•A successful career in pathology involves a combination of serendipity (AKA: random walk), and excellent mentorship.•Being a good pathologist requires excellent diagnostic skills, a curious mind, ...and being a good educator.•We as pathologists must insist on a central role in educating medical students, and advocating for the importance of a solid foundation in pathology as a means to practice good medicine.
IntroductionWhile residents must meet standardized educational milestones to graduate, individualized mentorship and guidance can help them achieve personal and career goals. A novel mentor, advisor, ...and coach (MAC) program was created for residents of the Yale University Traditional Internal Medicine Residency Program to help them attain these goals. MethodsInternal medicine faculty were recruited into the MAC program and matched with residents, with each faculty paired with one to three mentees. A structured roadmap was used to guide program content (including topics of mentoring, advising, and coaching), and meetings were individualized to cater to the needs of residents. During the 2017-2018 academic year, online surveys and focus groups were used to obtain feedback from participants. ResultsSurvey responses were obtained from 50 of the 116 residents (43%) and 21 of the 49 MAC faculty (43%). Thirteen residents and five MAC faculty participated in in-person focus groups. Most participants (92% of interns, 83% of residents, and 95% of MAC faculty) felt the program was beneficial and should continue. Individualized relationships and meeting content were key to the program's success. Areas for improvement included clarification of the program's purpose and each party's responsibilities in scheduling meetings. MAC faculty also requested faculty development tools to help them meet expectations of being a MAC. DiscussionThe MAC program provided a successful avenue for mentorship and guidance for residents. Central themes to enhance participants' experience were individualization and flexibility, mutual agreement of the ground rules, and enhanced communication from program leadership.
We aimed to describe pediatric program directors’ perceptions of existing mentorship programs in pediatric residencies, to assess whether characteristics used for mentor-mentee assignments impact ...mentoring outcomes, and to identify barriers to success in mentorship programs.
With the support of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD) Research Task Force, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study of all associate pediatric program directors in the United States in March 2022.
Nearly half (82 of 197, 41.6%) of programs responded. Most (87.8%) report having a formal mentoring program. Half of programs (51.4%) do not provide training to residents on how to be a mentee, and only slightly more than half (62.5%) provide training to faculty mentors. Most programs (80.6%) do not provide protected time for faculty mentors. There were no meaningful associations with characteristics used for mentorship matches and perceived successful mentorship. Top barriers from the program leadership perspective included faculty and residents lacking time, residents lacking skills to be proactive mentees, and inadequate funding.
While a majority of programs have formal mentorship programs, many do not provide training to mentors or mentees. Barriers to mentorship include a lack of funding and time. National organizations, such as APPD and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, have an opportunity to provide guidance and support for protected time, funding, and training for mentors and mentees.
Background The American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Mentoring Interest Group (AMIGO) is an inter-institutional mentorship program ...launched to target mentorship gaps within pediatric rheumatology. Initial program evaluation indicated increased mentorship access. Given the small size of the pediatric rheumatology workforce, maintaining a consistent supply of mentors was a potential threat to the longevity of the network. Our aims were to: (i) describe the sustainability of AMIGO over the period 2011-2018, (ii) highlight ongoing benefits to participants, and (iii) describe challenges in the maintenance of a mentorship network. Methods A mixed-methods approach centered on a quality improvement framework was used to report on process and outcomes measures associated with AMIGO annual cycles. Results US and Canada Pediatric rheumatology workforce surveys identified 504 possible participants during the time period. As of fall 2018, 331 unique individuals had participated in AMIGO as a mentee, mentor or both for a program response rate of 66% (331/504). Survey of mentees indicated high satisfaction with impact on general career development, research/scholarship and work-life balance. Mentors indicated increased sense of connection to the community and satisfaction with helping mentees despite limited perceived benefit to their academic portfolios. Based on AMIGO's success, a counterpart program for adult rheumatology, Creating Adult Rheumatology Mentorship in Academia (CARMA), was launched in 2018. Conclusions Despite the challenges of a limited workforce, AMIGO continues to provide consistent access to mentorship opportunities for the pediatric rheumatology community. This experience can inform approaches to mentorship gaps in other academic subspecialties. Keywords: Mentorship, Workforce, Educational quality improvement
As burnout is an issue facing our profession, developing and nurturing a greater purpose which promotes a sense of gratitude and purpose in medicine is important for physician wellness and ...resilience. We often develop our sense of purpose through the internalization of values and ideas of people we have met in life. Mentors play an important role in helping us realize and develop our skills and talents, which may not have been readily apparent to us.
