Faculty Mentoring Programs: Updates from the Field

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Faculty Mentoring Programs Updates from the Field

• Jeffrey Morzinski PhD, MSW
• Dept of Family Community Medicine

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Problems in Academic Health Sciences / Higher
Education

• Instability
• Uncertainty
• Leadership gaps
• Poor morale
• Missed opportunities
• Isolation
• Unfulfilled careers

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Mentoring Hope Challenge

• Optimism / opportunity in mentoring / other forms
  of faculty development
• Challenges include Cultural fit, program design,
  cost, evaluation
• Greatness is not where we stand, but in what
  direction we are moving. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Session Objectives

1. Describe five stages of mentoring program
   development
2. List and discuss several lessons from the
   field, based on experiences gained during a
   long-standing mentor program
3. Appreciate importance of a colleague network
   approach to optimize faculty development
4. Evaluate an emerging, four level categorization
   for mentoring programs
5. Discuss any all mentoring program questions

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Session Activities

• Introduction
• Describe five stages of our mentoring program
• Answer your questions (at three specific
  transitions / others as needed)
• Report findings of a study on Fac Dev features
  that advance mentoring
• Review lessons from the field
• Integrate discuss your plans for mentoring
  practice

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Speakers Interest and Setting

• Biology Social Welfare Admin Leader
• Rural Community Health Faculty Dev Mentoring,
  Evaluation Leadership
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• Where we are
• What we do

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Mentoring Overview

• Odysseus from Homers Odyssey
• Recruited Mentor to guide Telemachus
• Athene sometimes speaks through Mentor
• Developmental relationship / transitions
• A Learning relationship aimed at helping the
  mentee progress toward mutually defined goals
• Risks
• Exploitation, careerism, favoritism
• Benefits
• Advancement, learning, succession planning,
  vitality, networking

Zachary L Creating a Mentoring Culture
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Why Structured Mentoring?

• Do mentors / proteges find each other?
• Not frequent / not at right time
• When it do - within social / cultural strata
• Structured mentoring defined
• A structure and series of processes designed to
  create effective mentoring relationships, guide
  the desired change of those involved, and
  evaluate the results for the protégé, the mentor
  and the organization. -- Murray Owen

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Structured / Assigned Mentor Programs

• Comparable outcomes as with non-assigned
  mentoring
• Research variables to look for
• Individual characteristics training
• Context (e.g., leader support, other Fac Dev)
• How matching occurs
• Objectives, monitoring summative eval

Chao, Walz Gardner. Formal and informal
mentorships
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Published Mentor Program Outcomes (N18)
Morzinski Fisher, Eval Practice
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Myths of Mentoring

1. Cant be effective if matched by a 3rd party
2. Personalities must match
3. Gender-ethnic-discipline must match
4. Frequent in-person meetings
5. Just right timing
6. De-emphasize other relationships
7. Protégé will have less work to do

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Why Mentoring Faculty Development

• Isolation among junior faculty
• Senior faculty - search for academic vitality
• Rapid expansion and change in many fields
  (including my field in academic medicine)
• Evidence that mentoring works

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Integrated with Fac Dev MCWs Five-stage
mentoring Program

1. Organizational readiness
2. Visibility and recruitment
3. Matching and orientation
4. Ongoing seminars, support structure
5. Evaluation

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Program Stages

• 1. Organizational readiness
• Determine needs and interests
• Gather input from leaders Chair
• Secure commitment of resources
• Publicize goals
• In our program, trainee / jr faculty goals are
• Understand values, norms and expectations of
  academic medicine
• Develop skills to proactively manage career
• Develop / maintain a productive colleague network

Bland et al, Successful Faculty
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Program Stages (cont)

• 2. Visibility and recruitment
• Mentoring as part of the culture
• Clarify purpose of two-year program
• Confirm chair recommendations for mentors
• Promote a norm of participation
• Short bridge approach to recruiting

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Program Stages (cont)

• 3. Matching and orientation
• Collect distribute faculty biosketches
• For any reason - is there anyone you could not
  work with?
• Mentor approves match / gets 30 minute
  orientation
• Inspirational reception
• Mentor makes first 3-5 contacts

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Program Stages (cont)

• 4. Ongoing seminars, structure support
• Blend of group / individual activities
• Recommend a minimum of 2 contacts / month
• Coordinator reminds and monitors
• Keep up contactsmeet at naturally-occurring
  events

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Program Stages (cont)

• 5. Evaluation Reporting
• Contact frequency and content
• Social activities count
• Public recognition at program end
• Gather data to improve program and judge impact
• Report results at appropriate venues

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Internal Summary 1

• Reviewed mentor background myths
• Presented mentorings evolution to structured
  programs
• Detailed 5 development stages that both guided
  emerged from our program experience

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Transition / Discussion

• Mentoring Myths, Program Stages Features
• Q A
• Chat Have you been matched in a mentoring
  program? Were you a mentor a protégé?
• If you have been matched, name one factor that
  either helped the programs effectiveness, or was
  a barrier to its overall effectiveness.

