Faculty Vitality—Surviving the Challenges Facing Academic Health Centers

Abstract

A large percentage of faculty lack the vitality essential to meeting the AHC missions of discovery, education, and patient care. Enhancing faculty vitality, and AHC resilience, requires more attention to strengthening relationships, improving the misalignment between faculty and institutional values, and improving work-life integration.

Mentoring Faculty: A US National Survey of Its Adequacy and Linkage to Culture in Academic Health Centers

“…We conclude that mentoring is associated with characteristics that are predictive of high faculty vitality. 26 While we are unable to prove a causal relationship, it seems likely that high self-efficacy in career advancement, vitality, a sense of belonging and trusting relationships, and values alignment are all positive outcomes of good mentoring and constitute desired attributes of the culture in academic medicine. The constellation of mentoring, relationships, values alignment, and vitality appears to be a worthwhile focus for dedication of resources devoted to professional development in AHCs.…”

Group Peer Mentoring: An Answer to the Faculty Mentoring Problem? A Successful Program at a Large Academic Department of Medicine

“…The programs also supported the formation of strong positive relationships-"Relationships absolutely [are] the magic of the program"-and trust among faculty, which are predictive of optimal vitality in faculty. 47 Completing the program gave the participants the experience of working and learning in an unfamiliar and improved culture, and the faculty were able to describe and discuss the culture changes that they were experiencing. Many faculty members commented that they would be able to apply these principles to their work with colleagues and trainees.…”

“…The program results highlight the need for faculty to personally experience the power of forming trustworthy relationships with their peers-relationships that foster systematic and successful career development in academic medicine, and that spark and sustain faculty vitality. 47 Although the mentoring programs described were offered in an academic setting, we anticipate that many of its features such as specific curricular content and the writing program could be readily adapted to meet the needs of various groups.…”

Cultivating Resilience: Personally and for Our Profession

“…In another editorial 12 , Dr. Tait Shanafelt calls efforts to enhance meaning in one's work, the prescription for preventing burnout. Finding meaning is what gives us a sense of professional vitality13 . preserving meaning in one's work as a leader is described by Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronix and a Professor at Harvard Business School, as discovering your true north14 .…”