JUNIOR FACULTY MEMBERS MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT IN US MEDICAL-SCHOOLS

Purpose. To determine (1) the prevalence of mentoring relationships fu r U.S. medical school junior faculty; (2) the quality of these mentori ng relationships; (3) any variation by gender or race; and (4) the rel ationship between mentoring and junior faculty members' perceptions of institutional professional support; research-, teaching-, and clinica l-skills development; allocation of time to professional activities; a nd career satisfaction. Method. In 1995 a 177-item survey was mailed t o 3,013 full-time faculty at 24 randomly selected U.S. medical schools stratified on an area of medical specialization, graduation cohort, a nd gender. Mentoring was defined as ''dynamic reciprocal relationship between an advanced career incumbent (the mentor) and a junior faculty member (the protege) aimed at fostering the development of the junior person/protege.'' Because mentoring is most crucial for junior facult y, the study focused on mentoring relationships within the previous th ree years (''recent mentoring'') for faculty who were not full profess ors. Chi-square tests, analysis of variance, and principal-components analysis were used to analyze the data. Results. In all, 1,808 (60%) o f the 3,013 faculty surveyed, of whom 72% were junior faculty, returne d completed questionaires. Fifty-four percent of the junior faculty ha d had a recent mentoring relationship. There was no significant differ ence between the men and the women faculty or between majority and min ority faculty in the prevalence and quality of the mentoring relations hips. The faculty with mentors rated their research preparation and re search skills higher than did the faculty without mentors. Most of the women faculty (80%) and the minority faculty (86%) who had had mentor s reported that it was not important to have a mentor of the same gend er or minority group. Conclusion. Mentoring relationships are prevalen t in academic medicine and should be promoted to support the career gr owth of junior faculty.