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Mentoring Faculty Socialization at Other Schools

• Mentoring, or mentoring plus?
• Inspired by research in business / management
• The popular press has done a disservice by
  implying that the key to career success is
  finding a mentor. This is an oversimplification
  of a complex web of work relationships that could
  be made available to individuals in
  organizational settings
• -- K Kram

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Colleagues in Academic Careers

• Why Study / Foster Colleagues?
• Individual benefits
• Fac who often utilize Cs in res 4 x pubs
• Increased creativity, happiness
• Increased retention
• Group benefits
• Recruiting
• Succession planning
• If you were allowed only one line of inquiry to
  predict a faculty members future success

Hitchcock et al, Acad Med
Jones et al. J of Dental Ed
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Colleague Relationships Fac Dev

• Instructional features of Fac Dev may be
  associated with CR gains
• Because CRs are valued, we wondered if / how
  professional training helps to develop mentors
  and other CRs?
• No one had asked learners to describe training
  experiences that influenced CR development
• No studies of a national sample of Fac Dev

Bland et al, Successful Faculty
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Study Definitions

• FDPs 52 Health Professions schools received
  HRSA-BHPr FD grants
• FD Director Each (52) identified in grant
• Enrollee Health professions faculty in FDP for
  at least 6 months.
• Colleague Relationship (CR) career supportive
  relationships (e.g., mentors, peers) initiated
  or strengthened due to FDP participation.

See www.hrsa.gov
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Study Design Mail Surveys Two Phases (99-00)

• FD Directors provided program descriptions and
  enrollee rosters
• Enrollees provided data on
• CR gains, socialization, products and
  achievements
• Two key Study Questions
• How many career supportive colleagues did you
  initiate or develop during your FDP?
• What FDP features contributed to your developing
  CRs?

Morzinski JA, Fisher. A nation-wide study...
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Overview of Respondents

• 37 of 52 (71) FD directors
• 351 of 543 (65) enrollees
• male 65 non-white 16
• Average age at FDP start,
• male 40 female 37
• Yrs as faculty at FDP start
• male 4.5 years female 2.7 years non-white 1.9
  years
• Distribution from all 10 US regions

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Descriptions of Colleague Types

• Mentors
• Often in advanced career stages
• Foster academic identity, advancement goals
• Link to new opportunities, people
• Peers
• Often similar career stage
• Collaborate, informal feedback and friendship
• Academic Consultants
• Provide specialized help in activities and
  projects
• Aid efficiency and quality

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Findings Study Question 1

• Enrollees reported 9.1 CRs due to FDP enrollment
• 2 mentors
• 3 peers
• 1 acad consultant
• 3 perceived CRs
• CRs were important to enrollees academic
  socialization and careers
• Six CRs directly assisted with multiple
  career-important products / achievements
• Three perceived to be in the wings if needed
• Morzinski JA, Fisher. A nation-wide study on
  the influence of FDPs on colleague relationships.
  Acad Med.

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CR Totals and Types
Peers
Mentors
Junior Faculty
Academic Consult.
Perceived CRs
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Details FD Colleagues Most Influential

• 74 were well or very well connected to a
  regional/national scholar network
• 43 had primary affiliation external to subjects
  home institution
• 41 had original meeting during training
  activities
• 60 exchanged support challenge
• Stimulate avg of 2-3 products/achievements
• Hands-on support most associated with products /
  achievements

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Study Question 2 FDP Features

• What faculty development program features
  contributed to your developing Colleague
  Relationships?
• 269 of 351 enrollees (66) made 624 usable text
  responses
• Template approach resulted in 16 sub-categories
  in 4 main categories
• Inter-rater agreement 88 Cohens Kappa 83
• Crabtree Miller Constas.

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Sub-Analysis (continued)

• We examined open-ended responses from FD
  enrollees with
• Moderate to high CR gains
• CRs important or very important
• Final count of 335 text responses by 141
  enrollees

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Results 335 Entries in Four Main Categories

• Concrete interaction (n127 38)
• Presented our teaching to one another for
  feedback
• Learned by group participation
• Learning context (n105 31)
• A safe group mutual respect
• Meeting away from home and pagers

Also see Morzinski, Influence of Academic
Projects Family Medicine
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Results on FDP Features (cont)

• Instructional Experiences (n46 14)
• Frequently used participants programs to
  illustrate teaching points
• Active instruction on learning styles
• Learners and Leaders (n57 17)
• Being together with my peers at all the classes
• Faculty were well-connected with national
  organizations

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Internal Summary 2

• Mentoring is a Faculty Development method
• From a national sample of FDP enrollees and
  programs, we learned
• Positive career-impact of three types of CRs
• Power of instructional activities that include
  hands-on help, concrete interaction a
  respectful learning context

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Transition Discussion

• What about the study and its results?
• Q A Colleague Relationships as extension of
  mentoring
• Chat If someone has a strong network of peers
  and acad consultants, do they still need one or
  more mentors? Why / why not?

