Evaluation of a Virtual Culturally Aware Mentoring Workshop for Biomedical Faculty

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Sciences
• Mentorship Training
• Diversity and Inclusion in STEM

Background:

• Effective mentorship is crucial for biomedical research.
• Racially and ethnically minoritized students face unique challenges in academic settings.
• There is a need for culturally sensitive mentorship training for faculty.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the online Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) workshop.
• To assess biomedical faculty's perceptions of the CAM workshop's content and delivery.
• To identify areas for improvement in the CAM workshop for enhanced cultural awareness in mentorship.

Main Methods:

• A national cluster randomized comparative study design.
• Online delivery of the Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) workshop.
• Data collected from 231 biomedical faculty across 12 universities.

Main Results:

• Participants reported favorable evaluations of the online CAM workshop's presentation and content.
• Faculty participants indicated the workshop increased their cultural awareness as mentors.
• Suggestions for workshop improvement were provided by participants.

Conclusions:

• The online CAM workshop is a well-received intervention for enhancing faculty cultural awareness.
• The findings support the scalability of CAM for broader implementation in biomedical education.
• Further research should explore long-term impacts and refine workshop content based on feedback.