Mentoring Responsibilities Agreement

We are pleased to inform you that Dr. [student name] has been accepted into the Scholars in Clinical Science Program (SCSP), and you have been identified as his/her mentor. The SCSP consist of three general educational approaches: (1) a series of didactic degree-quality courses, (2) a longitudinal clinical research seminar series, and (3) most importantly, a mentored clinical research project.

We strongly believe that development of the Scholar depends upon a specific, intensive mentored research experience under the direct supervision of an accomplished clinical research investigator like you. As with bench-research programs, the optimal clinical research training experience will take place in the laboratory of a well-established investigator with an independent, extramural-funded research program. The success of this mentor-directed, hypothesis-driven intensive research experience is largely dependent on your willingness to guide the Scholar in this effort and to protect his/her time to achieve success in this endeavor. The SCSP requires a student to have 80% protected time throughout the two years of the program. The SCSP is not prescriptive as to how the 20% clinical effort is comprised; some training programs wish to intersperse outpatient and inpatient responsibilities. However, the 80% protected time is critical to the student's success given the serious time commitment required to pursue SCSP-related activities. Typically one half-day clinic involves more than 10% effort. Indeed, many healthcare systems allocate 12.5% effort for each half-day clinic session to accommodate for out-of-clinic time (e.g., phone calls, medical refills, review labs). We anticipate that students will also attend clinical conferences in their divisions and departments, thus adding to their clinical time. A successful model that has been effective for prior students is to have one half-day clinic weekly. For most ACGME-accredited programs, this allocation is also adequate to maintain the required longitudinal experience.

Your Scholar will be required to submit a project title and abstract to the SCSP Committee on Mentoring (COM) before the summer session begins in July. To facilitate this process, we expect that you will meet with your Scholar at least once before the program begins to work with him/her in accomplishing this task.

Effective mentoring is important in training a mentee in the techniques and processes utilized in the research laboratory but is also essential for the development of excellent clinical research investigators as stated below:

"Mentoring plays an important role in the conveyance of research standards to trainees. Trainees not only draw from their mentors' scientific expertise but also infer from the words and actions of their mentors notions about responsibly conducting research, preparing grant applications, interacting with colleagues and preparing articles for publication. Laboratory supervision, one activity encompassed by the concept of mentoring, is critical to assessing the professional development of the trainee and to ensuring the integrity of projects in which individuals other than the principal investigator may play a role."
(AAMC, Teaching the Responsible Conduct of Research, p. 93)

We believe that an effective mentoring environment consists of three components:

• The mentor/preceptor is responsible for overseeing the research project. Specifically, the mentor supervises, at regular intervals, the design and conduct of the study, the scientific and clinical details of the investigation, the analysis of generated data, and the preparation of manuscripts and presentations for publications and meetings, including the "oral thesis defense" presentation at the conclusion of the two-year training program. Additionally, the perspective of the university medical center regarding ethical and regulatory issues in human investigations should be continually reviewed.
• As a second tier in the mentoring system and to assist in the development of a cohesive program, each Scholar is appointed a "program advisor" from the COM. This individual is responsible for oversight of the student/mentor relationship, offers career guidance, and participates on the student's thesis committee. An additional component of our advisory system is a group of individuals called "key contacts." The key contact group is composed of members of the faculty or administration who have special insights or expertise to offer trainees. These individuals are junior and senior scientists who have taken a special interest in the SCSP and are invited to attend program functions to get to know the Scholars formally and informally.
• The Longitudinal Clinical Research Seminar series provides formal instruction to Scholars in a number of areas related to the mentoring experience. The main thematic components of the Seminar series are Career, Personal, and Scientific Development; Grantsmanship; Preparing and Presenting Research Findings; and Ethics in Clinical Investigation.

Because the role that you will play in your Scholar's development will be instrumental in determining his/her success as a clinical researcher, and because high-quality mentoring is key to the overall success of the SCSP, we are providing you with a booklet on mentoring, "Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend," and ask that you sign and return this document indicating your support for your Scholar.