The Development, Implementation, and Assessment of an Innovative Faculty Mentoring Leadership Program

Effective mentoring is an important component of academic success. Few programs exist to both improve the effectiveness of established mentors and cultivate a multispecialty mentoring community. In 2008, in response to a faculty survey on mentoring, leaders at Brigham and Women's Hospital developed the Faculty Mentoring Leadership Program as a peer learning experience for midcareer and senior faculty physician and scientist mentors to enhance their skills and leadership in mentoring and create a supportive community of mentors. A planning group representing key administrative, educational, clinical, and research mentorship constituencies designed the nine-month course. Participants met monthly for an hour and a half during lunchtime. Two cofacilitators engaged the diverse group of 16 participants in interactive discussions about cases based on the participants' experiences. While the cofacilitators discussed with the participants the dyadic mentor-mentee relationship, they specifically emphasized the value of engaging multiple mentors and establishing mentoring networks. In response to postsession and postcourse (both immediately and after six months) self-assessments, participants reported substantive gains in their mentoring confidence and effectiveness, experienced a renewed sense of enthusiasm for mentoring, and took initial steps to build a diverse network of mentoring relationships. In this article, the authors describe the rationale, design, implementation, assessment, and ongoing impact of this innovative faculty mentoring leadership program. They also share lessons learned for other institutions that are contemplating developing a similar faculty mentoring program.