Longitudinal promotion mentoring program module

Editor's Notes

• #3: The Department of Family Medicine is implementing a new mentoring program to help Assistant Professors through the process of becoming Associate Professors. Once a faculty member, who works full time, is appointed as an Assistant Professor, they have 7 years to be promoted to Associate professor, with the possibility of a 1 – 3 year extension. Failure to promote can lead to termination from the University, so it is a high stakes situation, and one should understand this before agreeing to become an Assistant Professor. This process can be quite burdensome when all of the work is saved until the end. In addition, the promotion dossier may be less accurate as important items may be forgotten, or information that would have been helpful is unavailable.
• #4: This process, with the help of a mentor, will spread the work out over the 7 years, with much of it being completed longitudinally, so that when it is time for the Assistant Professor to put together their promotion dossier, much of the work will have already been completed. In addition, items that have seemed to surprise candidates when time to complete their dossier, such as the Matrices, scholarly activity, clinical activity, teaching or research requirements, will be common knowledge and will have been completed, discussed and reviewed each year. Mentors will be trained on what to cover with mentees each year, and be given a guide to follow, helping to make mentoring less intimidating, and providing standardization for all mentees. Through longitudinal mentoring, the mentee will understand what the promotion requirements are, what to do, what to keep, what to document each year, and how to do it. Documenting much of the work that they do, as they do it, in bite size pieces over the course of the seven years will help to minimize the burden, increase the accuracy, and improve the understanding of what they should be working on before it is too late. It also can avoid the painful experience of those who have gone through this process in the past without this guidance, where many have had to spend sometimes over 100 hours to assemble the information and put it together in their last year. With this new program, most of the work will have already been completed by the time they need to put together their dossier. It will make it easier for people to submit their materials earlier, giving staff, the A&P Committee, and the Chair more time so that there is not a horrible rush to complete everything at the end of the year.
• #5: People have often been reluctant to be mentors, because they were not sure what they are supposed to do. This module will help both the mentor and mentee understand what is supposed to be done for the longitudinal promotion mentoring program. There are additional modules through the Academy of Medical Educators to help mentors understand what to do and how to be career mentors, as well as a module for mentees on how to longitudinally complete a teacher’s portfolio in greater detail.
• #6: It has been shown that with good mentorship that there is greater job satisfaction, less job turnover, and greater success with career advancement. Our goal is for everyone to have a mentor, and to meet with their mentor at least twice a year, and for those who are Assistant Professors, one of those yearly meetings should be used to discuss promotion using this program to know what should be discussed each year. This will be tracked in a database, so that we can keep track of who is meeting, and encourage or remind those who have not met as required, as well as provide longitudinal feedback as to how to improve the program.
• #7: Although it is possible to have your supervisor as your Mentor, faculty may be more willing to discuss their career aspirations, areas of weakness or concerns with a mentor rather than their supervisor. People may have more than one mentor. For example, they may have a mentor for promotion, a mentor for being a faculty member in a residency, and a mentor for doing a research project. For most faculty, one mentor will suffice. Conversations with a mentor should be strictly confidential between the mentor and mentee.
• #8: Faculty should have the ability to change their mentor if they feel that their current arrangement is not working out. Many faculty may have a good idea in advance of who they would like for a mentor, and if that mentor is willing and has the capacity then the mentee should be able to have that mentor. There is not a specific limit of the number of mentees a mentor can have, however they need to be able to meet with their mentee for at least one hour twice a year. If the mentee does not have any idea of who they would like as a mentor, one could be chosen for them. Either party could suggest a change at a later time if that did not work out. For the longitudinal promotion mentoring program for Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, the mentor needs to be at the rank of Associate Professor or above, having gone through the process.
• #9: There are a number of requirements for promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and there are required ways to document or present that the faculty member has met these requirements. These include their Curriculum Vitae (CV), CV Abstract, the Matrices, Portfolios and supporting documents. The requirements for promotion are to demonstrate achieving meritorious or excellence in certain areas, and the requirements of what constitutes these levels for the areas for promotion are found in the matrices. The required area, depending on what pathway one chooses to promote in, include Clinical, Teaching, Scholarship, Research, and Service. In the past many Assistant Professors had forgotten about the Matrices, when it was time to assemble their dossier, which means that they may not have even been familiar with the requirements until they were approaching the end of their time as Assistant Professor.
