Mentorship Scheme for Academic Development In Obstetrics & Gynaecology
A number of issues currently threaten recruitment and retention to academic Obstetrics & Gynaecology and include:
- a lack of senior academic role models
- a belief that academic medicine has a low chance of success
- more emphasis on a good balance between work and home life, especially with the increasing number of women in the specialty
- potential loss of earnings from the inability to do private practice
- erosion in clinical lectureship posts and the research assessment exercise
- a loss of identity through closure of O & G departments in medical schools
The RCOG mentorship programme aims to tackle some of these issues to enable academic trainees to meet their professional aspirations and achieve their potential.
Aim of Mentorship Scheme
- Encourage trainees to undertake research and to emphasise the opportunities of academic life.
- Provide long term advice and guidance for an individual academic trainee's career development.
- Identify high fliers who can most benefit from clinical academic training, but recognise others who make competent academics through collaborative research and teaching.
Mentors
Academic consultants were asked to put forward their name if they were interested in providing a mentorship role to two academic trainees. The RCOG has established a register of 35 academic mentors from established Professors and Senior Lecturers, across a broad range of clinical subspecialties and academic roles to provide the mentorship scheme. Potential mentors have completed a statement outlining what they can offer, prior to being placed on the register of mentors.
The role of mentor is unpaid, but the mentor can incorporate the role on his/her portfolio of CPD, and refer to it in submissions for discretionary points/clinical excellence awards.
The scheme can be accessed at any point along an academic career path, from being a Senior House Officer through to Senior Lecturer position. The mentorship scheme will complement local encouragement to academic development, and is part of a broader RCOG strategy to improve academic training structures.
One mentor per Academic Unit is responsible for providing the Academic Committee with annual data regarding staffing, recruitment to research posts and research expenditure to enable potential academic trainees to be matched with the best research training opportunities.
The mentor/mentee relationship:
The mentor and mentee should be able to develop a relationship where the mentee can discuss their professional development in an informal context with someone whom they respect and with whom honest and frank exchanges can take place. In so doing, goals, difficulties, means of overcoming perceived obstacles and so on can be identified and addressed. For some trainees this may be a confidence building exercise, for other a reality check, but whatever the context this should have a supportive, enabling and empowering effect on the mentee. In many cases the mentee will have chosen the mentor and so the latter will have the advantage of having been selected as a potential role model.
Mentors will not be expected to identify funding for a talented trainee, nor to act as an external advisor to a particular research project where an internal advisor was in place or to create tension around the trainee. A mentor could judiciously help to resolve difficulties. A respected external voice could for example, draw attention to excessive clinical demands.
An annual appraisal by the mentor of the trainee will be made with the report going to the local STC to formalise the relationship. The trainee will need to be responsible for out of pocket expenses incurred.
Getting a mentor.
To access a mentor a trainee will complete a pro-forma of structured questions to establish their preferences including personal details, track record and objectives in seeking mentorship, which is sent online to the RCOG Academic Committee Secretary. Trainees will be directed to, or can nominate, a suitable mentor and the mentor then will arrange a meeting. Such a mentor can be local or external but must be capable of being independent so conflicts of interest are avoided.
The mentorship visit
The mentee is expected to prepare well for the visit, whether initial or review by providing an up-to-date CV sent in advance, as well as having developed thoughts on the visit in order to avoid unfavourable initial contact. Mentors are expected to provide career advice, guidance on professional issues, and a supportive role in a pastoral context, as well as constructive comment on rate of progress, extent of achievement, realistic goals and so on. The mentor is not expected to play a role normally expected of an educational or research supervisor, although if a mentee were experiencing difficulty in that context a mentor may wish to bring an issue to the attention of relevant parties.
The outcome of the visit is drafted and co-signed by mentor and mentee and the report lodged with the RCOG Academic Committee. This would not be analogous to reporting of subspecialty training progress to the Subspecialty Committee because academic competencies will be assessed by the academic supervisor locally. Mentees may however, wish to discuss any issues relevant to academic competency with the mentor.