Transcript What Is Mentoring?
Career Development in a Busy Clinical Environment Everything I learnt about Faculty Mentoring over the last 30 years! How Do We Recruit and Retain?
Margaret Wood E.M. Papper Professor Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology Columbia University, New York City
Generation X are different from the Baby Boomers
Boomers
(1945-1962)
• Work hard out of loyalty • Expect long-term job • Pay dues • Self-sacrifice is virtue • Respects authority
Generation X
(1963-1982)
• Work hard if balance allowed • Expect many job searches • Dues not relevant • Self-sacrifice may have to be endured, occasionally • Questions authority
It’s not just generation X any more
Now we have a new generation – The Ipod Generation
Anxious Life of the “Ipod” Generation
• I nsecure • P ressured • O ver-Taxed • D ebt-ridden “The next half century is likely to see an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the younger generation to the older generation” Reform Think Tank. August 2005
Ipods
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“Debt makes it hard to realize your dreams”
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“These are the crossover generation. The implicit bargain – pay in when you are working to benefit later – has broken down”
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“Insecure – lack confidence”
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Risk-averse
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Little interest in politics and voting
What is the Goal?
To become a chairman or a dean?
What is the Goal?
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Passion for clinical medicine
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Love of Science
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Friendship, collegiality and diversity of an academic department
Female Baby Boomers
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Financial security –divorce in the 1950s
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Attainment of leadership positions (2003)
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Ten of 126 U.S. medical school deans are women
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18% of division chiefs are women
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10% of all departmental chairs are women
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12% of basic science chairs are women
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8% of clinical chairs are women
Lads Who Lunch
Relax – it’s the end of ambition
Are Women rejecting the work place?
New York Times Magazine
Implications for the Work Force of the Future
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47% to 50% of all medical students are women
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And yet –
are women and some men rejecting the workplace? Even in high profile careers such as law and medicine
A Place for Everyone at Columbia
• • • • • •
Different Career Paths Scientist/Clinical Researcher Education Master Clinician/Subspecialty OR Management Department Organization
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Dr. Ross – Aspiring Clinical Investigator 32 year old fellow. Mentor Dr. Bell Wants a clinical research career 2 year clinical fellowship Clinical research project Financial: married 5 years, 2 year old child, wife pregnant, full time mother, $100,000 debt IRB approved Lead author on a scientific paper from fellowship Initial success Baby arrived, started moonlighting K23 not funded at 1st application Tired, next NIH application passed with no resubmission Asked for faculty position, protected time, and increased salary support Faculty position offered, but 75% clinical to pay for his salary Went into lucrative private practice Acad Med 77:1081-88, 2002
Future Strategies
• • • •
Clinical research training needs to be longer, with an advisor, supervision, career development Funding, financial considerations, debt Mentoring Academic promotion
What Is Mentoring?
• •
Business
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Process by which senior managers identify young recruits who show promise and groom them for rapid promotion
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Nepotism Medicine
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Patronage and career guidance
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Tutor and role model Supervisor for a trainee Friend and supporter – first port of call in a storm More than one mentor should fill these functions
What Is Mentoring?
• • •
A good thing Annual professional review
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Disliked by both parties Not pleasant, tough, judgmental Chairs are asked by the Dean
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Did you do a review?
Did the person know how likely they were to be promoted?
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Did the person know how they were doing?
Three Stage Model of Egan
• • •
Present situation Imagine the preferred position Reflect on how to get from one to the other Egan, G., The Skilled Helper 1990
Career Development
Personal reflection can be used to encourage learning and development
Freeman, R., Mentoring in General Practice 1998
Different Stages of Mentorship/ Career Guidance
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Support for juniors and trainees Mentorship between seniors – Quo Vadis?
What Is Mentoring?
• •
What is wanted
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Regular meetings with someone whom they trust and respect
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Discuss in confidence all aspects of professional life
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No negotiation Should be reflective But, should result in an agreed report
Telemachus and Mentor (and Athena) Mentorship—mentoring provides wise counsel, prudent restraint, and practical insight.
How to recognize a good mentor?
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Do they value the protégé and his or her goals
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Do they spend the time and energy
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Do they realize it’s their job
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Mentor’s Relationship with Telemachus
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Help and advise his absent friend’s son
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Note that he was
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Not his friend
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Not his mother Homer, The Odyssey
Choosing a Mentor?
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Cast your net wide Does not have to be your chair/boss Have several mentors Direct supervisor/science Building life skills Development of career/strategy Networking
How to Structure a Mentoring Relationship
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Meet every six months at least / sometimes monthly Trainee’s job to request the meetings, setup the logistics Leave each meeting with a “to do” list
Pitfalls for Junior Faculty
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Too much service effort Diffusion, confusion, lack of focus Lack of mentoring Exploitation by other faculty Lack of discipline and perseverance
1980s - 2000
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Loss of interest in the science of medicine
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Curriculum for medical students increasingly devoted to clinical electives
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Not much time to think or discover The Clinical Investigator as an Endangered Species NEJM 301:1254-59, 1979 Science 283:331-32, 1999
Where is the Mentoring for an Academic Career for Medical Students?
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Who chooses the medical students?
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Is it already too late?
“Pearls” for a Successful Career
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Hard work is key Anticipate the results before starting Enjoy the process – it can be fun Find a good mentor Build on a theme – your CV should tell a story Find a problem that can be solved Follow the problem Know/learn how to explain why the question/problem is important Do not assume that clinical research is easier than bench research Focus Enjoy the collegiality/friendship that comes from an academic career Lastly, be a mentor
At the End of the Year ----- Life is fun.