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Mentorship in Clinical and Translational Research

A guide to empower mentees and mentors in maximizing their mentoring relationships and growing their networks.

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Assess Mentoring Relationships

Assessment, both of the mentor and the mentee, is a critical tool that can help mentoring relationships thrive. Depending on the goals of each relationship, assessment may take the form of self-reflection, ongoing conversation, or formal evaluation. The results can provide valuable feedback and lead to growth by identifying strengths, challenges, and areas in need of support.

It’s important to consider assessment in all types of mentoring relationships, including those that are part of formal programs within departments or institutions as well as one-to-one or small group mentoring relationships that develop organically.

Characteristics and Actions that Foster Effective Mentee-Mentor Relationships

In order to assess mentoring relationships we first need to understand what makes a good one. The literature offers several definitions and frameworks of qualities, attributes, and actions that lead to successful mentoring relationships. After analyzing these frameworks and reflecting on our own experience of developing curriculum, courses, and longitudinal programs on mentorship, we consolidated the core ideas and created a comprehensive list of key characteristics and actions that foster effective mentee-mentor relationships [PDF]. For each characteristic or action, we explain how strong mentors and empowered mentees demonstrate them in practice.

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Navigate through the list of characteristics and actions to learn what they look like in practice. The hyperlinks in the tables below connect to relevant information and exercises throughout this website.

