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
. 2023 Jan 1;43(1):42-51.
doi: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000459. Epub 2022 Oct 5.

A Scoping Review of Health Care Faculty Mentorship Programs in Academia: Implications for Program Design, Implementation, and Outcome Evaluation

Gerald E Crites  1 , Wendy L Ward, Penny Archuleta, Alice Fornari, Sarah E M Hill, Lauren M Westervelt, Nancy Raymond
Affiliations

A Scoping Review of Health Care Faculty Mentorship Programs in Academia: Implications for Program Design, Implementation, and Outcome Evaluation

Gerald E Crites et al. J Contin Educ Health Prof. .

Abstract

Introduction: Formal mentoring programs have direct benefits for academic health care institutions, but it is unclear whether program designs use recommended components and whether outcomes are being captured and evaluated appropriately. The goal of this scoping review is to address these questions.

Methods: We completed a literature review using a comprehensive search in SCOPUS and PubMed (1998-2019), a direct solicitation for unpublished programs, and hand-searched key references, while targeting mentor programs in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. After three rounds of screening, team members independently reviewed and extracted assigned articles for 40 design data items into a comprehensive database.

Results: Fifty-eight distinct mentoring programs were represented in the data set. The team members clarified specific mentor roles to assist the analysis. The analysis identified mentoring program characteristics that were properly implemented, including identifying program goals, specifying the target learners, and performing a needs assessment. The analysis also identified areas for improvement, including consistent use of models/frameworks for program design, implementation of mentor preparation, consistent reporting of objective outcomes and career satisfaction outcomes, engagement of program evaluation methods, increasing frequency of reports as programs as they mature, addressing the needs of specific faculty groups (eg, women and minority faculty), and providing analyses of program cost-effectiveness in relation to resource allocation (return on investment).

Conclusion: The review found that several mentor program design, implementation, outcome, and evaluation components are poorly aligned with recommendations, and content for URM and women faculty members is underrepresented. The review should provide academic leadership information to improve these discrepancies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Sambunjak D, Straus SE, Marusić A. Mentoring in academic medicine: a systematic review. JAMA. 2006;296:1103–1115.
    1. Cranmer JM, Scurlock AM, Hale RB, et al. An adaptable pediatrics faculty mentoring model. Pediatrics. 2018;141:e20173202.
    1. Sheridan J, Savoy JN, Kaatz A, et al. Write more articles, get more grants: the impact of department climate on faculty research productivity. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2017;26:587–596.
    1. Menzin AW, Kline M, George C, et al. Toward the quadruple aim: impact of a humanistic mentoring program to reduce burnout and foster resilience. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2020;4:499–505.
    1. Perumalswami CR, Takenoshita S, Tanabe A, et al. Workplace resources, mentorship, and burnout in early career physician-scientists: a cross sectional study in Japan. BMC Med Educ. 2020;20:1–10.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources