Table 5.

Examples of insights acquired by participants from the Mentoring Excellence Training Academy

Mentoring Insights	Illustrative Focus Group Responses
Applying different mentoring models	“We decided to go from having the one-on-one mentor, like an academic advisor, to allowing our new residents to pick, in addition to their assigned person, two other individuals to be on a mentoring team.”
Aligning expectations	“I think the expectations piece… was one part that I don’t think I had really considered. Which sounds silly, but when you think about it, you know, I think we come to everything with our own expectations, but often aren’t taking into account our mentees’ expectations and balancing those.”
Being culturally aware, communicating effectively	“I also thought the discussion of cultural pieces was very valuable. Probably something we don’t think about very often, so that was very helpful for me.” “I remember, during our session, talking about a particular student that I was mentoring…. it’s a student who is from a different country, and I was struggling with that difference, and just being patient. We talked about…resolving conflicts, and being sensitive to cultural differences. And I think that the training sort of helped me to put that into perspective and to just focus more on the relationship building. And to be upfront about when I was uncomfortable [or] I didn’t understand.”
Promoting professional development	“I think for us, the biggest thing that we’re working to implement is…the development plans. So, in one of the workshops where we kind of went through some of the options for that, there were fantastic templates…. So, kind of taking those examples and building one that fits our program.”
Mentoring for different developmental stages	“The idea of self-stages of mentorship….a faculty member needs certain things, and she needs something very different five or ten years down the line.”
Broader view of a mentor’s roles and different mentoring practices, tools.	“The Academy kind of helped me push the boundaries of what’s defined as being a mentor – different ways, different things, giving tools. Kind of like a little circle that you’re pushing the borders out, making it bigger, and then getting tools to help fill in those areas that you just added. So, it was useful for me to see a bigger universe than what I’d been thinking of.”