Faculty Development Workshop Research Articles

Addressing Racism in Medical Education An Interactive Training Module.

Education of health care clinicians on racial and ethnic disparities has primarily focused on emphasizing statistics and cultural competency, with minimal attention to racism. Learning about racism and unconscious processes provides skills that reduce bias when interacting with minority patients. This paper describes the responses to a relationship-based workshop and toolkit highlighting issues that medical educators should address when teaching about racism in the context of pernicious health disparities. A multiracial, interdisciplinary team identified essential elements of teaching about racism. A 1.5-hour faculty development workshop consisted of a didactic presentation, a 3-minute video vignette depicting racial and gender microaggression within a hospital setting, small group discussion, large group debrief, and presentation of a toolkit. One hundred twenty diverse participants attended the workshop at the 2016 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Annual Spring Conference. Qualitative information from small group facilitators and large group discussions identified some participants' emotional reactions to the video including dismay, anger, fear, and shame. A pre/postsurvey (N=72) revealed significant changes in attitude and knowledge regarding issues of racism and in participants' personal commitment to address them. Results suggest that this workshop changed knowledge and attitudes about racism and health inequities. Findings also suggest this workshop improved confidence in teaching learners to reduce racism in patient care. The authors recommend that curricula continue to be developed and disseminated nationally to equip faculty with the skills and teaching resources to effectively incorporate the discussion of racism into the education of health professionals.

Role of Faculty Development Programs in Medical Education at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences, Zimbabwe.

Background:Major challenges are being experienced in medical education in sub-Saharan African Universities. These include emigration of faculty, infrequent curriculum review, inadequate training in medical education, poor investments in infrastructure and lack of faculty development programs. The USA government committed funding to improve the quality of medical education and research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa through the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI).Objectives:This article describes the implementation of faculty development at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS), a recipient of a MEPI award.Methods:Data sources included annual surveys and reports of UZCHS MEPI activities, exit evaluation reports of faculty development workshops; results of a survey conducted in 2015 at the end of the MEPI grant. Questionnaires were developed based on the MEPI Zimbabwe evaluation plan and logic model. Surveys were administered to faculty members, postgraduate and undergraduate students. Qualitative data was collected through in-depth key informer interviews of stakeholder.Findings:Different faculty development activities were implemented such as workshops, exchange visits, visiting professors program, advanced leadership training and curriculum development. The implementation of the activities brought positive developments to the college as confirmed by faculty and students. The majority of faculty interviewed (96%) confirmed that faculty development programs were very helpful in enhancing their expertise and skills. A similar number, i.e. 96%, also reported satisfaction with the training.Conclusions:We have described how the implementation of faculty development programs at the UZCHS contributed to the improvement of medical education at the College. The short term and long-term benefits of faculty development have been analyzed. Various forms of faculty development programs were described. Limitations of this analysis were the inability to collect data on students’ performance and the demonstration of changes in teaching performance.

Challenges faced by medical students during their first clerkship training: A cross-sectional study from a medical school in the Middle East.

ObjectivesThe transition from preclinical to clinical training is characterized by several challenging experiences ranging from new roles, with their associated tasks, to unfamiliar settings. The aim of this study was to explore the difficulties faced by medical students during the transition from preclinical to clinical training in the Middle East region.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on fourth-year medical students at the end of their first clerkship. A self-administered questionnaire containing different aspects of students' perceived stress, preparation and clinical supervision was administered to the participants.ResultsOf the 89 students, 63 responded (response rate of 71%). Almost half of the students (59%) experienced stress at the beginning of their clinical training, while 33% thought that they were ready to begin their clerkship training. A majority of the students (81%) reported the need for more time to adjust to the new environment, and 84% indicated that a good introduction to the clerkship would make the transition easy for them. About half of the students (54%) reported receiving feedback during their clinical training.ConclusionThis study highlighted the difficulties faced by medical students during their transition from preclinical to clinical training. There is a need to implement measures to ease this transition through a structured orientation about clerkship for both students and clinical faculty. In addition, it is recommended to organize faculty development workshops on feedback and supervision.

