To assess mentorship experiences among the faculty of a large academic department of medicine and to examine how those experiences relate to academic advancement and job satisfaction.
Among faculty ...members in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine, we assessed personal and professional characteristics as well as job satisfaction and examined their relationship with two mentorship dimensions: (1) currently have a mentor and (2) role as a mentor. We also developed a mentorship quality score and examined the relationship of each mentorship variable to academic advancement and job satisfaction.
553/988 (56.0%) of eligible participants responded. 64.9% reported currently having a mentor, of whom 21.3% provided their mentor a low quality score; 66.6% reported serving as a mentor to others. Faculty with a current mentor had a 3.50-fold increased odds of serving as a mentor to others (OR 3.50, 95% CI 1.84-6.67, p < 0.001). Faculty who reported their mentorship as high quality had a decreased likelihood of being stalled in rank (OR 0.28, 95% CI: 0.10-0.78, p = 0.02) and an increased likelihood of high job satisfaction (OR 3.91, 95% CI 1.77-8.63, p < 0.001) compared with those who reported their mentorship of low quality; further, having a low mentorship score had a similar relationship to job satisfaction as not having a mentor.
A majority of faculty survey respondents had mentorship, though not all of it of high caliber. Because quality mentorship significantly and substantially impacts both academic progress and job satisfaction, efforts devoted to improve the adoption and the quality of mentorship should be prioritized.
Purpose
This article aims to contribute to a clearer understanding of the importance of mentor preparation and provide recommendations for effective mentor preparation programmes based on the ...literature.
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative review of a range of literature focussing on the importance and characteristics of effective mentor practice and preparation.
Findings
Many mentors working in educational contexts lack adequate preparation, and a shift in mentoring practice from a mentor as expert approach, which mentors are likely revert to without training, to a more collaborative relationship in line with educative mentoring is recommended. Relationship building, working collaboratively and encouraging critical reflection are essential mentoring capabilities, and can be supported by participation in effective mentoring preparation programmes. Characteristics of these programmes include: providing time for mentors to reflect on their personal capabilities and attitudes; strengthening their knowledge about mentoring and learning a range of approaches and tools.
Practical implications
Implications for mentor preparation include consideration of curricula that focus on the nature of effective mentoring relationships, provision of effective observation-based feedback and the facilitation of critical reflection. Blended learning models appear to have potential and organisational leaders need to recognise and value mentoring to ensure that it is prioritised.
Originality/value
This article makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the nature of effective mentor preparation programmes.
Aims
Mentoring has been used extensively in the business world to enhance performance and maximise potential. Despite this, there is currently a paucity of literature describing mentoring for ...surgical trainees. This study examined the current extent of mentoring and investigated future needs to support this.
Methods
An electronic, 47-item, self-administered questionnaire survey was distributed via national and regional surgical mailing lists and websites through the Association of Surgeons in Training and Specialty Associations in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Results
Overall, 565 fully completed responses were received from trainees in all specialties, grades and training regions. A total of 48.7 % of respondents reported that they have a surgical mentor, with no significant gender difference (
p
= 0.65). Of respondents, 52.5 % considered their educational supervisor and 45.5 % their current consultant as mentors. Modal duration of mentoring relationships was 1–2 years (24.4 %). A total of 90.2 % of mentors were in the same specialty, 60.7 % in the same hospital, and 88.7 % in the same training region. Mentors covered clinical and professional matters (99.3 %) versus pastoral and non-clinical matters (41.1 %). Mentoring was commonly face to face or via email and not documented (64.7 %). Of the 51.3 % without a mentor, 89.7 % would like a clinical mentor and 51.0 % a pastoral mentor (
p
< 0.001). Priority mentoring areas included career progression (94.9 %), research (75.2 %), clinical skills (66.9 %) and clinical confidence (58.4 %). A total of 94.3 % would be willing to act as a peer mentor. Only 8.7 % had received mentoring training; 83 % wish to undertake this.
Conclusions
Less than half of surgical trainees identified a mentor. The majority want mentoring on professional topics during their training and would additionally be willing to peer-mentor colleagues, although few have received training for this. Despite an identified need, there is currently no structure for organising this and little national provision for mentoring.
Mentoriranje tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja, poglavito tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja temeljenog na kompetencijama osnova je intelektualnog i profesionalnog razvoja specijalizanta. ...Specijalizanti očekuju od svojih mentora oštroumno vođenje tijekom razvoja vlastite karijere temeljeno na procjeni vještina i stavova. Mentoriranje tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja treba pomoći specijalizanima da dosegnu svoj puni potencijal i dobro mentorstvo preduvjet je uspjehu tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja. Najkorisniji oblik mentorstva tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja svakako je pozitivan odnos mentora i specijalizanta, što uvijek rezultira povjerenjem i poticajnim okruženjem za učenje. Odnos mentora i specijalizanta definiran je kao dinamički obostrani odnos između iskusnog medicinskog profesionalca (mentor) i početnika (specijalizanta) s ciljem promocije i razvoja obaju dionika. Odnos mentora i specijalizanta dinamičan je i višeznačan, najbolje se može opisati kao simbiotski odnos u kojem oba dionika imaju odgovornosti i na dobitku su ukoliko je taj odnos optimalan. Mentor svakako treba tijekom mentoriranja, osim učinkovitosti, postići i kolegijalan i prijateljski odnos. Optimalno okruženje potiče učenje i postizanje optimalnih ishoda tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja. Svaki specijalizant priželjkuje mentora „otvorenih vrata“ koji osigurava odgovor na sve nedoumice i pitanja koja se pojave tijekom specijalističkog usavršavanja.
