The Relationship of Mentorship to Career Outcomes in Academic Psychiatry and Psychology: a Needs Assessment.

Abstract

Faculty development is designed to facilitate career advancement of junior faculty but there is limited empirical evidence on how to design an effective program. As a first step in the design of an effective program, a needs assessment was conducted. Participants were faculty members of an academic psychiatry department. Participants completed a quantitative and qualitative survey assessing their experience with mentors, academic self-efficacy, career burnout and satisfaction, academic productivity, and perceived barriers to scholarship. Eighty percent (N = 104) of eligible faculty members completed the study survey (54% female; 81% White, 10% underrepresented in medicine). Less than half of the respondents (44%) reported having a current mentor. Number of mentors (r = .33; p < .01), mentorship meetings (r = .35; p < .01), and mentorship quality (r = .33; p < .01) were significantly correlated to a standardized measure of academic self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was significantly associated with academic productivity (r = .44; p < .001) and career satisfaction (r = .29; p < .05). The top barriers to scholarship productivity were time and lack of access to resources. Faculty members without a mentor endorsed more barriers to scholarship (p < .001) than those with a mentor. Themes that emerged from the qualitative data suggest that mentorship supports career advancement through coaching and professional development, invitations to collaborate and resource share, networking, and active teaching. Based on the relationship of mentoring to career outcomes, a robust faculty development program needs a formal academic mentorship program to improve career satisfaction and academic productivity.