The impact of simulation education on self‐efficacy towards teaching for nurse educators

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a simulation workshop on self-efficacy towards teaching for nurse educators in India. Additionally, we sought to revise and validate a tool to measure self-efficacy in teaching for use with a global audience. Simulation is an evidence-based teaching and learning method and is increasingly used in nursing education globally. As new technology and teaching methods such as simulation continue to evolve, it is important for new as well as experienced nurse educators globally to have confidence in their teaching skills and abilities. The study included (1) instrument revision, and measures of reliability and validation, (2) an 8-h faculty development workshop intervention on simulation, (3) pre- and post-survey of self-efficacy among nurse educators, and (4) investigation of relationship between faculty socio-demographics and degree of self-efficacy. The modified tool showed internal consistency (r=0.98) and was validated by international faculty experts. There were significant improvements in total self-efficacy (P<0.001) and subscale scores among nurse educators after the simulation workshop intervention when compared to pre-survey results. No significant relationships were found between socio-demographic variables and degree of self-efficacy. Strong self-efficacy in teaching among nurse educators is crucial for effective learning to occur. Results indicated the simulation workshop was effective in significantly improving self-efficacy towards teaching for nurse educators using an internationally validated tool. The Minister of Health in India recently called for improvements in nursing education. Introducing nursing education on simulation as a teaching method in India and globally to improve self-efficacy among teachers is an example of a strategy towards meeting this call.

Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in Zimbabwe: Outcomes and Challenges.

Sub-Saharan Africa has an inadequate number of health professionals, leading to a reduced capacity to respond to health challenges, including HIV/AIDS. From 2010 to 2015, the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI)-sponsored by the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-was enthusiastically taken up by the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences (UZCHS) and 12 other sub-Saharan African universities to develop models of training to improve medical education and research capacity. In this article, we describe the outcomes and challenges of MEPI in Zimbabwe. UZCHS in partnership with the University of Colorado, Denver; Stanford University; University of Cape Town; University College London; and King's College London designed the Novel Education Clinical Trainees and Researchers (NECTAR) program and 2 linked awards addressing cardiovascular disease and mental health to pursue MEPI objectives. A range of medical education and research capacity-focused programs were implemented, including faculty development, research support, mentored scholars, visiting professors, community-based education, information and technology support, cross-cutting curricula, and collaboration with partner universities and the ministries of health and education. We analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from several data sources, including annual surveys of faculty, students, and other stakeholders; workshop exit surveys; and key informant interviews with NECTAR administrators and leaders and the UZCHS dean. Improved Internet connectivity and electronic resource availability were early successes of NECTAR. Over the 5-year period, 69% (115 of 166) of faculty members attended at least 1 of 15 faculty development workshops. Forty-one faculty members underwent 1-year advanced faculty development training in medical education and leadership. Thirty-three mentored research scholars were trained under NECTAR, and 52 and 12 in cardiovascular and mental health programs, respectively. Twelve MEPI scholars had joined faculty by 2015. Full-time faculty grew by 36% (122 to 166), annual postgraduate and medical student enrollment increased by 61% (75 to 121) and 71% (123 to 210), respectively. To institutionalize and sustain MEPI innovations, the Research Support Center and the Department of Health Professions Education were established at UZCHS. MEPI has synergistically revitalized medical education, research capacity, and leadership at UZCHS. Investments in creating a new research center, health professions education department, and, programs have laid the foundation to help sustain faculty development and research capacity in the country.

Integrating Training in Quality Improvement and Health Equity in Graduate Medical Education: Two Curricula for the Price of One.

A recent call to address health care disparities has come from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME's) Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) program. The CLER program aspires that faculty and residents will identify the disparities among the patient populations they serve and engage in quality improvement (QI) activities designed to address them. In this Perspective, the authors provide a framework for integrating QI and health equity principles in graduate medical education to meet these ACGME expectations. The authors illustrate their four-step framework by describing a faculty development workshop that provides strategies and tools for embedding equity into existing QI educational efforts and using QI methods to address equity challenges. Using examples, the authors outline how medical educators can begin to integrate QI and equity initiatives to address health care disparities and involve their residents/fellows in the process. In addition, the authors emphasize the importance of applying an equity lens to QI interventions and of recognizing that QI initiatives will have different impacts on outcomes depending on the patient population. The authors conclude by discussing the need for institutional leadership to build capacity and training to improve data collection and reporting of quality metrics by demographic variables; provide resources to disseminate lessons learned; support faculty development to teach and mentor trainees through equity-related QI work; and prioritize time in the curriculum for learners to participate in equity improvement activities.

