Mentoring for Academic Development
Mentoring for academic development means fostering a dynamic,reciprocal relationship among advanced career and beginning/junior emergency medicine physicians. This relationship is both developmental (personal and professional) and contextual (career and academic culture), focused on promoting the career development of both the mentor and the mentee.
The goal of our program is to allow structured mentorship that fosters equitable career development, growth and satisfaction for our faculty. To this end, it is helpful to periodically review the structure of our current program as well as additional resources that you might find useful.
Mentorship Structure
Primary mentors:
Primary mentors serve as the main source for information on the departmental promotion process, institutional knowledge, advising on individual career development plans as well as advocating for, enhancing networking opportunities, and recognizing the mentee. Our primary mentors are often fellowship directors, Section Chiefs.Frequency of meetings: Meetings should be initiated by the mentee, as the mentorship process is primarily driven by the mentee and requires regular check-ins and accountability. Our minimum requirements for the Section Chiefs to meet with their mentees are as follows:
- Instructor – 2 times per year
- Assistant Professor – 2 times per year
- Associate Professor – 1 time per year
- Professor – As needed
Additional mentor resources:
Most of our faculty welcome having additional mentors within the department without diffusion of responsibility from the Chiefs. In general, secondary mentors may be found from our pool of Associate Professors and Professors . They may also be outsid our department to meet the specific needs for development. Secondary mentors are useful for content expertise, additional advice, or even a sounding board to help you create a career narrative.Access to Vice Chairs:
The Vice Chairs and Chair are readily available for additional guidance regarding the promotion process and career development, and faculty can set up time with them regularly for advice.Accountability:
Meetings with mentors should be documented (see below) and tracked for the benefit of both mentor and mentee. If faculty have trouble accessing their mentor or have conflicts, they should reach out to Dr. Safdar to discuss.
- Annual Faculty Annual Development Professional Questionnaire: This is an annual questionnaire completed by the faculty and their primary mentor end of each academic year. The goal is to ensure provision of high-quality mentorship and sponsorship and communication of faculty goals to their mentor as well as departmental leadership. More information is available here:
- Mentorship form: This is a 5-question form used by the mentors for discussions around career development, mentorship and promotion - all necessary components of a structured mentorship meetings. Mentees are encouraged to to drive this process and use the forms for self-accountability and to develop a specific career development plan. We also encourage you to review the past forms each year to track your goals and promotion process. Please note that the Teams platform will replace the earlier Qualtrics based form.
- Career Development form: Sample career development forms are available under mentorship resources. these forms are meant to guide discussions with your mentor. You can use the goals to create a mentorship circle in conjunction with mentor. Ideally this is kept as a living document that is updated every year.
- Promotion metrics and timeline: 98%of our faculty voiced need for clarity in the metrics for promotion (particularly for non-research tracks). The University has issued new guidelines and metrics for promotion in each track (available under resources). The appointment and promotion process starts with the faculty member.
The Dept. of EM Faculty development series: Based on a recent faculty survey, we have identified several topics aimed to help our faculty of all levels build skills for success in academic medicine. These sessions will be semi-structured to help faculty identify local resources and provide a forum to share experiences.
Faculty development seminars will cover topics of:
- Academic development devoted to promotion and advancement
- Education series devoted to teaching and learner skills
- Research in Progress meetings devoted to research skills
Junior Faculty Development
Midcareer and Senior Faculty Development
As our department has grown, our faculty development needs have evolved, necessitating a two-tiered faculty development program. We are pleased to announce a series of leadership training workshops offered biannually that are focused on the needs for DEM midcareer/senior faculty. The topics are based on faculty feedback.
In addition, we have introduced executive coaching as an additional resource for our midcareer/senior faculty to better prepare them for periods of transition, new roles or to re-engage in their work. For this, we have compiled a list of executive coaches for the DEM as a resource. This list is curated based on reviews of experience with working with academic physicians and is pooled from recommendations from peers in the department, as well as local experts.
Executive coaching can be a boost to both your performance and job satisfaction. However, it is not for everyone and needs one to be in the right frame of mind and requires commitment of your time to be useful. Additional resources are available for those contemplating executive coaching.