Copyright 2009 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved. Applicable FARS/DFARS Restrictions Apply to Government Use.
In reply
Our research group1 reported that about a quarter of dermatology residents do not feel that they have a mentor, and we agree with Donovan that poorly mentored and unmentored dermatology residents miss a substantial educational benefit. Successful programs targeting residents for mentoring, however, must avoid paternalistic transgression of their autonomy. The Find a Mentor program of the Society of Investigative Dermatology (SID) seems aptly suited for this delicate, challenging task.2 This initiative provides an online database of SID members who have expressed interest in mentoring residents and fellows at a distance in areas of shared scientific interest.2 Hopefully, a formal evaluation of the use of the Find a Mentor database will provide direction for determining its success, refining its aims, and facilitating its dissemination across the field of dermatology.
The formal mentoring efforts of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) currently focus on medical student mentees from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.3 The AAD should consider sponsoring an online clinical practitioner mentor database for residents analogous to that of the SID. An open horizon increasingly beckons to mentorship researchers.
Interestingly, a recent study4 highlights possible negative effects of mentoring—mentoring early career researchers on financial issues and professional survival was associated with higher odds of these researchers engaging in problematic behaviors. Currently, dermatology faculty members receive little formal mentoring training; perhaps such training would promote better results.
The reasons why mentors perform their duties are also ill defined—is mentoring a challenging and necessary job component or simply a win/win interaction for all parties? Benchmarking the factors that motivate mentors may provide another means for instructing and improving mentoring in dermatology.
Because mentors frequently assist residents in choosing career paths, further study should examine if residents with and without mentors differ in achieving their desired career goals. Although cultural considerations will impact all aspects of mentoring in different geographic regions, recent resident-identified characteristics of ideal dermatology mentors (good communicator, approachable, advocate for resident interests, kindles enthusiasm, and concerned for residents) will apply universally.5
Correspondence: Dr Dellavalle, Dermatology Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 1055 Clermont St, No. 165, Denver, CO 80220 (Robert.Dellavalle@uchsc.edu).
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
Instructions
Comments are moderated and will appear on the site at the discretion of the Archives of Dermatology editors. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest* Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more
Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features
Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
and access these and other features:
Register Now
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a reminder to the email address on record.
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.