Mentorship availability and needs for junior faculty members at the United States and Australian dental schools

The aims of this study were to understand the experiences junior faculty have during their professional socialisation as educators and how they perceive the need and value of mentorship.

A cross-sectional qualitative study design was used. Data were collected in 2019 through a pre-survey and focus groups with junior faculty (defined as 0-5 years) across four institutions in Australia and the United States of America. Framework analysis was used to identify themes in the data, based on our defined research questions, and socio-cognitive career theory was applied to guide our analysis.

A total of 22 junior faculty participated in the study. Only one of the four institutions had a formal mentoring programme for junior dental faculty. At this institution, 83% of participants indicated they were likely/extremely likely to remain in dental education. Across the three institutions where formal mentoring for junior dental faculty was not available, only 40% of participants indicated they were likely/extremely likely to remain in dental education. We identified five themes in the qualitative data: motivation for career choice, the importance of relationships, personal goals and the need for self-direction, expectations of the role, and institutional effects.

Our findings suggest that mentoring is a critical factor in a junior faculty member's experience entering and socialising into a career in dental education. The perceived value of mentoring emerged across all themes, both from the perspective of participants who had received formal mentoring and those who had not.