CREATE Two-Year/Four-Year Faculty Workshops: A Focus on Practice, Reflection, and Novel Curricular Design Leads to Diverse Gains for Faculty at Two-Year and Four-Year Institutions.

Improving STEM education through the propagation of highly effective teaching strategies is a major goal of national reform movements. CREATE (Consider, Read, Elucidate the hypotheses, Analyze and interpret the data, and Think of the next Experiment) is a transformative teaching and learning strategy grounded in evidence-based science pedagogy. CREATE courses promote both cognitive (e.g., critical thinking) and affective (e.g., attitudinal and epistemological) student gains in diverse settings. In this study, we look more deeply into the faculty development workshop used to disseminate CREATE pedagogy to instructors at two-year and four-year institutions. We hypothesized that an immersive experience would positively shift faculty participants’ views on teaching/learning, build their understanding of CREATE pedagogy and develop their confidence for course implementation. Internal and external assessments indicate that faculty participants did achieve gains within the timeframe of the CREATE workshop. We discuss the workshop training outcomes in the context of designing effective dissemination models for innovative practices.

Does faculty development influence the quality of in-training evaluation reports in pharmacy?

BackgroundIn-training evaluation reports (ITERs) of student workplace-based learning are completed by clinical supervisors across various health disciplines. However, outside of medicine, the quality of submitted workplace-based assessments is largely uninvestigated. This study assessed the quality of ITERs in pharmacy and whether clinical supervisors could be trained to complete higher quality reports.MethodsA random sample of ITERs submitted in a pharmacy program during 2013–2014 was evaluated. These ITERs served as a historical control (control group 1) for comparison with ITERs submitted in 2015–2016 by clinical supervisors who participated in an interactive faculty development workshop (intervention group) and those who did not (control group 2). Two trained independent raters scored the ITERs using a previously validated nine-item scale assessing report quality, the Completed Clinical Evaluation Report Rating (CCERR). The scoring scale for each item is anchored at 1 (“not at all”) and 5 (“exemplary”), with 3 categorized as “acceptable”.ResultsMean CCERR score for reports completed after the workshop (22.9 ± 3.39) did not significantly improve when compared to prospective control group 2 (22.7 ± 3.63, p = 0.84) and were worse than historical control group 1 (37.9 ± 8.21, p = 0.001). Mean item scores for individual CCERR items were below acceptable thresholds for 5 of the 9 domains in control group 1, including supervisor documented evidence of specific examples to clearly explain weaknesses and concrete recommendations for student improvement. Mean item scores for individual CCERR items were below acceptable thresholds for 6 and 7 of the 9 domains in control group 2 and the intervention group, respectively.ConclusionsThis study is the first using CCERR to evaluate ITER quality outside of medicine. Findings demonstrate low baseline CCERR scores in a pharmacy program not demonstrably changed by a faculty development workshop, but strategies are identified to augment future rater training.

Diagnosing and Remediating Clinical Reasoning Difficulties: A Faculty Development Workshop

Clinical reasoning is a complex cognitive process that involves multiple steps. Diagnosing and remediating clinical reasoning difficulties requires faculty to have an understanding of the cognitive theory behind clinical reasoning, familiarity with terminology, and a framework to identify different domains of struggle in their learners. Published resources on faculty development to diagnose and remediate clinical reasoning difficulties are limited. We created and implemented a workshop to assist faculty in developing these skills based on the five-domain framework described by Audétat, Laurin, and Sanche. This workshop provides all the materials needed to replicate this training with faculty at other institutions. The workshop consists of a didactic component and case-based active learning in small groups. Each case focuses on different domains of clinical reasoning difficulties and targets different learner levels (preclinical medical students through residents). The workshop was given in multiple venues in 2016 and 2017. Participants reported the session was valuable (4.71/5.0), the facilitators were effective (4.5/5.0), and the objectives were met (4.28/5.0). They highlighted the strengths of the interactive format, the framework to diagnose and remediate clinical reasoning difficulties, and the excellent take-home resources. They suggested more time for the workshop, revision of cases to better highlight difficulties, and refinement of instructions to approach the cases. These suggestions were incorporated into the current iteration of the workshop. We successfully implemented a workshop for diagnosing and remediating clinical reasoning difficulties in multiple venues. The sessions were diverse in terms of faculty participants and learner groups addressed.

