Mentoring
The Medical School is committed to ensuring that all faculty members receive the mentoring they need to excel in their professional roles and lead successful, satisfying careers at the University of Minnesota. A variety of resources are available to faculty members in the Medical School, through the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA). We encourage faculty to connect with the OFA staff for additional assistance finding resources to help you succeed at the University.
Department and Unit Programming
Health Equity Leadership and Mentoring Program
Effective mentoring is one of the most critical components of a successful academic career. The Health Equity Leadership & Mentoring Program (HELM), a part of the Medical School’s Program in Health Disparities Research, aims to provide such support. The program works to enhance the academic excellence and leadership capacity of diverse faculty and health disparities researchers at the University of Minnesota, with a broader goal to ultimately reduce health inequities. HELM addresses some of the challenges that many face in the academic setting. The program aims to support faculty and postdoctoral fellows/trainees from minority and underserved communities and other faculty whose research focuses on health equity.
CTSI: Online Mentor Training Courses
In this online training, you'll learn about the value of mentoring and explore strategies for supporting your mentees' intellectual, professional, and psychosocial development as researchers. You'll be introduced to different phases in the lifecycle of a mentoring relationship. And you'll be encouraged to adopt a thoughtful, proactive approach to navigating challenges that might arise in your interactions with mentees.
Course content is delivered through text, audio, mini-presentations, self-reflection, case studies, and other interactive activities. You will also have the opportunity to complete a Mentoring Action Plan and access an online mentoring toolkit.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:
- Appreciate and communicate to mentees the importance of mentoring in their development as researchers
- Articulate the pros and cons of different mentoring models
- More effectively fulfill the many roles and responsibilities a research mentor may be expected to perform
- Engage in research mentoring in a more structured and intentional way, with attention to navigating the specific phases of the relationship
- Proactively apply specific strategies to build and maintain effective research mentoring relationships
- Identify and address challenges that might arise in a research mentoring relationship
- Routinely reflect on and adapt your research mentoring practices
Who should attend:
Individuals who serve as research mentors for graduate students, fellows, or faculty in academic settings or other research training environments. Content is targeted to research mentoring within biomedical, behavioral, and social science fields. However, many of the principles and approaches covered in this course are applicable to other disciplines and other types of mentoring relationships.
Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring 102: For Research Mentors of Undergraduate Students
In this online training, you'll learn about the value of mentoring and explore strategies for supporting your mentees' intellectual, professional, and psychosocial development as researchers. You'll be introduced to different phases in the lifecycle of a mentoring relationship. And you'll be encouraged to adopt a thoughtful, proactive approach to navigating challenges that might arise in your interactions with mentees.
Course content is delivered through text, audio, mini-presentations, self-reflection, case studies, and other interactive activities. You will also have the opportunity to complete a Mentoring Action Plan and access an online mentoring toolkit.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:
- Appreciate and communicate to mentees the importance of mentoring in their development as researchers
- Articulate the pros and cons of different mentoring models
- More effectively fulfill the many roles and responsibilities a research mentor may be expected to perform
- Engage in research mentoring in a more structured and intentional way, with attention to navigating the specific phases of the relationship
- Proactively apply specific strategies to build and maintain effective research mentoring relationships
- Identify and address challenges that might arise in a research mentoring relationship
- Routinely reflect on and adapt your research mentoring practices
Who should attend:
Individuals who serve as research mentors for undergraduate students. Content is targeted to research mentoring within biomedical, behavioral, and social science fields. However, many of the principles and approaches covered in this course are applicable to other disciplines and other types of mentoring relationships.
Enhancing Motivation Using the CARES Mentoring Model
In this online training, you’ll learn about basic motivation concepts and their well-researched impact on satisfaction, performance, and persistence in educational and professional settings. You’ll be introduced to a motivation-focused model of mentoring that has a strong theoretical foundation. And you’ll explore strategies for putting the model’s principles into action with your mentees.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing this training, you will be able to:
- Link core components of human motivation to the effect they have on a person’s performance, persistence, and well-being
- Identify key features of mentoring that support mentees’ needs in order to promote their motivation and well-being
- Recognize and begin to address issues of work-life balance and diversity, and the impact those have on mentees’ basic needs.
