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Paul Greig: Mentoring the Mentors

Paul Greig

Paul Greig

Paul Greig is directing the Mentorship Program of the Department of Surgery. This is a component of the Faculty Development Pillar of the Department’s Five Year Strategic Plan. Department of Surgery Strategic Plan Implementation Coordinator Joanna Giddens is implementing the strategic plan and Ori Rotstein is directing this pillar. Ori’s view is that academic surgeons need mentoring early in their careers, a view that is well supported in the literature. In a systematic review of 39 studies, Sambunjak et al. found that mentoring had an important influence on personal development, career guidance, career choice, and research productivity, including publication and grant success (JAMA 2006;296:1103-15). Faculty members with a mentor had more grants as PI, more publications in peer reviewed journals, and reported greater career satisfaction. Jackson et al. found that “lack of a mentor” was cited as the 1st or 2nd most important factor hindering academic progress by 95% of participants (Acad Med. 2003;78:328-334.). In their mid-career, surgeons can benefit from coaching, as described so well by Atul Gawande in his article Personal Best (1) (http://www.newyorker.com/ magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best). Later in their careers, surgeons often need advice about transition into their “next career” or retirement.

Paul has read extensively about the mentoring process and its value to new Faculty. He notes that the Department of Medicine’s website is very well developed on mentoring. “A little more structure and Departmental assistance to our Mentors and Mentees would facilitate further success of our mentorship program and more importantly the academic success of our newly recruited Faculty.” As a practical approach, he has reviewed all the Memoranda of Agreement written in the past 3 years for the 36 new members of the faculty from 2011 to the present. The template of the MOA specifies the identification of a mentor. However, of the 36, only 22 had mentors, and 36% or 14 did not.

His plan is to create a program that

1. Identifies a Mentor Leader or “Champion” in each Division

2. Identify those new faculty without Mentors and working with the Divisional leads, identify an appropriate Mentor

3. Provide Mentor & Mentee education/training at the Centre for Faculty Development through separate workshops for mentors and mentees

4. Develop the metrics to determine the effectiveness of the Mentor-mentee relationships and provide the opportunity for change

To date, Paul has met with and presented the Mentorship program to each of the divisions at their monthly meetings, and requested the identification of the division’s “Mentor Champion”. Joanna Giddens has contacted all our newly recruited Faculty, and confirmed their current Mentors. The next steps are: identification of Mentors for those without and invite all to the workshops for mentors and mentees. Through the Center for Faculty Development, they are developing ½ day seminar/workshops for mentors and a similar one for mentees to be held in February and March.

The second component of the plan is evaluation of the program. The outcomes will range from how many meetings occurred to how many grants and publications, how many family problems were encountered, and was the relationship perceived as being effective? Paul proposes that a checklist-type of tool might be implemented that mentors can use at each meeting to chart progress. He plans to develop such a tool in conjunction with the Divisional Champions’ input. The plan is for mentors to know each other and to stimulate each other in their learning and developing their role.

“Clinical success is easy, academic success is not”, says Paul, who is working with the full time faculty first and will later expand the program to include part-time faculty. Jim Rutka initiated this program; he will be able by next September to show the new faculty in his opening Grand Rounds and identify their mentors, an acknowledgement of the importance of the role and the process of mentorship. It is anticipated that Mentors will be rewarded and a Mentor of the Year will be named.

There is an active mentorship focus in the Center for Faculty Development at St. Michael’s Hospital. Karen Lesley is a well-informed leader in this area. Paul is optimistic about the Mentorship Program, because the structure is well defined, accountability will be emphasized, and there will be metrics of success. There will be reporting back to the Department from the mentors and from the Divisional Coordinators.

Mentor is the mythical Greek father of mentoring programs, who was responsible for mentoring Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, while Odysseus was off fighting the Trojan Wars for ten years (see Editor’s Column for an evaluation of his performance).


REFERENCES

1. Gawande, A. Personal Best, The New Yorker, October 3, 2011 Issue




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