Abstract
Objective
Challenges in pursuing research during residency may contribute to the shortage of clinician-scientists. Although the importance of mentorship in facilitating academic research careers has been described, little is understood about early career research mentorship for residents. The aim of this study was to better understand the mentorship process in the context of psychiatry residency.
Method
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced faculty mentors in a psychiatry department at a large academic medical center. Interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results from faculty interviews identified several key themes that were explored with an additional sample of resident mentees.
Results
Five themes emerged in our study: (1) being compatible: shared interests, methods, and working styles; (2) understanding level of development and research career goals in the context of residency training; (3) establishing a shared sense of expectations about time commitment, research skills, and autonomy; (4) residents’ identity as a researcher; and (5) the diverse needs of a resident mentee. There was considerable congruence between mentor and mentee responses.
Conclusions
There is an opportunity to improve research mentoring practice by providing guidance to both mentors and mentees that facilitates a more structured approach to the mentorship relationship.
References
Alberts B, Kirschner MW, Tilghman S, Varmus H. Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014;111:5773–7. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24733905.
Zemlo TR, Garrison HH, Partridge NC, Ley TJ. The physician-scientist: career issues and challenges at the year 2000. FASEB J: Off Publ Fed Am Soc Exp Biol. 2000;14(2):221–30.
Yin HL, Gabrilove J, Jackson R, Sweeney C, Fair AM, Toto R. Sustaining the clinical and translational research workforce. Acad Med. 2015;90:1. [Internet] Available from: http://content.wkhealth.com/linkback/openurl?sid=WKPTLP:landingpage&an=00001888-900000000-98792.
Eisenberg L. Research training in psychiatry residency: strategies for reform. Am J Psychiatry. 2004;161:1930–1. [Internet] Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26479072.
Rotherberg MB. Overcoming the obstacles to research during residency. J Am Med Assoc. 2012;308:2191–3.
Rivera JA, Levine RB, Wright SM. Brief report: completing a scholarly project during residency training - perspectives of residents who have been successful. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20:366–9.
Kupfer DJ, Schatzberg AF, Grochocinski VJ, Dunn LO, Kelley KA, O’Hara RM. The career development institute for psychiatry: an innovative, longitudinal program for physician-scientists. Acad Psychiatry. 2009;33:313–8.
Burns LJ, Clayton CP, George JN, Mitchell BS, Gitlin SD. The effect of an intense mentoring program on junior Investigators’ preparation for a patient-oriented clinical research career. Acad Med. 2015;90(8):1061–8.
Donaldson LJ, Cresswell PA. Dissemination of the work of public health medicine trainees in peer-reviewed publications: an unfulfilled potential. Public Health. 1996;110:61–3.
Sambunjak D, Straus SE, Marušić A. Mentoring in academic medicine: a systematic review. J Am Med Assoc. 2006;296(9):1103–15. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16954490.
Steiner JF, Curtis P, Lanphear BP, Vu KO, Main DS. Assessing the role of influential mentors in the research development of primary care fellows. Acad Med. 2004;79(9):865–72. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15326013.
Detsky AS, Baerlocher MO. Academic mentoring--how to give it and how to get it. JAMA. 2007;297:2134–6. [Internet] Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17507350.
Silberman EK, Belitsky R, Bernstein CA, Cabaniss DL, Crisp-Han H, Dickstein LJ, et al. Recruiting researchers in psychiatry: the influence of residency vs. early motivation. Acad Psychiatry. 2012;36:85–90. [Internet] Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1176/appi.ap.10010010.
O’Sullivan PA, Niehaus B, Lockspeiser TM, Irby DM. Becoming an academic doctor: perceptions of scholarly careers. Med Educ. 2009;43:335–41.
Cho CS, Ramanan RA, Feldman MD. Defining the ideal qualities of mentorship: a qualitative analysis of the characteristics of outstanding mentors. Am J Med. 2011;124:453–8.
Kram K. Mentoring at work: developmental relationships in organizational life. Glenview: Scott Foresman; 1985.
Allen TD, Eby LT, Lentz E. Mentorship behaviors and mentorship quality associated with formal mentoring programs: closing the gap between research and practice. J Appl Psychol. 2006;91:567–78. [Internet] Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16737355.
McMillan W. Theory in healthcare education research: the importance of worldview. Researching medical education [internet]. Chichester: Wiley; 2015. p. 15–24. doi:10.1002/9781118838983.ch2.
Sargeant J. Qualitative research part II: participants, analysis, and quality assurance. J Grad Med Educ. 2012;4(1):1–3.
Fossey E, Harvey C, McDermott F, Davidson L. Understanding and evaluating qualitative research. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2002;36(6):717–32. doi:10.1046/j.1440-1614.2002.01100.x/full [Internet].
QSR International. QSR Nvivo. 2014. Available from: www.qsrinternational.com. Last accessed 1 Mar 2016.
Saldaña J. The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage; 2015.
Quinn Patton M. Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA; 2001.
Frambach JM, van der Vleuten CPM, Durning SJ. AM last page: quality criteria in qualitative and quantitative research. Acad Med. 2013;88(4):552.
Johnson WB. The intentional mentor: strategies and guidelines for the practice of mentoring. Prof Psychol: Res Pract. 2002;33:88–96.
Keyser DJ, Lakoski JM, Lara-Cinisomo S, Schultz DJ, Williams VL, Zellers DF, et al. Advancing institutional efforts to support research mentorship: a conceptual framework and self-assessment tool. Acad Med. 2008;83(3):217–25.
Jackson VA, Palepu A, Szalacha L, Caswell C, Carr PL, Inui T. “Having the right chemistry”: a qualitative study of mentoring in academic medicine. Acad Med. 2003;78(3):328–34.
Lee A. How are doctoral students supervised? Concepts of doctoral research supervision. 2008; Available from: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/info_sci/10. Last accessed 1 Mar 2016.
European Psychiatric Association. Annual Report [Internet]. 2011. Available from: http://www.europsy.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/reportepa-2011_web1.pdf. Last accessed 1 Mar 2016.
Seaburg LA, Wang AT, West CP, Reed DA, Halvorsen AJ, Engstler G, et al. Associations between resident physicians’ publications and clinical performance during residency training. BMC Med Educ. 2016;16:22. [Internet] Available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/16/22.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
This study was deemed exempt from full review by the Yale University Human Subjects Committee. Informed consent was obtained from participants, and strict privacy standards were enforced.
Disclosures
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding
Internally funded through funds of Dr Robert Rohrbaugh and Dr Susan van Schalkwyk.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van Schalkwyk, G.I., Katz, R.B., Resignato, J. et al. Effective Research Mentorship for Residents: Meeting the Needs of Early Career Physicians. Acad Psychiatry 41, 326–332 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-016-0625-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-016-0625-9