Mentoring Scholarly Activity: Mentorship Initiatives within the UMN Department of Family Medicine & Community Health Joseph J. Brocato, Ph.D.

About The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMN Founded in 1970 with over 1,800 residency alumni Department located on Twin Cities campus, 73 fulltime faculty and 994 non-salaried community faculty Eight residencies: 3 rural/outstate sites and 5 Twin Cities urban and suburban sites Two fellowships (Sports Med & HPM) Approximately 175 residents at any one time

Statement of the Problem The department has one of the smallest rates of academic promotion in the medical school Relatively high faculty turnover A majority of faculty are at the same level as originally appointed; some for decades. Majority at Asst. Prof. Mixed interest in academic promotion by faculty, especially residency faculty Mixed identification with the department: hospital affiliations (clinical) can be primary Strong desire by the department chair to rectify this problem. Implementation of new medical school teaching track now makes academic promotion more plausible and mentorship reward-able.

Elements of Faculty and Resident Scholarly Mentorship Existing mentorship/support from dedicated research sub-unit of department Existing mentorship/support from academic health center and medical school Departmental Programming (Proposed) Departmental Formal Mentoring Program: (Proposed)

Mentorship/Support from Dedicated Research Sub-unit Personnel: –Research Director, Research Program Coordinator, Pre-Award Grant Coordinator, Librarian, Plus Active Research Faculty Types of Mentorship/Support: –FPIN Coordination with local residency champions –In-house technical services –FM Grand Rounds (monthly) –Robust CME for STFM & NAPCRG for Faculty and Residents

Informal Mentorship Plan: “Faculty Experts” earch/experts/home.h tmlhttp://fm.umn.edu/res earch/experts/home.h tml ulty/brocato/home.ht ml

Departmental Programming: Proposed Scholarship Training Parallel to existing education faculty development fellowship program in existence for past five years Release time for monthly workshops: 18 hours over 6 months. Outcomes driven fellowship focused on products: grant application, manuscript draft, conference proposal, etc. Primary target audience: fulltime, junior faculty Open secondarily to community faculty and/or medical school faculty At cost to fund program for others

Formal Mentorship Plan: Premise In development by director of education with input from department chair, leadership team, and department’s HR Director, Research Director, and Program Directors Model created from training received at the Harvard-Macy Institute in 2013 premised on “disruptive innovation” (Clayton Christensen, Ph.D, Harvard Business School Focused on promotion rather than on mentorship on one particular faculty role

Formal Mentorship Plan: Phased Development of Curriculum Literature Review on Mentoring (2013; ongoing) Needs Assessments of Faculty (2013) Proposed Curriculum (2014) Proposed Timeline (2014)  Presentation of Considerations and Tentative Plan to Stakeholders (Fall 2014)  Revisions and Development of Formal Curriculum (Winter 2015)  Local-Buy In (Winter 2015)  Implementation (AY July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016)

Faculty Formal Mentorship Plan: Considerations/Tentative Plans –During recruitment activity: Directors of Research and/or Education part of interview process; follow up with candidates individual –After offer acceptance activity: Directors of Research and/or Education lead formation of mentorship teams (1-3 mentors; within institution and within unit pairing; with ad-hoc external members allowed from community or nationally as needed/desired). Appoint one primary mentor at time of job acceptance with pre-introduction, assistance in setting up pre-arrival connection –Core versus tailored curriculum for functional period? Suggested elements with other elements tailored dependent on promotional track, prior experience, interests of faculty candidate, foci of subunit –Who makes initial appointments to mentorship pairs, dyads, or triads? Directors of Education and Research in tandem with subunit head

Faculty Formal Mentorship Plan: Considerations/Tentative Plans (continued) –At one level higher academically and on same academic track (tracks teaching, clinical/scholars, tenure) Problem is not enough associate professors promoted to mentor, nor ones that have been promoted on teaching track, so most with be peer-mentoring at least initially. –Relevance/Time Frame/Program Length Mandatory to start, with one initial meeting with all mentorship team members over lunch, and two subsequent meetings per academic year (one live, one virtual) with at least one mentorship team member, with commitment through academic promotion awarding. In terms of overall time frame, as academic promotion time frame is open-ended, so will mentorship. –Rewards for mentee? Academic promotion and/or tenure; increased job satisfaction (retention) –Rewards for mentors? Mentorship counts under teaching activities for P/T. Additional rewards TBD with Department Chair. –Support needed to Director of Medical Education: 1/2 to ¾ time FTE GA or staff member

Next Steps of Mentorship Program Development  Presentation of Considerations and Tentative Plan to Stakeholders (Fall 2014)  Revisions and Development of Formal Curriculum (Winter 2015)  Local-Buy In (Winter 2015)  Implementation (AY July 1, June 30, 2016)