Mentor/Trainee Responsibilities

Jennifer Irvin Vidrine, Ph.D.

Department of Health Disparities Research

Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences

Content developed by Amy Heimberger, MD

• Mentoring is a collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship between an Mentor (who possess greater skills, knowledge and experience) and a protégé (who is looking to increase his or her skills, knowledge and experience).

• Mentoring is a partnership.• Both parties agree to the relationship and both

are responsible for the success.• Partnership is collaborative.

Definition of Mentoring Relationship

• Networking opportunities• Non-evident insights/information• Guidance/support

Why seek out a mentor?

• Studies have shown having a mentor affects success and satisfaction– Straus, Acad Med, 2013– Meyers, Clin Transl Sci. 2012– Barry, Am Surg, 2011– Stamm, Med Educ, 2011– Ogunyemi, Teach Learn Med. 2010– Malmgren, Nature, 2010– Wasserstein, J Gen Int Med. 2007– Sambunjak, JAMA, 2006

Evidence Base

Types of Mentoring Relationships

MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS

DEFINITION KEY FEATURES AND EXAMPLES

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Traditional mentoring

Mentor is someone of more experience, guiding and teaching a novice

One-on-one relationship with a senior guide invested in the mentee’s careerEx: typical research mentor

Advantages:• Demonstrated benefits to

career enhancement and satisfaction

Disadvantages:• Difficult to find• Limitations of individual mentor

Peer mentoring

Mutual relationships between individuals at a similar career level

Parties alternate being giver and receiver, mentor and mentee

Advantages:• Enhanced mutuality• Deemphasizes hierarchy• Allows both parties to learn

and practice mentoring skills• May be more enduring

Disadvantages:• Competition for resources and

achievement may exist between faculty at the same level

• Lack of senior guide could allow for unchecked missteps

• Requires high level of confidentiality

Collaborative peer mentoring

Similar to peer mentoring, but may involve groups rather than dyads.

Can be formal or informal. Groups may collaborate on projects, set learning goals, or provide critical assistance with one another’s work

Advantages:• Builds collegial network• Benefit from multiple

perspectives

Disadvantages:• Difficult to organize• Parsing out projects in a large

group may result to competition for participation, authorship, etc.

Facilitated peer mentoring

A small group works on an agreed upon project with the guidance of a senior facilitator and mentor

Ex. Four junior faculty working together on a paper, with a facilitator mentor

Added Advantages:• Multiple faculty benefit from

the mentorship of a single senior faculty mentor

• Structured, and time- or project-limited

Mosaic mentoring

Mentee is encouraged to construct a mentoring community

Ex. One individual has separate mentors for leadership and education, a project mentor for a specific paper, and a peer mentor for an education project

Advantages:• Multiple mentors with varied

skills and at varied levels• Less reliance on one person• Creates broader collegial

network

Disadvantages:• May lack big-picture oversight

• Pubmed/Scopus

• Interview/attend their talks

• “Background check” – interview other mentees for an independent assessment

• Attend their lab meeting

Screening tools for selection of a Mentor

• Honest, mature, balanced, persons of good character and depth.

• Regularly published in reputable journals, and well-funded with competitive, regional and national research grants.

• Accessible for necessary research guidance.

• Provide insight and guide solutions for basic and complex science.

• Mentors propose hypotheses, design experiments, and solve research problems in logical, imaginative ways — they encourage similar thinking in students and colleagues.

Science Mentor Characteristics: Five Ideal Qualities and Attributes

Effective Mentors

• Help students think intellectually and provide early success to their students to stimulate later growth. Look at their track record!!

• Are effective communicators.

• Provide a transparent working environment free of underhandedness, unfairness, intimidation, threats or abuse.

• Provide consistent and thorough constructive criticism of written and

oral work. Good mentors actively search for ways to improve the student’s work in order to prepare the student for future scholarly endeavors. Effective constructive criticism from a mentor is always apparent when an advanced student is able to anticipate criticisms from outside reviewers of their work.

• Help students to transition to the next step in their career.

Experienced versus New Mentors

• Have an established track-record but may have many other obligations that limit the time they can spend mentoring.

• Politically, may have more connections.

• May have a better understanding of various journals and may more quickly facilitate publication.

• May have a more extensive knowledge of funding sources and the criterion.

• May have extensive contacts to facilitate your career growth.

• Often are energetic, innovative and imaginative and, typically, have more time to work closely with students.

• May more closely evaluate the experimental design and controls.