• #10: There are a number of requirements for promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and there are required ways to document or present that the faculty member has met these requirements. These include their Curriculum Vitae (CV), CV Abstract, the Matrices, Portfolios and supporting documents. The requirements for promotion are to demonstrate achieving meritorious or excellence in certain areas, and the requirements of what constitutes these levels for the areas for promotion are found in the matrices. The required area, depending on what pathway one chooses to promote in, include Clinical, Teaching, Scholarship, Research, and Service. In the past many Assistant Professors had forgotten about the Matrices, when it was time to assemble their dossier, which means that they may not have even been familiar with the requirements until they were approaching the end of their time as Assistant Professor.
• #11: There are a number of requirements for promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, and there are required ways to document or present that the faculty member has met these requirements. These include their Curriculum Vitae (CV), CV Abstract, the Matrices, Portfolios and supporting documents. The requirements for promotion are to demonstrate achieving meritorious or excellence in certain areas, and the requirements of what constitutes these levels for the areas for promotion are found in the matrices. The required area, depending on what pathway one chooses to promote in, include Clinical, Teaching, Scholarship, Research, and Service. In the past many Assistant Professors had forgotten about the Matrices, when it was time to assemble their dossier, which means that they may not have even been familiar with the requirements until they were approaching the end of their time as Assistant Professor.
• #12: A general overview of the concept of the longitudinal promotion mentoring program for Assistant to Associate Professor is that the mentee fills out some of these documents longitudinally as they do an activity, with review and guidance from a mentor throughout the process. They should have their CV (of which there are format examples), and the Matrices on their desktop of their computer. When they do something, such as give a lecture, publish a paper, obtain a research grant, or serve on a committee, they should enter this in their CV and the appropriate Matrix, and keep the supporting documentation in a file. They should review their CV and matrices each year with their mentor. There is a requirement for a Mid-Term Review with the Department Appointment and Promotions Committee at the 3.5 year mark. We will be doing these as face to face meetings, and the Assistant Professor should bring their CV and Matrices. This meeting is a check on how they are progressing toward their promotion to Associate Professor, and an opportunity to receive guidance for midcourse correction, or confirmation that they are on track. The next year after the mid-term review, they should write their portfolio in the area they are planning to promote in excellence. The year after that, they should edit the first one and write their next portfolio, and so on. By the time they are at the midpoint of their 6th year, when it is time to be begin to assemble their dossier, most of the work will already have been done, and they can spend most of their time on editing. They will receive guidance along the way from their mentor including discussion about their orientation, what documents to keep, what sorts of projects, committees they may want to become involved in, and discussion on how to meet the promotion requirements listed in the matrices and what documents they need to keep to demonstrate this to the Faculty Promotions Committee.
• #13: A general overview of the concept of the longitudinal promotion mentoring program for Assistant to Associate Professor is that the mentee fills out some of these documents longitudinally as they do an activity, with review and guidance from a mentor throughout the process. They should have their CV (of which there are format examples), and the Matrices on their desktop of their computer. When they do something, such as give a lecture, publish a paper, obtain a research grant, or serve on a committee, they should enter this in their CV and the appropriate Matrix, and keep the supporting documentation in a file. They should review their CV and matrices each year with their mentor. There is a requirement for a Mid-Term Review with the Department Appointment and Promotions Committee at the 3.5 year mark. We will be doing these as face to face meetings, and the Assistant Professor should bring their CV and Matrices. This meeting is a check on how they are progressing toward their promotion to Associate Professor, and an opportunity to receive guidance for midcourse correction, or confirmation that they are on track. The next year after the mid-term review, they should write their portfolio in the area they are planning to promote in excellence. The year after that, they should edit the first one and write their next portfolio, and so on. By the time they are at the midpoint of their 6th year, when it is time to be begin to assemble their dossier, most of the work will already have been done, and they can spend most of their time on editing. They will receive guidance along the way from their mentor including discussion about their orientation, what documents to keep, what sorts of projects, committees they may want to become involved in, and discussion on how to meet the promotion requirements listed in the matrices and what documents they need to keep to demonstrate this to the Faculty Promotions Committee.