Mentorship during specialty training, mainly during competency-based specialty training is fundamental to the intellectual and professional growth of the mente and mentees often look for astute guidance regarding career pathway from their mentors, based on an assessment of their skills and attitude. Mentoring is a time-proven strategy that can help young physicians to achieve their fullest potential and good mentorship is a prerequisite for success in any medical specialty. The most beneficial forms of mentoring have been positive relationships with attending physicians that resulted in trustworthy, nurturing environments that have facilitated learning. A mentor–mentee relationship is defined as a dynamic reciprocal relationship environment between an advanced career incumbent (mentor) and a beginner (mente), aimed at promoting the development of both. The relationship mentor-mente is a dynamic, multifaceted relationship, can best be described as a symbiotic relationship, wherein both parties have responsibilities and stand to gain if the relationship functions optimally. Mentor should use a way to train mentee that not only been effective but very friendly and collegial. This easy-going environment fosters learning and ensures optimal performance. Every mentee desires a mentor that maintains an “open-door policy” to address concerns and questions that arise during the course of training.
Research shows that trained mentors achieve better results than untrained ones. Their training should particularly address their expectations for their future mentoring. Our study involved 190 ...preservice teachers, potential mentors of ongoing school mentoring for primary and secondary school students of all grades. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2-x-2 between-subjects design of mentoring type (traditional mentoring versus e-mentoring) and mentoring context (non-pandemic versus COVID-19 pandemic). Participants assessed mentoring conducted under these four conditions in terms of its appropriateness for achieving four mentoring program targets: learning, key skills, social targets, and problem coping. Participants were also asked to assess the resources available to achieve each program target. Overall, the potential mentors considered the various conditions to be suitable for achieving the four program targets. They were particularly favorable in their assessment of the possibility for the realization of learning targets. Likewise, they assumed that sufficient resources were available to achieve the targets. However, a repeated-measures MANOVA showed that the potential mentors considered more ambitious targets to be possible in traditional mentoring than in e-mentoring and normal (i.e., pre-pandemic) contextual conditions than during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, they estimated the resources available to achieve the targets to be about the same in the four conditions. This indicates a decoupling of mentoring targets from the consideration of the resources needed to achieve them. This assumption was confirmed in correlation analyses and has implications for mentor training.
For prospective teachers, the school-based learning component of their teacher education programme is a crucial, and often demanding, part of becoming a teacher. During this time, mentor-teachers ...work in close collaboration with student teachers, who are often teaching in an actual school setting for the first time. As the relationship between mentor-teacher and student teacher is pivotal to the quality of work-based learning and to supporting the professional development of prospective teachers, more needs to be understood about this complex dynamic.
Our study aimed to contribute to this area by investigating, from the viewpoint of mentor-teachers, how student teachers respond to the demands of work-based learning. It had a particular focus on mentor-teachers' perceptions of student teachers' emotional challenges associated with teaching and engagement.
Data consisted of interviews with 22 experienced mentor -teachers from five different municipalities. Data were analysed qualitatively, using tools aligned with a constructivist grounded theory approach.
Describing teaching as a complex practice, the mentor-teachers regarded proactive engagement in developing professionalism, and ability to make appropriately differentiated adjustments to their teaching as important criteria in their evaluation of student teacher progression. The mentor-teachers described student teachers' emotional challenges in relation to these and discussed support strategies.
The findings of the study highlight the complex dynamic of work-based learning and the key role that mentor-teachers can play in supporting the development of prospective teachers entering the profession, including the navigation of emotionally challenging situations.
Mentoring of pre-service teachers in their school practicum is vital to integrating different parts of the educational programmes and supporting the pre-service teachers to become educational ...professionals, but for mentors in schools this task often comes on top of the other requirements they face as teachers. In this study, we present findings from a self-report survey completed by 295 mentors in two teacher education institutions in Norway. Using structural equation modelling of cross-sectional survey data, the study explores predictions of the effort mentors put into their work in supporting the development of pre-service teachers. The findings indicate that affective commitment predicts mentor's efforts in mentoring and that professional development of mentors through programs designed to develop a professional identity as mentors could enhance their feeling of being teacher educators, and thereby having the willingness to put effort into their jobs as mentors.
Formal mentoring programs are becoming more popular as organizations attempt to reap the benefits that have long been associated with informal mentoring. The present study adds to the small number of ...mentor-centric studies and offers a unique longitudinal examination of formal mentoring programs. Findings suggest that as formal mentoring relationships develop over time, mentors begin to use their time more efficiently and the negative effects of cross-gender differences dissipate. Furthermore, whereas mentor reports of psychosocial support and role modeling appear to relate to mentor program satisfaction and protégé reports of mentor effectiveness, reports of vocational support appear to have no impact on these variables. Study limitations are discussed, and implications for future research and for practice are suggested.
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