Twelve tips for developing and maintaining a successful peer mentoring program for junior faculty in academic medicine

Abstract

Effective mentorship is widely believed to be an important factor in career satisfaction and advancement. Adequate mentorship has been linked to perceived institutional support, research productivity, and protects against burnout. Despite these facts, less than half of junior faculty in academic medicine feel as if they have adequate mentorship. Given that the current landscape in academic medicine has a paucity of available mentors, both in rank and representation for true dyadic mentorship, junior faculty clinician educators may need mentorship and paths to sponsorship. The importance of peer networks has become increasingly recognized, and some institutions have begun to use peer mentoring as a means of addressing mentorship and sponsorship needs. This model can potentially circumvent some of the main barriers to mentorship by providing protected time, ameliorating power differentials, creating an environment where members have shared goals, and mitigating the need for senior faculty mentorship. The following are twelve tips to create and maintain a successful peer mentoring group for junior faculty clinician educators in academic medicine which can serve to complement the dyadic mentorship model.

Keywords:

• Peer mentorship
• sponsorship
• academic medicine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Regina A. Jacob

Regina A. Jacob, MD, MSCE, is a general internist and clinician educator at Temple University in Philadelphia. She currently serves as the Medical Director of the internal medicine practice.

Paul N. Williams

Paul N. Williams, MD, is a general internist and clinician educator at Temple University Hospital. He is also the co-host of The Curbsiders, an internal medicine podcast.

Alia Chisty

Alia Chisty, MD, MS, is a general internist and clinician educator at Penn State Health in Hershey, PA, where she currently serves as the Program Director for the internal medicine residency.