• #14: The process includes the following. It will be the mentees responsibility to schedule their meetings. There is a longitudinal promotion guide, which will be used to guide the mentor and mentee of what to discuss, depending on what year of their promotion they are in. The mentee should review this guide prior to each meeting to see what information they should provide to their mentor ideally prior to the meeting (such as CV and Matrices). There will be a sheet to guide the mentor of what to discuss at each meeting, depending on what year they are in. Since the first meeting includes more orientation materials this meeting may need additional time to complete everything. These meetings and tracking the discussion of the various items for each year will be completed by the mentee in an easy to complete database. It will include the date of the meeting, goals and items to work on, and a place to report faculty development activities they did that may not fit in their CV or the matrices. The database will also include places for comments about how this mentoring process is working, as well as to make suggestions on how to improve it. The mentor will also complete a brief survey in the database about their thoughts of how the mentoring program is going, and to make comments about it. They will keep track of goals, items to work on, and if they feel the Assistant Professor is on Track for promotion to Associate Professor. The database will track and provide reports on if mentees have not met with their mentor in the past 6 months, and if they have not met to discuss promotion in the past year, and reminders will be sent to those who have not met. The database can be referred back to, viewed only by the mentor, mentee and the Appointments and Promotions Committee and their staff. Comments reported in the database will be reviewed by staff and the A&P Committee to consider modifications to improve the process. The database can be accessed at the following link: xxxxxxxxx. It would be good to put this on the desktop of your computer.
• #16: The mentor and the mentee should become familiar with the faculty affairs website that includes a number of helpful documents that include the requirements, examples of CVs, matrices and portfolios, as well as providing guidance of how to document meeting these requirements.
• #17: PRISM, which is completed for each annual review with their supervisor, will include the ability to track and store some of the documentation of items that help to meet certain promotion requirements, and the hope is to avoid significant duplication of efforts. It will be important for the mentor and the mentee to discuss what can be included in PRISM. PRISM may eventually be able to help complete some of the promotion materials
• #18: There is a discussion item each year about maintaining Maintenance of Certification. This is a requirement for physicians to maintain their board certification, which is a requirement for faculty members. Discussing this with their mentor can help to remind the faculty member to stay on top of this
• #19: Around December or January of the 6th year as the Assistant Professor is getting ready to put together their dossier, there will be another face-to-face meeting with the DFM Appointments and Promotions Committee to assist with understanding of how to put this information together. Part of the process for promotion is that around this time the Assistant Professor will provide names and addresses for letters of recommendation. At least 3 should come from within the University and 3 from outside the University. Letters of recommendation can be helpful in supporting that the faculty member has met certain promotion requirements. A well written letter of recommendation may address how the writer believes that the faculty member has met each of the required levels of excellence or meritorious in the different required areas for promotion.
• #20: Around December or January of the 6th year as the Assistant Professor is getting ready to put together their dossier, there will be another face-to-face meeting with the DFM Appointments and Promotions Committee to assist with understanding of how to put this information together. Part of the process for promotion is that around this time the Assistant Professor will provide names and addresses for letters of recommendation. At least 3 should come from within the University and 3 from outside the University. Letters of recommendation can be helpful in supporting that the faculty member has met certain promotion requirements. A well written letter of recommendation may address how the writer believes that the faculty member has met each of the required levels of excellence or meritorious in the different required areas for promotion.
• #21: Once the dossier is submitted to the department, staff will help to edit and assemble the materials received to put the dossier into good shape. Once completed, the dossier is reviewed by the department Appointments and Promotions Committee, and they vote on if they felt the member met the requirements for promotion. The DFM A&P Committee chair will write a letter. The Department Chair will review the entire dossier, the letters of recommendation, the letter from the A&P Committee and write their own letter of recommendation. This is then sent to the Faculty Promotions Committee, who reviews the information and votes to promote or not. This result is then given to the chair who notifies the individual.