Trends in Mentoring at the VCU School of Medicine

In the five years since we published The School of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Guide, it has acted as a catalyst to foster mentoring initiatives on campus and spark interest at other institutions. This guide is used throughout the VCU School of Medicine, and requested at over 50 academic health centers within the United States and Canada. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) incorporated the guide as part of training in their Council of Deans Leadership Initiative. In 1998, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) peer-reviewed and approved the mentoring guide for distribution among its membership. At least two federal grants won by VCU were influenced by the inclusion of the School of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Guide as a resource, most notably the five-year National Institutes of Health award for junior clinical and research faculty development in the area of "Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health" (BIRCWH). In the review panel's comments, there was particular praise for the "comprehensive faculty mentoring guide."

In February 1998, the Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities published a 15-page report on the results of a School of Medicine faculty survey assessing career development needs.⁴⁴ Mentoring placed high among the needs cited. Recommendations were made to the dean and included:

• Broaden the scope of career development activities for all faculty.
• Write a new faculty career development plan for all new faculty hired and include identification of a mentor.
• Assess and update the aforementioned plan with every faculty member's annual review.
• Evaluate division and department chairs on their skills for, and outcomes of mentoring and career development of faculty.

In response to these recommendations, several changes occurred concerning mentoring.

1. Chair Evaluation Includes Mentoring. The dean implemented an annual evaluation of chairs by the faculty members. One evaluation criterion for all clinical department chairs is labeled: "mentoring and career development — the department chair understands and strives to meet the needs of departmental faculty and staff."
2. Distinguished Mentor Award. To better recognize mentoring in the school, in 1999 a "Distinguished Mentor Award" was included among the top four Annual Teaching Awards given each year to meritorious faculty. The School of Medicine bestows this award to a faculty member who makes significant contributions to the career development of others, including mentorship to fellow faculty members, junior faculty, residents, fellows, medical and graduate students, post-doctoral students and others. A cash award is given to an individual recipient and an additional $1,000 is given to the recipient's scholarly and educational development. Through these steps, the School of Medicine leadership encourages mentoring and fosters the development of mentoring initiatives within other offices, departments and divisions. The awards and their descriptions may be found online: http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/intranet/facdev/ann_teach_awrds.htm.
3. Mentorship Manual for Medical Students. Another promising mentoring trend on the School of Medicine campus has been the Fall 2001 publishing of a Mentorship Manual for Medical Students.⁵¹ This manual, written by a rising third year medical student, was born out of a series of focus groups and an online mentorship survey offered to medical students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Its purpose is to offer guidance on finding a mentor. It was encouraged by the VCU Women in Medicine and Science faculty organization and supported by the Office of Admissions and the Office of Faculty and Instructional Development. A complete version of this manual may be found here in a PDF document.

The VCU School of Medicine's commitment to mentoring makes it one of increasing numbers of academic health institutions turning toward improved faculty development through partnering the established faculty with junior faculty. Nationally, mentoring programs are gaining favor and increasing numbers of journal articles, surveys and initiatives speaking to this trend are available for anyone interested in learning more.

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