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Lessons from the Field For Organizations

• Mentoring programs need objectives
• Mentoring cant be window dressing need
  appropriate learning context
• Promote Small m mentoring
• Establish a code of institutional expectations
  and support for mentoring

Zachary L. Creating a Mentoring Culture
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Lessons from the Field For Mentors

• Ok to start before youre certain you are ready
• Balance challenge with support
• Plan to be more directive / active early
• Provide hands-on support

Bower, Diehr, Morzinski Simpson.
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Lessons from the Field For Proteges

• Proteges need objectives
• Be ready emotionally suspend judgment
• Avoid mentor envy
• Seek diversity up to six to eight active,
  career-support members

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Role of ColleaguesSupport and Challenge (Daloz)
High
Challenge
Low
High
Support
Adopted from Daloz LA, Effective teaching and
mentoring.
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Support/Challenge
High
RETREAT
GROWTH
Challenge
STASIS
CONFIRMATION
Low
High
Support
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Support Types

• Information. Aids decision-making clarifies
  uncertainty increases awareness of opportunities
• Feedback. Fosters quality and confidence by
  offering comparisons or standards for judging the
  quality of projects, behaviors, performance.

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Support Types (cont)

• Emotional support. Builds trust, friendship.
  Could reduce beliefs of personal competence
• Hands-on support. Direct work, often tangible
  and/or visible, that moves a project toward
  completion. Strongest association with junior
  faculty products achievements

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Examples of Challenge

• Heat up dichotomies
• Offer new language
• Silence / give time
• Dialogue on aims / purposes
• Questions Lets assume.. / What if
• Set challenging tasks
• Set and maintain high performance standards
• Keep an eye on the clock / calendar

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Tool for Reviewing CR Networks

• List your active, career-supportive CRs
• Mentors ___________, ___________.
• Peers __________, ___________, __________.
• Academic consultants __________, _________.
• Plan for adding diversity/filling gaps______
• ____________________________________
• Reflect on exchanges with existing CRs
• Support / challenge balance?
• How to improve balance___________________

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Emerging Program Lesson Levels of Formality

• How Formal Should Y/our Program Be?

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Tuxedos to Blue Jeans Four Mentoring Levels

• Formal mentoring includes matching / monitoring
• Facilitated mentoring the dept still arranges
  meetings and monitors (does not match)
• Intentional mentoring, where chairs or directors
  recommend individual action, with no / limited
  follow-up
• Coincidental mentoring relies on luck
• At MCW all levels represented

Morzinski JA. STFM Messenger.
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Internal Summary 3

• Lessons from the field
• Mentors, protégé and organization
• Support and challenge
• Lesson for programs mentoring level (formal,
  facilitated, intentional, coincidental) to fit
  different situations

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Discussion on Lessons

• Q A
• Questions from your experiences / final comments?
  

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Next Steps at MCW

• Institutional Awards for mentoring (not
  restricted to mentors)
• Through faculty council, networking lunch drop
  in sessions on CVs/portfolios, co-sponsored by
  Rank and Tenure Committee
• Maintain written an on-line resources for mentors
• Grad level course (elective) on mentoring

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Overall Conclusions

• Start modest and build
• Match mentoring level with level of commitment
  you can sustain
• Get periodic mentoring about your mentoring
  program
• Consider evidence, lessons, and then

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Conclusion (cont)

• Grey-eyed Athene spoke likening herself to
  Mentor in voice and appearance, Telemachus,
  already your companions are sitting at the oars,
  and waiting for you to set forth. So let us go,
  and not delay our voyaging longer. -
  The Odyssey of Homer
• Thank you!

You can reach me at jmorzins_at_mcw.edu
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References

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   Making Developing New Leaders for New Teachers.
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3. Chao G, Walz P, Gardner P (1992). Formal and
   informal mentorships A comparison on mentoring
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4. Daloz L. Mentor. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
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7. Jones JE, Preusz GC, Finkelstein SN. Factors
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9. Morzinski JA. The influence of academic projects
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10. Morzinski JA. Mentors in tuxedos or blue jeans.
    STFM Messenger, an international newsletter. Jan
    2007.
11. Morzinski JA, Simpson DE, Bower DJ, Diehr S.
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12. Morzinski J, Fisher J. An evaluation of mentoring
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13. Morzinski JA, Fisher JC. A nation-wide study on
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15. New Teacher Center _at_ USC. www.newteachercenter.org
    
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