Impact of Mentors on Overall Faculty Experience and Reason for Leaving

Skillful mentorship may be the single most influential way to retain new faculty. Inadequately mentored faculty, especially those from under-represented backgrounds, are less likely to be retained in academic careers and demonstrate lower productivity on promotion metrics, and have lower satisfaction with their careers. This study investigates relationships among faculty satisfaction with their mentors, their overall faculty experience and reasons for leaving a school of medicine (SOM), with a focus on mentorship's role in retention and potential return. This cross-sectional, descriptive study was designed primarily for theory generation rather than theory testing, and as such, did not use an explicit theoretical framework. Faculty leaving their SOM position from July 2017 through June 2024 were surveyed to collect data on their employment experiences, which included perceived helpfulness and performance of mentors, primary and secondary reasons for leaving, critical factors for faculty development and retention and overall employment experience. Ordinal variables were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Reasons-for-leaving variables association with categorical variables were analyzed using chisquare tests and generalized linear models. Faculty analyzed (N=380) were 53% female, 13% Hispanic, 55% Assistant Professor, 27% Associate, 10% Professor, 75% clinician educators, and 11% tenured/tenure-track. Satisfaction with mentoring resources was associated with inadequate mentorship as a reason for leaving (p<.001) but not with work-life balance (p=.144). Mediation analyses indicated there was a direct effect of mentoring helpfulness on likelihood of returning to a SOM and an indirect effect on likelihood of returning through mentoring effects on overall faculty experience at the SOM. Mentor training programs may impact overall faculty experiences by improving perceived helpfulness of mentors.