likely to make substantial contributions to the interview were asked to participate. Participants represented a cross section of pharmacy faculty in terms of discipline, institution, and demographic characteristics. An interview guide was constructed based on motivating language theory and provisions of social relationships theory. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and transcribed verbatim. Themes were gleaned using open coding, then audited and checked.Results. Data saturation occurred after eight interviews. Two primary themes emerged: guidance, particularly related to professional development and tenure; and reassurance of worth through invited participation, praise, and/or rewards. Interviewees highlighted the importance of empathetic yet practical language among peers, and supervisor-initiated, meaning-making language rather than generic platitudes.Conclusion. Empathetic, personal language that provides guidance and reassurance of worth can enhance pharmacy faculty contributions and mitigate burnout. Invitations to collaborate are seen by faculty as collegial and engaging. This study demonstrated the usefulness of motivating language theory and social provisions in guiding communications among pharmacy academicians.

Exploring mentoring and nurse faculty: An integrative review

BACKGROUND

Mentoring is recommended as an intervention to assist nurses in adjusting to the faculty role. While research on academic mentoring for nurse faculty is growing, the findings of this body of research have not been summarized to inform the development of mentoring programs.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this integrative review is to summarize and synthesize the research regarding mentoring relationships and mentoring programs in academia for nurse faculty.

METHOD

Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) methodology for integrative reviews guided this work. Electronic databases that were searched using the following terms: mentorship, mentors, mentor, nursing faculty, faculty, educational personnel, nurses, nursing, and nursing education. Primary research studies were included that examined mentoring relationships among nurse faculty, mentoring program components, and mentoring outcomes in academia.

RESULTS

A total of 18 studies were included in the review. Five main topics were identified: (1) prevalence of mentoring programs and relationships, (2) priorities within mentoring programs and relationships, (3) perceived quality of mentoring programs and relationships, (4) outcomes of mentoring programs and relationships, and (5) challenges within mentoring relationships.

CONCLUSION

More research is needed to inform nurse faculty and leaders as they design effective mentoring programs and support the development of collaborative and enriching mentoring relationships.

Precision mentoring (PM): a proposed framework for increasing research capacity in health-related disciplines

PROBLEM

Research productivity is expected of academic faculty, and mentoring can facilitate it. This paper presents a framework for using mentoring to develop researchers in health disciplines.

APPROACH

We utilized recent literature reviews, and experience developing researchers at an emerging research institution within the Research Centers for Minority Institutions (RCMI) program, to propose a precision mentoring (PM) framework for research development.

OUTCOMES

Although we cannot precisely determine how much improvement was due to the PM framework, over the 4 years of our program, the quality and quantity of pilot project proposals (PPP) has increased, the number of external proposals submitted and funded by PPP investigators has increased, and the number of faculty participating in our program has increased. Surveys distributed to our 2021-22 PPP applicants who did not receive funding (n = 5/6 or 86.7%) revealed that new investigators most frequently sought mentoring related to career guidance (e.g., institutional culture, pre-tenure survival strategies), grant proposal basics (e.g., working with funding agencies, reviewing aims, balancing priorities, and enhancing scientific rigor), and identifying funding opportunities.

NEXT STEPS

We recommend shifting the mentoring paradigm such that: (a) mentees are pre-screened and re-screened for their current skill set and desired areas of growth; (b) mentoring occurs in teams vs. by individuals; (c) mentors are trained and rewarded, and (d) attention is paid to enhancing institutional culture.

MyNRMN: A national mentoring and networking platform to enhance connectivity and diversity in the biomedical sciences

AIMS

Increasing the diversity of the biomedical sciences workforce is a national priority. Having a mentor, and more crucially, a personal network of mentors, improves the likelihood that an individual will pursue an advanced degree and career in the biomedical sciences. The chief mission of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the biosciences workforce through the mentoring of historically underrepresented individuals.

METHODS

To address this need, we created MyNRMN, an online mentoring platform that connects mentors and mentees nationwide. The platform enables multiple forms of mentoring and recommends connections to mentees that will help them build their personal networks.

RESULTS

The MyNRMN online platform has registered more than 13,500 active mentors and mentees across all 50 states and from more than 2100 institutions. Black and Hispanic mentees are highly represented.

DISCUSSION

MyNRMN has expanded opportunities for mentorship in the biomedical sciences, particularly among those not from a culture or institution that historically supports mentorship. The platform's robust search and recommendation capabilities and graph database technology enable members to grow their personal network of mentors.

CONCLUSION

The MyNRMN online platform has proven successful in connecting mentees and mentors nationwide, expanding the pipeline in biomedical science careers to attract a more diverse workforce.