Know themselves
Know themselves table
Mentors Mentees
  • Recognize the value that they can bring to a mentoring relationship.
  • Define what type of expertise their mentee needs (e.g. scientific/ technical, grant or manuscript writing, navigating institutional culture, career advancement etc.).
  • Tailor their mentoring strategy to meet the needs of their mentee(s).
  • Understand the value of a mentoring network.
Are clear about expectations
Are clear about expectations
Mentors Mentees
  • Establish ground rules for communication (e.g. professionalism, vulnerability, transparency regarding confidentiality).
  • Have a formal discussion about expectations at the beginning of the relationship.
  • Use tools to document the agreement.
  • Periodically review the expectations to ensure that they are being met.
  • Agree and adhere to a regular meeting schedule.
  • Are accessible, approachable, and clear on boundaries (e.g. discuss communication styles and preferences and have expectations for communication outside of meeting times).
  • Set clear expectations regarding research-related matters (e.g. space, time, access to resources, authorship). 
  • Establish ground rules for communication (e.g. professionalism, vulnerability, transparency regarding confidentiality). 
  • Contribute to a shared expectation agreement and ensure that expectations are aligned with values and short and long-term goals.
  • Periodically review the expectations to ensure that they are being met.
  • Determine and adhere to a regular meeting time with their mentors.
  • Are accessible, approachable, and clear on boundaries (e.g. discuss communication styles and preferences and have expectations for communication outside of meeting times). 
  • Agree to clear expectations regarding research-related matters (e.g. space, time, access to resources, authorship).
Are aware of and responsive to differences
Are aware of and responsive to differences
Mentors Mentees
  • Recognize/address unconscious biases and prejudices they bring to the mentor/mentee relationship.
  • Practice strategies to engage effectively with mentees whose personal background is different from their own (age, race, gender, class, region, culture, religion, family composition etc.).
  • Foster a sense of belonging by using inclusive language that respects differences.
  • Practice anti-racism and allyship.
  • Recognize and address issues of equity and inclusion in the mentoring relationship, and if challenges arise, know how and where to leverage resources for support. 
  • Recognize/address unconscious biases and prejudices they bring to the mentor/mentee relationship.
  • Practice strategies to engage effectively with mentors whose personal background is different from their own (age, race, gender, class, region, culture, religion, family composition etc.).
  • Foster a sense of belonging by using inclusive language that respects differences.
  • Practice anti-racism and allyship.
  • Recognize and address issues of equity and inclusion in the mentoring relationship, and if challenges arise, know how and where to leverage resources for support.
Are engaged with setting mentees’ personal and professional milestones
Are engaged with setting mentee’s personal and professional milestones
Mentors Mentees
Explore professional development opportunities
Explore professional development opportunities
Mentors Mentees
  • Help their mentees get to know the institutional culture and landscape. 
    • Connect their mentees to individuals, groups, and offices that can support their development. 
  • Help their mentees understand promotion metrics.
  • Suggest courses, books, articles, technology, and other resources for mentee development.
  • Assess what new skills and knowledge they need to gain.
  • Identify development opportunities and leverage connections and resources to learn new skills. 
  • Understand how to prepare for professional advancement (e.g. promotions). 
Provide and advocate for feedback
Provide and advocate for feedback
Mentors Mentees
  • Determine what type of feedback their mentees need and how to best deliver it (e.g. Types: formal, informal, encouragement, coaching, evaluation etc. Format for delivery: written, oral).
  • Provide timely feedback.
  • Are supportive and encouraging. 
  • Practice active listening.
  • Periodically discuss if established expectations are being met.
  • Recognize the type of feedback that they need and know how to ask for it.
  • Are responsive and willing to discuss feedback that they receive.
  • Periodically discuss if established expectations are being met. 
Build effective mentoring networks
Build effective mentoring networks
Mentors Mentees
  • Evaluate their current mentoring network and identify gaps.
  • Seek out new mentors who can fill these gaps.
  • Understand the value of peer mentorship and dedicate time to connecting with and learning from peers.
Practice advocacy
Practice advocacy
Mentors Mentees
  • As opportunities arise, advocate for their mentees to participate or lead.
  • Coach their mentees in how to have conversations with new connections. 
  • Respect their mentees’ contributions and celebrate their successes. 
  • Acknowledge the challenges faced by historically underrepresented groups in the workforce and advocate to increase inclusion and equity. 
Foster productivity and resiliency
Foster productivity and resiliency
Mentors Mentees
  • Coach their mentees on how to increase personal resilience in the face of professional challenges.
  • Empower their mentees to seek out resources for support.  
  • Discuss work-life integration and how to align priorities based on values. 
  • Identify and reflect upon their current time-management strategies and challenges.
  • Identify which activities are most consistent with their professional goals and use this information to discuss where they should prioritize spending time to maximize the likelihood of professional success.
  • Factor personal interests and responsibilities into their time management strategies.
  • Identify strategies to increase personal resilience in the face of professional challenges.
Support mentees’ independence
Support mentees’ independence
Mentors Mentees
  • Suggest that their mentees attend and present at important conferences.
  • Guide their mentees through the publication process (e.g. choosing a journal, strategies for writing and submitting).
  • Role model responsible conduct of research.
  • Provide guidance and support as mentees begin to serve as mentors for others.
  • Guide discussions on career planning and support mentees through career transitions.
  • Identify professional societies and conferences in their field (or the field that they would like to enter) and familiarize themselves with them.
  • Recognize scientific journals and their respective impact factor that are relevant to their work.
  • Discuss ways to use their network to foster recognition.
  • Seek feedback and input from mentors as they prepare for the next phase of their career. 

Characteristics and Actions that Foster Effective Mentee-Mentor Relationships [PDF]  

 

Tools for Assessing Mentoring Relationships

Use an Existing, Published Assessment

There are several validated tools available in the literature to formally assess mentoring relationships in clinical and translational research. These survey instruments can be convenient to adopt as assessments if they align with your mentoring audience and goals. To learn more about some of the available published assessments, explore the list below.

Mentorship Profile Questionnaire and Mentorship Effectiveness Scale

Designed For: Evaluation of research mentors.

Affiliated Institution: The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing 

Citation: Berk, R., Berg, J., Mortimer, R., Walton-Moss, B., & Yeo, T. (2005). Measuring the Effectiveness of Faculty Mentoring Relationships. Academic Medicine, 80(1), 66–71. 

Access the Instrument: Appendix A and B in the article 

Ragins and McFarlin Mentor Role Instrument

Designed For: Clinical and translational science trainees’ evaluation of their mentors (The instrument was originally made for development organizations and was adapted for the clinical and translational science community.) 

