Supporting Faculty Development in Hospital Medicine: Design and Implementation of a Personalized Structured Mentoring Program

Abstract

The guidance of a mentor can have a tremendous influence on the careers of academic physicians. The lack of mentorship in the relatively young field of hospital medicine has been documented, but the efficacy of formalized mentorship programs has not been well studied. We implemented and evaluated a structured mentorship program for junior faculty at a large academic medical center. Of the 16 mentees who participated in the mentorship program, 14 (88%) completed preintervention surveys and 10 (63%) completed postintervention surveys. After completing the program, there was a statistically significant improvement in overall satisfaction within 5 specific domains: career planning, professional connectedness, self-reflection, research skills, and mentoring skills. All mentees reported that they would recommend that all hospital medicine faculty participate in similar mentorship programs. In this small, single-center pilot study, we found that the addition of a structured mentorship program based on training sessions that focus on best practices in mentoring was feasible and led to increased satisfaction in certain career domains among early-career hospitalists. Larger prospective studies with a longer follow-up are needed to assess the generalizability and durability of our findings.

Faculty Development for Hospitalists: A Call to Arms

“…We laud the previous efforts in this area and hope that the paper by Cumbler et al encourages and inspires other programs to start or accelerate their hospitalist faculty development efforts. [3][4][5] However, some findings from this study are somewhat perplexing or even a bit discouraging for those who are invested in faculty development in academia. For example, the authors raise the possibility that there may be a disconnect in the minds of early-career hospitalists as it pertains to their thoughts on career success.…”

Early career professionals: A challenging road

“…At the same time, it is important to develop a niche area of expertise to establish oneself as an independent researcher, to apply for grants and to publish. These challenges can be amplified by the limited availability of local mentorship—instrumental in making sound decisions for advanced training and for a focused career program at an early stage—and limited opportunities for training and education. Sufficient financial support for local training or research is often lacking and can be especially limited for fellowships abroad, or for attending international meetings, which provide essential networking opportunities for career advancement .…”

“…Effective mentoring is indispensable, ideally in a dedicated regular fashion . Mentoring promotes work satisfaction and increases the sense of personal accomplishment, while stimulating work projects and grant success rates . Mentors can also play a role of safeguard by recognizing elements or signs of burnout.…”

Assessment of a Faculty and Preceptor Development Intervention to Foster Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence

“…[8][9][10] Mentorship has been an emphasis of faculty development programs in colleges of medicine as well. 11,12 However, in medical schools, growth of faculty self-awareness is also emphasized. 13 Several medical faculty development programs have identified improvements in faculty self-awareness as a program outcome measure.…”