In this essay, I, as a physician pursuing dermatology, describe my experiences and what I’ve learned from inspirational teachers and mentors in my education and training that helped me realize the gifts and talents I have to offer the world as a dermatologist. Then, my mentors describe how a specific experience or hobby has helped them develop a greater sense of purpose and gratitude in their careers. These are a few of the infinite possibilities which can nurture a sense of gratitude and purpose in our lives, and our goal is for others to reflect on and to expand on these possibilities and share them with colleagues.
Until 1962, Canada was legally a Eurocentric racial state. After abandoning state-sanctioned racism in 1967, politicians soon realized that institutional entrenchment of racism would need more than ...laws-based anti-racism. Today, institutional racism, however, remains entrenched in Canadian institutions despite various mitigating processes by all levels of governments since the 1970s. In this qualitative paper, we analyze the marginalizing effects of system anti-Black racism and the dissonances between strategies and attitudes of system professionals and African-Canadian grassroots youth workers. From our findings, we conclude that effective youth workers prioritize behavior-in-time (experience-based) over behavior-in-discourse (text-based) in service provision.
The following is a summary of the fourth Ein Panel Debate Session from the 50th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Pediatric Surgeons (CAPS) held in Toronto, ON, from September 26–29, ...2018. The session focused on surgeon well-being at different stages of career: role of mentorship at the start of career, second victim syndrome, litigation stress syndrome, and retirement. Using Maslach Burnout Inventory Survey, CAPS members were presented their wellness scores as a group compared to other health care providers. The power of surgical culture in influencing decision making and judgment was explored. A culture shift toward vulnerability and transparency is possible and more suitable to expert practice and surgeon wellness.
The postdoctoral community is an essential component of the academic and scientific workforce, but a lack of data about this community has made it difficult to develop policies to address concerns ...about salaries, working conditions, diversity and career development, and to evaluate the impact of existing policies. Here we present comprehensive survey results from 7,603 postdocs based at 351 US academic and non-academic (e.g. hospital, industry and government lab) institutions in 2016. In addition to demographic and salary information, we present multivariate analyses on factors influencing postdoc career plans and satisfaction with mentorship. We further analyze gender dynamics and expose wage disparities. Academic research positions remain the predominant career choice, although women and US citizens are less likely than their male and non-US citizen counterparts to choose academic research positions. Receiving mentorship training has a significant positive effect on postdoc satisfaction with mentorship. Quality of and satisfaction with postdoc mentorship also appear to heavily influence career choice.
INTRODUCTIONMentorship provides general career guidance in academic medicine. Sponsorship advocates for a sponsee by endorsing this person for a position or role. Sponsorship is less common and ...originates from the corporate world. The objective was to evaluate current mentorship and sponsorship practices in academic medicine in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland. The aim was to assess to which degree sponsorship is implemented in academic medicine in Switzerland. METHODSCross-sectional survey of current and alumni participants of career development programs at two Medical Faculties of Swiss universities. Both programs build on institutionalized mentoring. The anonymous electronic survey was based on a literature review with non-validated questions about mentorship and sponsorship. RESULTSThe overall survey response rate was 37.6% (38/101). The majority of respondents was female (31/38; 81.6%) and between 30 and 40 years of age (22/38; 57.9%). Almost all participants had at least one mentor (37/38; 97.4%), and mentoring addressed all or most (21/38; 55.3%) of the relevant topics regarding academic career development. More than one third of the respondents (13/38; 34.2%) did not have a sponsor, 4/38 (10.5%) were unsure whether they had a sponsor, and 5/38 (13.2%) had not yet heard about sponsorship. DISCUSSIONIn Switzerland, mentorship is well-established in academic medicine while awareness for the benefits of sponsorship needs to be fostered in order to further advance academic careers in medicine. CONCLUSIONMentoring and sponsoring may be considered key instruments for empowerment of junior faculty/physician scientists to become leaders in the field of academic medicine.
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