Affiliated Institution: Institute for Clinical Research Education and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at University of Pittsburgh

Citation: Dilmore, T. C., Rubio, D. M., Cohen, E., Seltzer, D., Switzer, G. E., Bryce, C., Primack, B., Fine, M. J., & Kapoor, W. N. (2010). Psychometric Properties of the Mentor Role Instrument when Used in an Academic Medicine Setting. Clinical and Translational Science, 3(3), 104–108.

Access the Instrument: Table 2 in the article

Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA)

Designed For: Evaluation of research mentors (They note that mentors and mentees can use it for self-reflection).

Affiliated Institution: The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Mentoring Working Group, UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Citation: Fleming, M., House, S., Hanson, V. S., Yu, L., Garbutt, J., McGee, R., Kroenke, K., Abedin, Z., & Rubio, D. M. (2013). The Mentoring Competency Assessment: Validation of a New Instrument to Evaluate Skills of Research Mentors. Academic Medicine, 88(7), 1002–1008.

Access the Instrument

The Munich Evaluation of Mentoring Questionnaire (MEMeQ)

Designed For: Medical students’ evaluation of their mentors.

Affiliated Institution: Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich, Germany

Citation: Schaefer, M., Pander, T., Pinilla, S., Fischer, M. R., von der Borch, P., & Dimitriadis, K. (2015). The Munich-Evaluation-of-Mentoring-Questionnaire (MEMeQ) – A Novel Instrument for Evaluating Proteges’ Satisfaction with Mentoring Relationships in Medical Education. BMC Medical Education, 15(1), 201–201.

Access the Instrument: Additional file 1 at the bottom of the article

Mentor Evaluation Tool (MET)

Designed For: Evaluation of faculty mentors in academic health sciences (designed for one-to-one relationships).

Affiliated Institution: University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Citation: Yukawa, M., Gansky, S. A., O’Sullivan, P., Teherani, A., & Feldman, M. D. (2020). A New Mentor Evaluation Tool: Evidence of Validity. PloS One, 15(6), e0234345–e0234345.

Access the Instrument: S1 Appendix 1 Mentor Evaluation Tool in the article

Create Your Own Custom Assessment

The goals of each mentoring relationship are unique, and the evaluations used to assess them should be aligned with those goals. Published survey instruments are a useful starting point when considering assessment, but many don’t take into account self-reflection or ongoing assessment, and they may not be inclusive of all audiences.

To tailor your assessment to your mentoring goals, you may find it useful to develop your own custom survey instrument. Follow the steps below to learn how. 

How to Build Your Own Assessment

  1. Collect and reflect on the goals and desired outcomes of your mentoring relationship(s). This is an important step both for one-to-one relationships and for groups or mentorship programs.
  2. Review the Characteristics and Actions that Foster Effective Mentee-Mentor Relationships [PDF] document and highlight the characteristics or actions that are most relevant to your goals and desired outcomes. Write down any additional key characteristics or actions that may not be captured on this document. 
  3. Review your goals and desired outcomes along with the characteristics and actions that you selected. Group the statements into lists that share common themes.
  4. Decide on a format for your assessment. Most published instruments list a series of statements and ask the respondent to rate their reactions using a Likert scale with 5-7 options.
  5. Consolidate your list from Step 3 into a series of statements to use in your assessment. 
  6. Build your assessment and trial it with your audience.

Review the two case studies below to see how we used this approach to develop our Mentee Self-Assessment and our Mentor Evaluation surveys for our longitudinal mentoring program, Career Catalyst.

 

Case Study: Career Catalyst Mentee Self-Assessment [PDF]

Case Study: Career Catalyst Mentor Evaluation [PDF]

 

Consider Ongoing and Informal Assessment

Assessment is important throughout every phase of a mentoring relationship, from using self-assessments to evaluate your needs before starting a relationship, to formally evaluating relationships once they are firmly established.  However, assessment in mentoring relationships doesn’t always need to include formal surveys. Ongoing assessment, such as taking the time to revisit expectation documents and having thoughtful conversations about the relationship, is equally important. These check-ins offer space to assess if you are achieving your goals and milestones and to make adjustments if needed.

