In 2023-2024, UBC CPD successfully supported 35 pairs of junior clinical faculty and new educators (mentees) and senior clinical faculty (mentors) from 13 Faculty of Medicine departments in the Clinical Faculty Mentoring program — tripling the participation since the program’s inception in 2017.
In partnership with UBC Faculty of Medicine Faculty Affairs, the program’s fifth cohort spanned from October 2023 to April 2024 and boosted feelings of connection, confidence and satisfaction amongst mentees.
“It has really helped me with my transition to practice and negotiation of family-work balance. Has significantly increased my effectiveness at work and helped a lot with the administrative aspects of the transition to practice”, says a 2023-2024 program participant/mentee.
UBC CPD runs fifth program cohort with UBC Faculty Affairs
This past year, the Clinical Faculty Mentoring program provided seven months of mentoring meetings for pairs, three professional development sessions on the topics of: joy at work, giving feedback in difficult situations and coaching through conflict.
Evaluations revealed that feelings of connection to the Faculty of Medicine, satisfaction with experience as a clinical faculty member and confidence in supervising students on clinical placement were improved amongst mentees.
Before the program, 30% of evaluation responses agreed and strongly agreed that they were satisfied as a clinical faculty member. After the program, 71% of responses agree and strongly agree that they are satisfied as a clinical faculty member.
“My mentor was amazing — she guided me through so many challenges I had while supervising students, especially as I come from a culturally different background and had integration challenges associated with that”, says a 2023-2024 program participant/mentee.
Program history
UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM) Faculty Affairs and UBC CPD have partnered to deliver the mentoring program to clinical faculty within the Faculty of Medicine.
Junior faculty members looking for mentorship are paired with more senior faculty mentors to support their career goals in clinical and administrative settings.
Support is provided through one-to-one meetings and group learning sessions with topic experts — covering areas like teaching skills, providing feedback, coaching through conflict, Indigenous cultural awareness, work-life balance and more.
The program has supported 113 mentees from 23 Faculty of Medicine departments since 2017.
Looking ahead
UBC CPD aims to strengthen the Clinical Faculty Mentoring program for 2024-2025 by engaging with program participants to learn how to better support them, particularly in response to mentors' desire for more administrative support.
The program will include delivering an online Orientation Session for all participants, the creation of relevant resources for clinical faculty (such as a curated list of faculty development-related education), create linkages to other UBC Faculty Development programs and services and more.
Acknowledgements
The Clinical Faculty Mentoring Program is a partnership between UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM) Faculty Affairs office and UBC CPD.
Applications for the next cohort are now open
The program will run its sixth cohort from October 2024 to April 2025 and continues to find success by offering a semi-structured program with minimum mandatory participation.