Keller Thomas E, Collier Peter J, Blakeslee Jennifer E, Logan Kay, McCracken Karen, Morris Cynthia
a Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research, Portland State University , Portland , Oregon , USA.
Teach Learn Med. 2014;26(3):211-6. doi: 10.1080/10401334.2014.883983.
The education and training of early career biomedical translational researchers often involves formal mentoring by more experienced colleagues.
This study investigated the nature of these mentoring relationships from the perspective of mentees. The objective was to understand the challenges and issues encountered by mentees in forming and maintaining productive mentoring relationships.
Three focus groups (n=14) were conducted with early career researchers who had mentored career development awards. Thematic analysis identified, categorized, and illustrated the challenges and issues reported by mentees.
The range of mentee challenges was reflected in five major categories: (a) network--finding appropriate mentors to meet various needs; (b) access--structuring schedules and opportunities to receive mentoring; (c) expectations--negotiating the mechanics of the mentoring relationship and its purpose; (d) alignment--managing mentor-mentee mismatches regarding interests, priorities, and goals; and (e) skills and supports--developing the institutional supports to be successful.
Mentoring relationships created for academic training and career development contend with tasks common to many other relationships, namely, recognizing compatibility, finding time, establishing patterns, agreeing to goals, and achieving aims. Identifying challenges faced by mentees can facilitate the development of appropriate trainings and supports to foster mentoring relationships in academic and career settings.
早期职业生物医学转化研究人员的教育和培训通常涉及由经验更丰富的同事进行正式指导。
本研究从 mentees 的角度调查了这些指导关系的性质。目的是了解 mentees 在建立和维持富有成效的指导关系中遇到的挑战和问题。
对获得职业发展奖指导的早期职业研究人员进行了三个焦点小组（n = 14）。主题分析确定、分类并说明了 mentees 报告的挑战和问题。
mentee 的挑战范围反映在五个主要类别中：（a）网络——找到合适的导师以满足各种需求；（b）机会——安排时间表和获得指导的机会；（c）期望——协商指导关系的机制及其目的；（d）一致性——管理导师与 mentee 在兴趣、优先事项和目标方面的不匹配；（e）技能和支持——发展机构支持以取得成功。
为学术培训和职业发展建立的指导关系与许多其他关系共有的任务作斗争，即认识兼容性、找到时间、建立模式、商定目标和实现目标。识别 mentees 面临的挑战可以促进开发适当的培训和支持，以在学术和职业环境中培养指导关系。
