Identifying Faculty Motivators and Barriers to Participation as a Scholarly Mentor for Pediatric Residents: A Qualitative Approach

Poster Title: Identifying Faculty Motivators and Barriers to Participation as a Scholarly Mentor for Pediatric Residents: A Qualitative Approach

Student: Virginia Lane, Class of 2024

Faculty Mentor and Department: Elizabeth Halvorson MD MS, Laurie Albertini MD, Jeanna Auriemma MD, John Darby MD, Shannon Hanson Ph.D. MPH, Kimberly Montez MD MPH, Thomas Russell MD Pediatrics Department.

Funding Source: None

Background: Faculty mentorship is an important component of medical training. Participation in scholarship is a required component of pediatric residency training according to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME); however, many programs identify a lack of faculty mentors as a significant barrier to meeting this requirement. Participation in scholarship increases competitiveness in the fellowship programs, as well as informing their career beyond residency. Therefore, it is paramount to understand and address the shortage of faculty mentors. While existing literature has focused on the barriers to participation, studies have not evaluated potential benefits to participation. The objective of this project is to investigate barriers and motivators affecting participation as a faculty scholarly mentor in the Wake Forest School of Medicine’s pediatric residency program. 

Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that Self-Determination Theory, the idea that a combination of competence, relatedness, and autonomy motivates one’s decision-making process, plays a critical role in the motivation to participate as a faculty mentor. It is believed that this theory will correlate with the themes identified in the completed interviews.

Methods:A series of twenty semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with pediatric faculty involved in Wake Forest’s pediatric residency program. For triangulation, faculty were purposively sampled based on past participation in mentorship, career length, and scholarship productivity. The interview guide contains was developed on Self-Determination Theory and explored experiences mentoring residents, and the benefits of and the barriers to their participation or lack of participation in mentorship. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and then coded with a common coding system and data dictionary by two research members. Development of themes was based on a grounded theory approach. Interviews were conducted until thematic saturation was achieved.

Results:The themes arising from this study suggest that motivators and barriers of pediatric faculty in mentoring residents in scholarship are impacted by self-determination theory’s central tenant, that motivation comes from an individual’s sense of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. The themes that arose are as follows: 1) Roles of mentor and mentee vary based on experiences, backgrounds, and skillsets; 2) Failings, feelings, and fulfillment affect the mentor-mentee dyad; 3) Residency scholarship programs are one of many institutional/third-party factors affecting mentor-mentee dyads; 4) Mentor and mentee autonomy are impacted by clinical and training demands; and 5) Multiple relationship and communication styles contribute to a sense of relatedness for the mentor and mentee.

Conclusions: It is suggested that the combination of competence, relatedness, and autonomy impacts the relationship of mentor-mentee dyads. Pediatric residency programs could benefit from the use of self-determination theory in providing resources and infrastructure to support mentee-mentor dyads. Future research could study quantitative aspect’s, such as dissemination to further determine benefits to faculty participation in resident scholarly mentorship.