OFA Mentoring Resources
The Office of Faculty Affairs provides additional support to faculty as they work to successfully pursue their intellectual passions, advance in their academic medicine careers and become future leaders at the University of Minnesota.
For individual faculty—whether early- or mid-career—OFA staff are available to consult and provide guidance in the following areas:
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Building a community of mentors
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Identifying and accessing resources
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Overcoming professional challenges and cultural barriers
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Increasing scholarly output
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Expanding networks
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Establishing a desired level of work-home integration
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Pursuing career advancement opportunities and more
For departments, divisions and other faculty groups, OFA provides organizational advice and support. Staff can assist with assessing and expanding current mentoring programs to enhance their effectiveness, as well as help establish new mentoring models.
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Department Mentoring Leads – Find out who your department mentoring lead is
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Connect with a Mentor – Complete a short needs-assessment form and you will be contacted within five business days regarding your request
- The Science of Mentorship Podcast
Other Resources
Below is a sample of additional resources available to Medical School faculty at the University of Minnesota. Please contact the Office of Faculty Affairs for help with navigating the University or finding additional resources.
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)is an integrative network of research services and support at the University of Minnesota. CTSI provides research services and resources for the entire spectrum of clinical and translational research. This includes:
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Basic, clinical and community-engaged research
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Access to data, information and knowledge services
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Training and advancement programs
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Career development opportunities
We also encourage faculty members to attend CTSI’sCareer Development Seminar Series.
The Research Toolkit helps investigators and their teams find the resources they need to conduct research at the University.
The Office of the Vice President for Research serves the University’s five campuses by advocating for and facilitating the research and scholarly activities of faculty, staff and students.
The Institutional Review Board is a key component of the University of Minnesota’s Human Research Protection Program. It was established to protect the rights and welfare of human research participants.
Are you searching for a place to publish an article? The online Journal of Opinions, Ideas and Essays publishes works on a wide range of topics by retired or active University faculty and staff. Published electronically, its articles have been downloaded by readers in more than 60 countries. This journal is sponsored by the University of Minnesota Retirees Association and managed by the University of Minnesota Libraries.
Check out the Medical School's research web page for more resources!
The Health Sciences Libraries can assist with:
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Creating NIH biosketches and complying with other funding agency policies, including developing data management plans and troubleshooting deposit in PubMed Central
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Identifying funding opportunities, both from government and foundation funders
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Developing methods for systematic and scoping reviews, including creating, documenting, and implementing search strategies and data collection methods
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Locating existing information sources, including unpublished material and research data
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Navigating the publishing landscape, including identifying appropriate venues and potentially predatory publishers
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Tracking and demonstrating the impact of research, including citation-based metrics, international impact, and impact on policy and media
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Establishing practical organizational strategies, including best practices for citation managers, file naming conventions, folder structures
Visit their page or contact them at hsl@umn.edu.
The Office for Medical Education, led by the vice dean for education and academic affairs, is responsible for medical education across the continuum of admissions, undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, continuing professional development, simulation, mortuary science and the anatomy bequest program.
Medical Educator Development and Scholarship (MEDS) aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of medical education by providing basic science and clinical medical educators with the tools they need to be effective teachers, educational leaders and scholars.
The Office of Continuing Professional Development (OCPD) plans educational activities in partnership with University departments as well as external organizations, professional associations, and hospitals and clinics. These activities offer continuing education opportunities to healthcare professionals while meeting joint accreditation requirements. OCPD offers in-person and online learning programs, plus opportunities for faculty to work with staff to design and develop their own educational activities. OCPD also can assist faculty in maintaining certification and continuing education credits. For more information, join the OCPD mailing list.