Development and assessment of a Mentor Training Workshop Series and Certificate Program

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Faculty Development
• Mentorship Training

Background:

• Academic faculty require robust mentoring skills for effective guidance.
• A need exists for structured, competency-based mentor training programs.
• Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute addressed this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish and evaluate a foundational mentor training curriculum.
• To assess the impact of a workshop series and certificate program on faculty mentoring.
• To enhance mentoring competencies and behaviors among faculty.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of the "Developing and Enhancing Mentoring Relationships" workshop series (launched 2020).
• Introduction of a Mentor Training Certificate Program (MTCP) (launched 2021).
• Pre- and post-training surveys assessing mentoring skills and behaviors.

Main Results:

• 345 unique faculty attended workshops; 46 completed the MTCP over four years.
• Significant increases observed in self-assessed mentoring skills and frequency of mentoring behaviors.
• High participant satisfaction reported with the training program.

Conclusions:

• The developed mentor training curriculum and workshop series effectively enhance faculty mentoring skills.
• The program offers valuable initial and advanced training opportunities for faculty.
• Competency-based mentor training leads to measurable improvements in mentoring practice.