• May have a more contemporaneous knowledge of techniques and approaches.

• The success of a mentee’s project may be more crucial to their overall scientific objectives.

• Help instruct on how to start a laboratory.

• Provide career guidance/critical feedback.• Offer emotional support.• Focus on work/life balance.• Don’t necessarily solve the problem but rather

guide a solution.• Provide networking opportunities.• Warn of potential pitfalls.

Actions of Effective Mentors

• CV/biosketch will provide you with baseline information regarding skills/knowledge.

• Interview for goals/objectives (make sure they are compatible with yours and you have the skill set needed to get the trainee to the next step).

• Evaluate maturation level and assess if you have sufficient time/energy to move them to the next step.

• Determine “passion” and commitment (give a limited goal project/interactions at your lab meeting).

• Encourage “dating” before the final commitment.• Call previous mentors to verify skills/activities.• Have others weigh in on the decision.• Determine compatibility with pre-existing team members.• For more senior trainees, have them give a talk to the lab group.

How to Select Mentees

Characteristics of effective Mentors/Mentees

• Altruism• Active listener• Experience• Able to provide an

“inside track”• Accessible• Can identify and support

the development of strengths and skills in the mentee

• Receptive to input• Passionate• Active participant in the

relationship• Attend mentorship

meetings with lists of topics for discussion, including timelines for projects.

• Verify information and check sources

Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships

• Reciprocity• Mutual respect• Clear expectations• Personal connection• Shared values

• Poor communication• Lack of commitment• Personality

differences• Perceived or real

competition• Conflict of interest• Mentors lack of

experience

Straus, Academic Med., 2013

General Organizational Tools for Mentors

• Regularly scheduled meetings (variable).• Clarify the objective(s) of the relationship.• Develop secure data and writing platforms.• Trainee tables/trainee overviews.• Get the trainees involved as early as possible.• Streamline the research direction and verify

complementary time utilization.• Social events for the laboratory build collegiality.

Strategies for Manuscripts/Managing the Research Project

• Write the Introduction and propose the hypothesis before the experiments start.

• Write the Materials and Methods as the experiments are done.

• Create publication quality figures as the data emerges.• Edit as the manuscript evolves (this prevents emergent

deadlines and stress).• The “manuscript meetings” at 75%, 100% completion.• Have an established scientific editor.• Have an ongoing relationship with a statistician.• Vetted reference database.• Policy for authorship, validating and reaching consensus.

• Inform the trainee of the time restrictions of the MDACC Grants and Contract Office (set realistic goals).

• Always review and edit the grant – you never know who is going to review this and this will reflect on your reputation.

• Don’t write the grant for the mentee (this does not facilitate intellectual creativity).

• Share successfully funded grant applications with mentees.

• Accept the fate that not all grants will get funded.

Strategies for Grants

• 1 slide per minute rule maximum.

• Conduct “dry runs” of the talk with multiple individuals.

• Incremental meeting/venue size.

• Public speaking courses/remedial work.

Strategies for Presentation

Strategies for Fostering Independent Investigator Status

• Collaborative review of manuscript and grants.• Involvement in administrative tasks associated

with their projects (developing budgets, IRB protocols, hiring and training staff, effort reporting).

• Human Subjects Research Education.• Involvement in collaborator calls and meetings.• Facilitating networking (passing along invited talks

to trainees, introductions during meetings, co-reviewing manuscripts).

• Delegation.

For the Mentee: Data/Research Project

• Continuous background reading is absolutely essential. Don’t assume your mentor is doing this or has done this.

• Ensure that your studies are driven by hypotheses.• Your academic record will be more favorably reviewed for

the quality of your research and not the quantity.• Interact with the laboratory statistician.• Make sure your mentor and other individuals critically

review your manuscripts.• Collecting and analyzing data takes time. Good to have

access to datasets for secondary analyses. Important to have a steady publication record prior to publishing from your own data.

Sage advice for the Mentee

• Pick a project that you are passionate about and have the time to do.

• Pick a mentor who has something “at stake” in your success.

• Expect rejection, listen to criticisms, try to address them to the best of your ability, and don’t take it personally.

• Apply for your own funding (will help with understanding the process and starts establishing your record of independence).

• Get input on your project frequently and often.• Don’t take on too many projects at once and don’t feel

obligated to work on a project if a faculty member approaches you.

• Devise your involvement in research to suit your career aspirations.

• Devise a “research specialty” – early in your career.

Thank you!