Cognitive Debiasing Strategies: A Faculty Development Workshop for Clinical Teachers in Emergency Medicine.

Medical decision-making is a cornerstone of clinical care and a key contributor to diagnostic accuracy. Medical decision-making occurs via two primary pathways: System 1, pattern recognition, is fast, intuitive, and heuristically driven and occurs largely unconsciously. System 2, analytic thinking, is slow, deliberate, and under conscious control. Biases are systematic errors that can impact reasoning via either pathway but predominantly affect decisions made by pattern recognition. Debiasing strategies involve the deliberate switching from pattern recognition to analytic thinking triggered by a stimulus. This resource describes a faculty development workshop designed to train emergency medicine educators about common biases and debiasing strategies, to improve teaching of diagnostic reasoning to trainees. This workshop was implemented at the 2017 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting. The workshop consisted of a brief didactic, followed by small-group case-based learning. A retrospective survey and qualitative evaluation were administered to attendees. The participants' self-assessment showed significant improvements (p < .001) in their abilities to recognize how pattern recognition can lead to bias, identify common types of bias in the emergency department, teach trainees about common types of bias, and apply cognitive debiasing strategies to improve diagnostic reasoning. Strengths of the workshop included the interactive case-based format, discussions of bias-mitigation strategies, and take-home resources. Suggestions for improvement included lengthening the discussion time and providing more cases. Cognitive biases can negatively impact patient care. Faculty development is needed to improve instruction about bias and debiasing strategies for all levels of trainees.

Adherence to Trained Standards After a Faculty Development Workshop on "Teaching With Simulated Patients".

Background: Nowadays, faculty development programs to improve teaching quality are considered to be very important by medical educators from all over the world. However, the assessment of the impact of such programs rarely exceeds tests of participants’ knowledge gain or self-assessments of their teaching behavior. It remains unclear what exactly is expected of the attending faculty and how the transfer to practice may be measured more comprehensively and accurately. Method: This study evaluates how specific teaching standards were applied after a workshop (10 teaching units) focusing on teaching communication skills with simulated patients. Trained observers used a validated checklist to observe 60 teaching sessions (held by 60 different teachers) of a communication skills course integrating simulated patients. Additionally, we assessed the amount of time that had passed since their participation in the workshop and asked them to rate the importance of communication and social skills in medical education. Results: The observations showed that more than two thirds of teaching standards were met by at least 75% of teachers. Fulfillment of standards was significantly connected to teachers’ rating of the importance of communication and social skills (tb=-.21, p=.03). In addition, the results suggest a slight decrease in the amount of fulfilled standards over time (r=-.14, p=.15). Conclusions: Teachers' adherence to basic teaching standards was already satisfying after a one-day workshop. More complex issues need to be re-addressed in further faculty development courses with a special focus on teachers’ attitude towards teaching. In future, continuing evaluations of the transfer of knowledge and skills from faculty development courses into practice, preferably including pre-tests or control groups, are needed.

Effectiveness of longitudinal faculty development programs on MCQs items writing skills: A follow-up study.

This study examines the long-term impact of the faculty development programs on the multiple choice question (MCQ) items’ quality leading to study its effect on the students’ overall competency level during their yearly academic assessment. A series of longitudinal highly constructed faculty development workshops were conducted to improve the quality of the MCQs items writing skills. A total of 2207 MCQs were constructed by 58 participants for the assessment of 882 students’ cognitive competency level during the academic years 2012–2015. The MCQs were analyzed for the difficulty index (P-value), discriminating index (DI), presence/absence of item writing flaws (IWFs), and non-functioning distractors (NFDs), Bloom’s taxonomy cognitive levels, test reliability, and the rate of students’ scoring. Significant improvement in the difficulty index and DI were noticed during each successive academic year. Easy and poor discriminating questions, NFDs and IWFs were decreased significantly, whereas distractor efficiency (DE) mean score and high cognitive level (K2) questions were increased substantially during the each successive academic year. Improved MCQs’ quality leaded to increased competency level of the borderline students. Overall, the longitudinal faculty development workshops help in improving the quality of the MCQs items writing skills of the faculty that leads to students’ high competency levels.

