Preparing Interprofessional Faculty to Be Humanistic Mentors for Medical Students: The GW-Gold Mentor Development...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Faculty Development
• Humanism in Medicine

Background:

• Medical schools face challenges in educating faculty to foster humanistic practice among students.
• The GW-Gold program is designed to address this by preparing interprofessional faculty mentoring teams.
• These teams are grounded in Branch's Teaching Professional and Humanistic Values model.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the GW-Gold Humanistic Mentor Development Program.
• To evaluate the program's effectiveness in preparing faculty mentors.
• To understand the mentor experience within humanistic communities of practice.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-method validating triangulation design was employed.
• Quantitative data were collected through mentor and student surveys.
• Qualitative data were gathered via open-ended survey questions and focus groups.

Main Results:

• Mentors reported high program ratings and increased confidence in humanistic skills.
• Students provided high scores for the mentors.
• Key themes included the development of interprofessional faculty communities, creation of safe environments for student engagement, and expansion of mentors' identities.

Conclusions:

• The GW-Gold program's interprofessional approach and small communities of practice are valuable for sustaining humanism in medical education.
• The program successfully prepares faculty to lead humanistic communities.
• Outcomes support the program's distinctive features in fostering humanistic practice.