Mentoring Women Psychiatry Residents: Implications for Academic Leaders and Educators

Abstract

"I don't know how you do it all?!" This is an all too familiar question I get as a female psychiatry resident and mother of two small children. When I am asked this question, I always think that I have only done what most other women in my training program have done and that I am not unique. Yet, there is something very challenging about balancing the demands of so many different roles during training. In answering this question, I realize that I have benefitted greatly from watching my female mentors balance these multiple roles themselves, and it is mentoring that has most facilitated my academic and personal successes. However, I did not find my mentors until later in my residency training. In the third year, I met my first mentor who showed me that it was possible to publish scholarly work, be an effective clinician, and raise a family. In other words, she offered potential "solutions" to the work-life balance conundrum. My experience with mentoring has been so significant that it has inspired me to learn more about how to facilitate this important relationship for other female trainees in psychiatry.As someone who is embarking on a career as a junior faculty member at an academic institution, it is disheartening to see the Association of American Medical Colleges' statistics showing that despite many years of gender parity in medical school enrolment (47.1 % of medical school students were female vs. 52.9 % male in 2012), only 19 % of full professors are female [1]. A recent qualitative study of women who left academic institutions confirmed that the difficulty with work-life balance was a factor in the decision to leave [2].Since taking on the roles of both mother and resident, I have struggled with my own feelings of frustration over worklife balance pressures. The inevitable "trade-offs" often mean that I will miss out on something, such as last year when I could not attend a conference because I did not want to travel on a long flight with an infant and this year when I missed seeing my son take his first steps while I was on call.Bogan and Safer discussed the work-life balance issues specific to women psychiatry trainees in a special issue of Academic Psychiatry devoted to women's professional development and offer reasons why these figure so prominently in a trainee's life. During residency, many women choose to have children, and work-family balance becomes especially salient. A female resident may have less flexibility to pursue scholarly activities outside of the training curriculum, activities that are not only enriching but also required for a position at an academic center. Many residents lack the financial resources to obtain outside help with childcare and other household needs and may therefore be required to devote more time to domestic activities after working hours [3]. More than 10 years after this special edition of Academic Psychiatry, these same challenges remain for women trainees, and my own experiences reflect this ongoing struggle.I feel that I am proof that mentorship represents o...

Mentorship: A Return to Basics

“…With a focus on building and sustaining diversity within the faculty workforce, Ford [5] powerfully describes, from a personal perspective, the value of mentorship for women in academic psychiatry. Ford includes practical information about the how and when and the nuts and bolts of mentorship.…”