Creating a Role for Embedded Librarians Within an Active Learning Environment

ABSTRACTIn 2013, the librarians at a small academic health sciences library reevaluated their mission, vision, and strategic plan to expand their roles. The school was transitioning to a new pedagogical culture and a new building designed to emphasize interprofessional education and active learning methodologies. Subsequent efforts to implement the new strategic plan resulted in the librarians joining curriculum committees and other institutional initiatives, such as an Active Learning Task Force, and participating in faculty development workshops. This participation has increased visibility and led to new roles and opportunities for librarians.

Strengthening Educational Capacity through Context-Relevant Curriculum Design and Evaluation

There is an acute shortage of healthcare workers in Sudan. The Academy of Health Sciences was created to prepare health-care professionals in order to restore and ultimately maintain the requisite skills-mix. This necessitates transformative education using a context-relevant curricula. A context-relevant curriculum is one that is feasible, consistent with the mission of the educational institution and responsive to the communities of interest. This article describes a partnership to strengthen the local capacity of health workforce educators. The article describes one of a series of faculty development workshops, with this first aimed at the skills to develop and evaluate context-relevant curricula using community midwifery curriculum as exemplar.

Improving Interrater Reliability of Medical Student Assessment by Clinical Supervisors.

Clinical clerkships that rely on community preceptors as faculty and assessors are challenged by the variability in their assessments of student performance. This workshop was designed to improve the interrater reliability of preceptors' assessment of student performance. This workshop uses a series of videos showing standardized student interactions with standardized patients and a preceptor. The videos feature a borderline satisfactory student-patient encounter and a superior student encounter. For each case, there is a video of the student providing an oral presentation of the encounter to a preceptor. The concept of a plus/delta card is also presented. Participants are asked to note positive elements of the interactions and elements needing improvement on the plus/delta card while watching the videos. Next, participants share their assessment of the students with the group using an audience response system. Group discussion allows for consensus and leads to decreased variation in preceptor assessments of each student's performance. This workshop has been delivered to preceptors in our institution as a 1-hour workshop. Additionally, a version has been presented twice at national medical teaching conferences as a faculty development workshop, instructing faculty how to facilitate the workshop. Participant evaluations from the workshop show an increase in preceptors' awareness of specific student behaviors to observe as well as increased confidence with assessing more consistently across various student performances. Using videos with standardized patients, students, and preceptors demonstrating various qualities of performance is effective in improving precision in preceptors' assessment of students in clinical settings.

Evidence-Based Education: Faculty Development Workshop to Promote Critical Thinking Skills in Dental Education.

The Commission on Dental Accreditation emphasizes the importance of teaching critical thinking. If faculty are expected to change the way they teach, training resources that employ the methods of promoting critical thinking must be made available to provide guidance on how to teach critical thinking. A search of MedEdPORTAL showed no peer-reviewed active learning resources for faculty development in the domain of critical thinking. This 90-minute workshop is designed to provide preclinical and clinical dental faculty with strategies to promote critical thinking skills in their students. It includes a presentation on foundational knowledge about critical thinking and knowledge organization, followed by small- and large-group activities. Videos of real teaching encounters are reviewed so that different teaching styles can be seen and discussed. This workshop was given at the 2014 American Dental Education Association Annual Session, receiving an overall rating of 3.67 on a Likert-type scale of 1-4, with 4 being the highest score. It was repeated at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry, where it received an overall rating of 4.7 on a Likert scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest score. For faculty who learned in teacher-centered curricula, training may be necessary to provide them with skills for contemporary teaching in this new domain of competence. This workshop offers such training.

Evaluation of Process and Satisfaction for Selective Courses in a Medical School

The necessity of embracing selective courses in medical curriculum is increasing due to the expansion of medical knowledge and changes in the health care environment. In contrast to the abundant evidence regarding elective or selective courses during the clinical phase, articles focusing on the preclinical period are relatively scarce. This study aims to explore the development, implementation, and evaluation of newly-adopted selective courses in the first-year medical curriculum in a medical school which recently underwent a major curricular revision. First of all, the Curriculum Committee established goals and operating principles of the courses, and then the committee encouraged all participating professors to attend a related faculty development workshop after finalizing the list of courses. A survey was conducted at the end of each course for evaluation. Of the 36 courses opened in 2016, the overall satisfaction of students was 4.98±1.06 (out of 6) and showed a strong correlation with students’ previous expectations, reasoningand participation-oriented teaching, and outcome of the courses including increased motivation. In the open-ended responses, students and professors described not only intended outcomes such as acquisition of medical knowledge and increased interest in new topics, but also unintended outcomes including positive impression for selective courses and even high satisfaction and rewarding experiences, especially from the teachers’ perspective. Although long-term outcomes remain to be seen, the results of this study show the feasibility and impact of selective courses and will contribute to effective implementation in other medical schools.

