In a study first published online by Clinical and Translational Science, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) find that the University’s Mentor Development Program for clinical and translational science faculty provides a range of benefits for participants.
The authors of the study, A Mentor Development Program for Clinical Translational Science Faculty Leads to Sustained, Improved Confidence in Mentoring Skills, note that mentorship is crucial for academic productivity and advancement for clinical and translational science faculty. However, little is known about the long-term effects of mentor training programs.
UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) launched the Mentor Development Program (MDP) in 2007. This report focuses on an evaluation of the first three cohorts of graduates from the program, two-thirds of whom report that they often apply knowledge, attitudes, or skills obtained in the MDP to their mentoring. Nearly all graduates (97%) considered being a mentor important to their career satisfaction. Graduates were also asked about the MDP's impact on specific mentoring skills; 95% agreed that the MDP helped them to become a better mentor and to focus their mentoring goals.
The authors also describe a number of new initiatives to support mentoring at UCSF that have evolved from CTSI’s MDP.
"We found that the MDP had a long-term positive impact on improving the mentoring skills of graduates, and has helped to support a culture of mentorship at UCSF," said, Mitch Feldman, MD, MPhil, director of UCSF's Faculty Mentoring program and one of the study authors.
Three of Feldman's co-authors are Mentor Development Program Graduates: Jody E. Steinauer, MD; Mandana Khalili, MD; and Laurence Huang, MD.
The Faculty Mentoring Program is part of CTSI's Career Development program, which provides resources to enable greater diversity at UCSF, to support mentorship, and to improve the recruitment and retention of under-represented clinical and translational researchers.
CTSI is a member of the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards network. Under the banner of Accelerating Research to Improve Health, it provides a wide range of services for researchers, and promotes online collaboration and networking tools such as UCSF Profiles.