Outcomes of a nationwide mentoring program for physician assistant educators.

PURPOSE

Physician assistant (PA) program faculty recruited from clinical practice encounter many barriers to success in academia, contributing to high attrition rates.

METHODS

In response, the PAEA Research Institute developed a nationwide mentoring program for junior PA educators in 2010-2011, focused on scholarship. The program was not well-utilized; more than half of the 33 early-career faculty originally enrolled in the program failed to contact their volunteer mentors despite signing formal agreements.

RESULTS

Neither confidence levels nor actual scholarly productivity differed significantly between the initially matched and wait-list groups. Time devoted to scholarship at the midpoint and end of the program correlated significantly with number of papers produced during the mentorship year (Pearson 0.830 and 0.823, respectively, P < .0001). A separate qualitative follow-up survey identified lack of time, communication issues, and lack of structured expectations for scholarly output as significant barriers.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest lack of time may interfere with mentoring relationships and scholarly success for early-career PA educators.