My life and career have been substantially enriched by mentor-mentee relationships.

Early in my career, mentorship was described to me as a relationship you have with someone who is the person you’d like to be and following in their footsteps. As a surgeon interested in teaching and educational research, I couldn’t identify anyone at my institution that exactly represented my aspiration for my academic career. So I concluded that I could never have a mentor and moved on. Then, recently as I was discussing mentorship with one of the Healthcare Leadership Academy groups I work with, I realized that many people have assisted me and guided my career in various ways at different stages in my career. I have had not just a mentor, but an entire team of mentors.

Most scholarly literature shows that having good mentors improves faculty engagement and productivity. In fact, in almost every paper you find, authors point to mentorship as playing in important role in the faculty work experience.

Data collected from faculty in the School of Medicine is no different.  A survey distributed to the School of Medicine faculty in November 2013 and results from the latest annual Faculty Engagement Survey show there’s a desire for more mentor relationships. In those surveys, respondents indicate they don’t want mentor relationships to be to be centrally established and monitored, and literature indicates that the best relationships occur when the mentee is substantially involved in identifying a mentor, setting up the meeting and guiding the relationship.

I believe that the best model of mentorship is the team model, likely influence by my own experience but also by the current mentorship literature. A mentor team is comprised of a:

• Senior faculty mentor who can help with career advice;
• Peer mentor who is two to five years ahead in their career and who you feel safe to ask what might be perceived as “silly” questions; and
• Scholarly mentor who can offer advice in research.

The scholarly mentor may be best understood for research faculty, but could also be important for those of you who identify teaching as your main scholarly activity.

Improving mentorship culture in the institution is also a team approach. We all have something we can bring to the process, recognizing that at different times we are both mentees and mentors:

• Mentees—whether junior or senior faculty— can recognize the value of mentors and be active in seeking mentors and using that person’s time wisely.
• Mentors can make time to meet with those individuals seeking a mentor-mentee relationship and look for ways they can mentor fellow faculty.
• Department chairs and their leadership team can facilitate and monitor mentoring relationships.
• Senior leaders in the School of Medicine and the university can give support, provide resources (either online or in training and development opportunities) and offer intervention in unique circumstances.

Improving mentorship culture in the institution is a team approach as well. In my role in the Faculty Career Resource Office, I‘ve worked with other leaders to initiate a partnership method for improving mentorship at UAB , one where everyone—the Dean’s Office, department chairs, senior faculty and junior faculty—has a stake in to make mentorship work.

The Faculty Career Resource Office has resources available online, including a presentation on mentorship, results from the mentorship surveys and information on mentor training opportunities provided through the Center for Clinical and Translational Science Training Academy.