Balancing act: An autoethnographic study of one medical educator's first year as a mentor

Novice faculty mentors often struggle with the transition from mentee to mentor. Although they may face similar challenges, each mentor's experience and journey of professional identity formation is unique, influenced by their background, experiences, relationships, and context. This autoethnographic study describes my personal experiences as a first-year faculty mentor in medical education, including the challenges I encountered, lessons I learned, and recommendations I have for novice faculty mentors in similar situations. Between January and August 2024, I recorded a series of reflective audio diaries after mentor-mentee project meetings. Each audio diary followed a semi-structured format and included my description of events, critical reflections, and mentoring plans. I then performed reflexive thematic analysis on the audio diaries using both deductive codes based on Transformative Learning Theory and inductive codes derived from the collected data. Through this analysis, I generated the overarching theme of The Balancing Act, in which faculty mentors must constantly balance an ever-shifting collection of competing factors in their mentoring relationships (e.g., time, effort, contributions, and expectations). This theme also included five sub-themes: (i) Balancing Project Contributions, (ii) Balancing Time and Obligations, (iii) Balancing Oversight and Autonomy, (iv) Shifting the Balance, and (v) Communicating the Balance. Although I found The Balancing Act challenging to achieve in my first year, clear and consistent communication greatly reduced the difficulty. With continued practice and reflection, I believe my skills in navigating The Balancing Act will improve further, allowing me to support mentees more effectively.