Applications are now open for the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) Clinical Faculty Mentoring Program. Now in its fourth year, the program was created to support the career goals of clinical faculty in clinical, administrative and research settings and to enhance overall engagement within the Department.
“The DEM’s Clinical Faculty Mentorship Program offers an opportunity to the mentees to take active responsibility for their learning, and our carefully paired mentors serve as facilitators of growth,” said Dr. David Migneault, Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC DEM and UBC Clinical Faculty Advisory Council member. “Our previous participants valued the ability to ask thoughtful, thought-provoking questions, and gained a mutually beneficial relationship in which the mentor and mentee shared insights, knowledge and experience.”
As physicians have faced significant challenges in recent years from pandemic-related stressors and increased wait times in the emergency department to tackling issues with inequitable patient care, mentorship can bring together different perspectives and support senior faculty to share valuable guidance and experience with junior faculty members.
“This program helped me resolve some of my own professional insecurities and helped me through a time when I was feeling particularly burnt out.” – 2021 Mentee
A partnership between Faculty Affairs and the Division of Continuing Professional Development (UBC CPD), the program addresses the need to facilitate ongoing learning for those who teach others, creating a mutually beneficial opportunity to further develop the best educators and leaders.
Mentees can benefit from the program by learning from more experienced educators who can help them achieve their career goals, overcome barriers and provide guidance based on many years of knowledge and experience. This may be particularly beneficial for new educators who have yet to become clinical faculty. The program also provides mentors with the rewarding experience to share their knowledge and guidance with less experienced colleagues, while further developing their own leadership skills.
“The Clinical Faculty Mentoring Program has been highly successful because of the support and community it provides to both mentors and mentees,” said Allison Macbeth, UBC CPD Education Manager. “Mentees are able to set personal goals and meet them with support of their mentors. Mentees have told us they find this program to be a good use of their time and would recommend it to their colleagues.”
The program will pair junior DEM clinical faculty or clinical educators (mentees) with senior and more experienced clinical faculty or educator (mentors). Mentors and mentees will be paired for eight months during which time they will engage in a formal, structured mentoring relationship and have the opportunity to attend professional development sessions on topics relevant to teaching, leadership and career development. Pairs must commit to meeting about once a month to get the most out of the mentor/mentee experience.
“I was initially going to sign up as a mentee but ended up choosing to mentor, which helped me feel more confident in my experience and knowledge sharing.” – 2021 Mentor
The 2022/23 session runs from September 2022 to April 2023. Applications are now open! The deadline to apply is August 1, 2022.
Visit https://ubccpd.ca/clinical-faculty-mentoring to submit your application or to learn more. If you have any questions, please contact cf.mentoring@ubc.ca.