Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jun;90(6):819-26.
doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000705.

A facilitated peer mentoring program for junior faculty to promote professional development and peer networking

Geoffrey M Fleming  1 , Jill H Simmons, Meng Xu, Sabina B Gesell, Rebekah F Brown, William B Cutrer, Joseph Gigante, William O Cooper
Affiliations

A facilitated peer mentoring program for junior faculty to promote professional development and peer networking

Geoffrey M Fleming et al. Acad Med. 2015 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the design, implementation, and efficacy of a faculty development program in a cohort of early career junior faculty.

Method: Interested junior faculty members were divided into interdisciplinary small groups led by senior faculty facilitators. The groups met monthly for 1.5 hours to review a modular curriculum from 2011 to 2013. Using a survey at two time points (September 2011 and 2013) and an interim program evaluation, the authors collected data on participants' demographics, faculty interconnectedness, and self-reported knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) in the domains of professional development and scholarship, including the ability to write career goals and align activities with those goals.

Results: A total of 104 junior faculty participated in the program. They demonstrated changes in self-reported KSA in the domains of professional development (P = .013, P = .001) and scholarship (P = .038, P = .015) with an increase in ability to write career goals (P < .001), ability to align activities with those goals (P < .001), and number of and amount of time spent pursuing activities related to those goals (P = .022). These changes were more significant among female faculty and were not affected by academic rank or time since last training. Interconnectedness among faculty increased during the period of study-the number of nodes and ties between nodes within the network increased.

Conclusions: This facilitated peer mentoring program for junior faculty was effective in improving the KSA necessary to promote early career advancement and peer networking, especially for women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics peer mentoring program timeline, 2011–2013, and number of participants at enrollment and at two survey time points.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Self-reported interconnectedness of junior faculty participants in a peer mentoring program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics at Survey-1 (Panel A) and Survey-2 (Panel B) time points by academic rank. Individual faculty members are depicted as squares with arrows demonstrating incoming and outgoing connections to other faculty members.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Balon R, Coverdale J, Roberts LW. Academic mission revisited: Emerging priority of faculty development. Acad Psychiatry. 2013;37:69–71. - PubMed
    1. Cooper WO, Gitlin JD. Commentary: Charting a course for success: Excellence in clinical care and discovery in academic departments. Acad Med. 2011;86:544–545. - PubMed
    1. Whitcomb ME. The future of academic medicine: Career development of junior faculty. Acad Med. 2004;79:195–196. - PubMed
    1. Thorndyke LE, Gusic ME, George JH, Quillen DA, Milner RJ. Empowering junior faculty: Penn State’s faculty development and mentoring program. Acad Med. 2006;81:668–673. - PubMed
    1. Kashiwagi DT, Varkey P, Cook DA. Mentoring programs for physicians in academic medicine: A systematic review. Acad Med. 2013;88:1029–1037. - PubMed

Publication types