Highlighting common pitfalls to avoid when writing the medical education manuscript.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Medical educators have an unprecedented opportunity to advance the field through dissemination of their work in academic publications. Also, their advancement may depend heavily on the number of publications. However, writing is, for many medical educators, a daunting task. Fortunately, authors have provided valuable articles and tips on the "how-to" of writing, and faculty development workshops have provided venues during which one can write a basic paper. These all are valuable, but they do not cover some of the unforeseen potential problems associated with publishing. Hence, we offer common pitfalls that the unsuspecting author will want to avoid, grouped into four categories--ethics of publishing, aims of discourse, setting boundaries, and accountability--in a reflective framework that most educators will recognize. These highlights should better equip novice medical educators, provide insights for experienced medical education mentors, and enhance the likelihood that the scholarly work will be published.

Impact of Faculty Development Workshops in Student-Centered Teaching Methodologies on Faculty Members' Teaching and Their Students' Perceptions.

The aim of this study was to assess, after one year, the impact of faculty development in teaching and learning skills focused on a learner-centered approach on faculty members' perceptions of and approaches to teaching and on their students' learning experiences and approaches. Before training (2014), all 176 faculty members at a dental school in Chile were invited to complete the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) to assess their teaching approaches (student- vs. teacher-focused). In 2015, all 496 students were invited to complete the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to assess their learning approaches (deep or surface) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) to measure their teaching quality perceptions. Subsequently, faculty development workshops on student-centered teaching methodologies were delivered, followed by peer observation. In March 2016, all 176 faculty members and 491 students were invited to complete a second ATI (faculty) and R-SPQ-2 and CEQ (students). Before (2014) and after (2016) the training, 114 (65%) and 116 (66%) faculty members completed the ATI, respectively, and 89 (49%) of the then-181 faculty members completed the perceptions of skills development questionnaire in September 2016. In 2015, 373 students (75%) completed the R-SPQ-2F and CEQ; 412 (83%) completed both questionnaires in 2016. In 2014, the faculty results showed that student-focused teaching was significantly higher in preclinical and clinical courses than in the basic sciences. In 2016, teacher-focused teaching fell significantly; basic science teaching improved the most. Students in both the 2015 and 2016 cohorts had lower mean scores for deep learning approaches from year 1 on, while they increased their scores for surface learning. The students' perceptions of faculty members' good teaching, appropriate assessment, clear goals, and e-learning improved significantly, but perception of appropriate workload did not. Teaching and learning skills development produced significant gains in student-centered teaching for these faculty members and in some students' perceptions of teaching quality. However, student workload needs to be considered to support deep learning.

A literature review of mentorship programs in academic nursing.

Nursing education institutions have issued recurring, global calls for mentorship; however, evidence-based program development guidance is scarce. To date, there are no comprehensive syntheses of current mentorship models, objectives, and program components to inform mentorship program development in nursing academia. The purpose of this review is to identify published articles that (1) described models for mentoring programs for academic nurses, and (2) described the objectives and core components of these programs. A systematic search of five databases (Medline, CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, and PsycINFO) was conducted to identify articles describing mentorship programs for academic nurses. Program objectives and components were extracted and narratively synthesized to identify important patterns and themes across mentorship programs. A total of 34 articles describing 30 mentorship programs were identified. Mentoring models included dyad, peer, group, online, distance, learning partnerships, highly relevant, and constellation mentorship models. Key mentoring program components included: (a) having a program coordinator; (b) orientation to the program; (c) selectively matching dyads; (d) developing clear purpose and goals; (e) frequent communication between mentors and mentees; (f) faculty development workshops; (g) mentee reflective journaling; (h) facilitation of socialization and networking opportunities; and (i) administrative support. In synthesizing the mentorship literature in academic nursing it is apparent that mentorship models and mentorship components look different in every setting with no empirical evidence that one mentorship model is more effective than another. Given the significant resources required to support mentorship innovations, understanding the benefits and shortcomings of various mentorship components can help ensure scarce resources are invested in the most effective mentorship strategies.