Supporting Faculty Development in Hospital Medicine: Design and Implementation of a Personalized Structured Mentoring Program

The lack of mentorship in hospital medicine has been previously documented,^1-3 but there is scant literature about solutions to the problem.⁴ In other disciplines, data suggest that the guidance of a mentor has a positive influence on academic productivity and professional satisfaction. Mentored faculty at all levels in their careers are more successful at producing peer-reviewed publications, procuring grant support, and maintaining confidence in their career trajectory.^5,6 In one study, mentored faculty physicians reported receiving career advice, improving communication skills, and growing their professional networks.⁷ Another study found that the primary benefits of physician mentoring were improved professional and personal well-being.⁸ Whether early-career hospitalists would have similarly favorable responses to a structured mentorship program is unknown. We report our experience in implementing a pilot mentorship program to support junior hospitalists at a large academic medical center.

The mentorship program was implemented from October 2015 to June 2016 in the Hospital Medicine Unit (HMU) of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.  

Program Goals, Design, and Development

In collaboration with the MGH Center for Faculty Development (CFD), we offered 3 training sessions over a period of 9 months, for both mentors and mentees, on how to maximize mentorship success. Funding was provided by the MGH Division of General Internal Medicine and CFD. There were no external funding sources. This study was exempt by the Partners Institutional Review Board.

Participants

Mentees had to be hired at >0.5 full-time equivalent and have 3 years or fewer of hospitalist experience. Mentors were physicians with at least 7 years of hospital medicine experience. All HMU faculty who met the criteria were invited to participate on a voluntary basis.

Mentor–Mentee Matching

Mentors were paired with 1 or 2 mentees. Participant information such as history of mentorship and areas of interest for mentorship was collected. Two authors matched mentors and mentees to maximize similarities in these areas. Four mentors were paired with 2 mentees each, and 12 mentors were paired with 1 mentee each.

Mentorship Training Sessions

The program provided 3 mentorship-training lunch sessions for both mentees and mentors during the 9-month program. To enrich attendance, mentees were provided coverage for their clinical duties. The initial training session provided an opportunity to meet, articulate expectations and challenges, and develop action plans with individualized goals for the mentoring relationship. The second training session occurred at the midpoint. Pairs considered their mentorship status, evaluated their progress, and discussed strategies for optimizing their experience. At the final training session, participants reflected on their mentoring relationships, identified their extended network of mentoring support, and set expectations regarding whether the mentoring relationship would continue.

Mentorship Meetings

In addition to the training sessions, mentee–mentor pairs were expected to meet a minimum of 2 times during the formal mentorship program. CFD experts performed participant outreach via e-mail to assess progress. Mentees were given dining facility gift cards to support meetings with their mentors.