Qualitative Evaluation of a Junior Faculty Team Mentoring Program

Objective. To investigate the strengths and challenges of a structured junior faculty mentoring program at a public four-year school of pharmacy, identify areas of opportunity to improve the program, and describe the mentoring needs of mid-career faculty.Methods. Focus groups and interviews were conducted to elicit participants' experiences, perceptions, and suggestions for opportunity to improve the program. Stakeholder groups included junior faculty enrolled in the mentoring program, mid-career faculty who had graduated from the program, mid-career faculty who had not participated in the program, internal mentors, external mentors, and division chairs. Thematic coding was used to identify semantic themes, and summaries of participant perceptions were generated. The program was mapped to the PAIRS checklist from the 2014 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Joint Council Task Force on Mentoring.Results. Participants described the structure of the program and mentee-mentor relationships as strengths of the program. Challenges included finding time to meet and ensuring mentee-mentor fit. Several areas of opportunity were identified, such as adjusting the topics for large mentee seminars, providing mentors with training, and providing mentoring for mid-career faculty. The mentoring needs of mid-career faculty were described as unique and requiring potentially different strategies than those used for mentoring junior faculty.Conclusion. Mentoring is critical to the professional development of faculty, supporting faculty retention and job satisfaction, and reducing faculty burnout. Scholarly endeavors that explore faculty mentoring, specifically those using qualitative methods, can help the Academy better understand and meet the needs of faculty.

Mentoring as an intervention to promote gender equality in academic medicine: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Mentoring is frequently suggested as an intervention to address gender inequalities in the workplace.

OBJECTIVES

To systematically review evidence published since a definitive review in 2006 on the effectiveness of mentoring interventions aimed at achieving gender equality in academic medicine.

DESIGN

Systematic Review, using the Template for Intervention Description and Replication as a template for data extraction and synthesis.

SAMPLE

Studies were included if they described a specific mentoring intervention in a medical school or analogous academic healthcare organisation and included results from an evaluation of the intervention.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Mentoring was defined as (1) a formally organised intervention entailing a supportive relationship between a mentor, defined as a more senior/experienced person and a mentee defined as a more junior/inexperienced person; (2) mentoring intervention involved academic career support (3) the mentoring relationship was outside line management or supervision of performance and was defined by contact over an extended period of time.

OUTCOMES

The impact of mentoring was usually reported at the level of individual participants, for example, satisfaction and well-being or self-reported career progression. We sought evidence of impact on gender equality via reports of organisation-level effectiveness, of promotion or retention, pay and academic performance of female staff.

RESULTS

We identified 32 publications: 8 review articles, 20 primary observational studies and 4 randomised controlled trials. A further 19 discussed mentoring in relation to gender but did not meet our eligibility criteria. The terminology used, and the structures and processes reported as constituting mentoring, varied greatly. We identified that mentoring is popular with many who receive it; however, we found no robust evidence of effectiveness in reducing gender inequalities. Primary research used weak evaluation designs.

CONCLUSIONS

Mentoring is a complex intervention. Future evaluations should adopt standardised approaches used in applied health research to the design and evaluation of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Mentoring New and Early-Stage Investigators and Underrepresented Minority Faculty for Research Success in Health-Related Fields: An Integrative Literature Review (2010-2020)

Mentoring to develop research skills is an important strategy for facilitating faculty success. The purpose of this study was to conduct an integrative literature review to examine the barriers and facilitators to mentoring in health-related research, particularly for three categories: new investigators (NI), early-stage investigators (ESI) and underrepresented minority faculty (UMF). PsychINFO, CINAHL and PubMed were searched for papers published in English from 2010 to 2020, and 46 papers were reviewed. Most papers recommended having multiple mentors and many recommended assessing baseline research skills. Barriers and facilitators were both individual and institutional. Individual barriers mentioned most frequently were a lack of time and finding work-life balance. UMF mentioned barriers related to bias, discrimination and isolation. Institutional barriers included lack of mentors, lack of access to resources, and heavy teaching and service loads. UMF experienced institutional barriers such as devaluation of experience or expertise. Individual facilitators were subdivided and included writing and synthesis as technical skills, networking and collaborating as interpersonal skills, and accountability, leadership, time management, and resilience/grit as personal skills. Institutional facilitators included access to mentoring, professional development opportunities, and workload assigned to research. Advocacy for diversity and cultural humility were included as unique interpersonal and institutional facilitators for UMF. Several overlapping and unique barriers and facilitators to mentoring for research success for NI, ESI and UMF in the health-related disciplines are presented.

Visiting Scholars Program to enhance career development among early-career KL2 investigators in Clinical and Translational Science: Implications from a quality improvement assessment

CTSI Career Development Award (KL2) programs provide junior faculty with protected time and multidisciplinary, mentored research training in clinical and translational science research. The KL2 Visiting Scholars Program was developed to promote collaborative cross-CTSA training, leverage academic strengths at host CTSAs, and support the career development of participating scholars through experiential training and the development of new partnerships. This manuscript provides a detailed programmatic description and reports outcomes from post-visit and outcomes surveys. Since 2016, 12 scholars have completed the program, with 6 scheduled to complete it in 2021. Post-visit surveys (n = 12) indicate all scholars reported the program valuable to career development, 11 reported benefit for research development, and 11 expansion of collaborative networks. Outcomes surveys (n = 11) revealed subsequent scholar interaction with host institution faculty for 10 scholars, 2 collaborative grant submissions (1 funded), 2 planned grant submissions, 1 published collaborative manuscript, and 3 planned manuscript/abstract submissions. The Visiting Scholars Program is a cost- and time-efficient program that leverages the academic strengths of CTSAs. The program enhanced KL2 scholar training by expanding their professional portfolio, promoting research development, and expanding collaborative networks. Resources to support the program are shared in this report to expedite the development of similar programs at regional and national levels.