166 M.R. Kibbe

References

1.Crick F. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul. New York: Schribner; 1995. ISBN-10: 0684801582.

2.Shaw H. Errors in English and Ways to Correct Them. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins; 1993. ISBN-10: 0064610446.

Selected Readings

Zeiger M. Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1999. ISBN-10: 0071345442.

Strunk Jr W, White EB. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Longman Publishing; 1999. ISBN-10: 0205313426.

Kane TS. The New Oxford Guide to Writing. New York: Oxford University Press; 1994. ISBN-10: 0195090594.

Derish P, Eastwood S. A clarity clinic for surgical writing. J Surg Res. 2008;147(1):50-58.

Part III

Critical Elements

for Success

Chapter 11

Choosing, and Being,

a Good Mentor

Julie Ann Sosa

Keywords Mentorship • Mentoring • Mentor • Career development • Role-modeling

Introduction

Mentoring is considered to be an essential duty of academic surgeons. It is a catalyst for success in academic medicine, as mentoring relationships can facilitate career selection, advancement, and productivity among mentees. Unfortunately, there are important barriers to successful mentoring, such as increased clinical, research, administrative, and teaching demands on academic surgeons, along with the perception that mentorship is undervalued (or not recognized or rewarded) by many academic institutions. Is mentorship an art that is in jeopardy of extinction?

J.A. Sosa

Divisions of Endocrine Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

H. Chen and L.S. Kao (eds.), Success in Academic Surgery,

169

DOI 10.1007/978-0-85729-313-8_11,

© Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012

170 J.A. Sosa

In 2006, a systematic review by Sambunjak et al. of 42 articles describing 39 studies about mentorship in academic medicine demonstrated a relative paucity of strong evidence about the development of mentorship; however, it did yield several important findings.1 Less than 50% of medical students and in some fields less than 20% of faculty members had a mentor. In addition, women appeared to have more difficulty than male colleagues finding mentors; in a 2004 study of women pediatric surgeons, Caniano et al. found that 16% of survey respondents never had a mentor.2 Most important, “mentorship was reported to have an important influence on personal development, career guidance, career choice, and research productivity, including publication and grant success.” In a 2001 study, Thakur et al. found that 40% of graduates of the University of California at Los Angeles general surgery residency program identified mentor guidance as important in personal development, and 38% in research development.3 Ko et al. in 1998 reported that 56% of senior surgeons were influenced by a mentor in their choice of specialty, while Lukish and Cruess found that nearly half of surgery residents reported that mentorship played an important role in their decision to pursue surgical training.4, 5

Overall, only a small subset of the results reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association were from surgery.

In the end, studies have shown that faculty members who identify a mentor feel more confident than their peers, are more likely to have a productive research career, and report greater career satisfaction.

Origins of the Term

Mentorship is a concept that dates from Greek antiquity. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Mentor, son of Alcumus and friend of Odysseus, served as an overseer of Odysseus’ son,Telemachus, and of his palace while Odysseus was away fighting in the Trojan War. When Odysseus did not return from the war,

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, appeared in the form of