Intentionally taking the time to assess mentoring relationships at regular intervals and being transparent with the results provides important, timely feedback and increases communication among mentees and mentors. These assessments also provide the opportunity to identify new needs and opportunities to seek additional support.

 

References

The following references were used in the development of this page.

Berk, R., Berg, J., Mortimer, R., Walton-Moss, B., & Yeo, T. (2005). Measuring the Effectiveness of Faculty Mentoring Relationships. Academic Medicine, 80(1), 66–71.

Bredella, M. A., Alvarez, C., O’Shaughnessy, S. A., Lavigne, S. D., Brink, J. A., & Thrall, J. H. (2021). Radiology Mentoring Program for Early Career Faculty—Implementation and Outcomes. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 18(3), 451–456. 

Dilmore, T. C., Rubio, D. M., Cohen, E., Seltzer, D., Switzer, G. E., Bryce, C., Primack, B., Fine, M. J., & Kapoor, W. N. (2010). Psychometric Properties of the Mentor Role Instrument when Used in an Academic Medicine Setting. Clinical and Translational Science, 3(3), 104–108.

Fleming, M., House, S., Hanson, V. S., Yu, L., Garbutt, J., McGee, R., Kroenke, K., Abedin, Z., & Rubio, D. M. (2013). The Mentoring Competency Assessment: Validation of a New Instrument to Evaluate Skills of Research Mentors. Academic Medicine, 88(7), 1002–1008. 

Holliday, Emma B., MD, Jagsi, Reshma, MD, DPhil, Thomas, Charles R., MD, Wilson, Lynn D., MD, MPH, & Fuller, Clifton D., MD, PhD. (2014). Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Results From the Radiation Oncology Academic Development and Mentorship Assessment Project (ROADMAP). International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 88(1), 18–24. 

Huskins, W. C., Silet, K., Weber-Main, A. M., Begg, M. D., Fowler, Jr, Vance G., Hamilton, J., & Fleming, M. (2011). Identifying and Aligning Expectations in a Mentoring Relationship. Clinical and Translational Science, 4(6), 439–447. 

Meagher, E., Taylor, L., Probsfield, J., & Fleming, M. (2011). Evaluating Research Mentors Working in the Area of Clinical Translational Science: A Review of the Literature. Clinical and Translational Science, 4(5), 353–358. 

Pfund, C., Byars-Winston, A., Branchaw, J., Hurtado, S., & Eagan, K. (2016). Defining Attributes and Metrics of Effective Research Mentoring Relationships. AIDS and Behavior, 20(Suppl 2), 238–248. 

Ripley, E., Markowitz, M., Nichols-Casebolt, A., Williams, L., & Macrina, F. (2012). Training NIH K Award Recipients: The Role of the Mentor. Clinical and Translational Science, 5(5), 386–393. 

Sambunjak, D., Straus, S. E., & Marusic, A. (2010). A Systematic Review of Qualitative Research on the Meaning and Characteristics of Mentoring in Academic Medicine. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25(1), 72–78. 

Schaefer, M., Pander, T., Pinilla, S., Fischer, M. R., von der Borch, P., & Dimitriadis, K. (2015). The Munich-Evaluation-of-Mentoring-Questionnaire (MEMeQ) – A Novel Instrument for Evaluating Proteges’ Satisfaction with Mentoring Relationships in Medical Education. BMC Medical Education, 15(1), 201–201. 

St-Onge, C., Young, M., & Varpio, L. (2019). Development and Validation of a Health Profession Education-Focused Scholarly Mentorship Assessment Tool. Perspectives on Medical Education, 8(1), 43–46. 

Thorndyke, L. E., Gusic, M. E., & Milner, R. J. (2008). Functional Mentoring: A Practical Approach with Multilevel Outcomes. The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 28(3), 157–164. 

Yukawa, M., Gansky, S. A., O’Sullivan, P., Teherani, A., & Feldman, M. D. (2020). A New Mentor Evaluation Tool: Evidence of Validity. PloS One, 15(6), e0234345–e0234345.