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To the Editor: In their Commentary, Drs Detsky and Baerlocher¹ considered how to give and receive academic mentoring. We would like to add 2 points to their discussion.

First, mentoring is nice help if you can get it. Although academic medicine depends on mentoring to prepare its next generation of teachers and researchers, many faculty, trainees, and students do not have mentors. A systematic review of mentoring programs estimated that as little as 20% of faculty in some specialties and less than 50% of medical students have a mentor.² Women faculty at our institution participating in focus groups described a climate in which tight finances and increasingly complex regulatory requirements leave little time for nonreimbursable activities like mentoring.³ Therefore, in addition to fostering more productive mentoring relationships, medical schools should ensure that all faculty, trainees, and students who want mentorship actually receive it.

Second, there is differential access to good . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Ann J. Brown, MD, MHS
brown066@mc.duke.edu
Department of Medicine

Damon M. Seils, MA
Duke Clinical Research Institute

Paula M. Thompson, MPH
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, North Carolina

RELATED LETTER

Access and Diversity in Academic Mentoring—Reply
Allan S. Detsky and Mark Otto Baerlocher
JAMA. 2007;298(7):739.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLE

Academic Mentoring—How to Give It and How to Get It
Allan S. Detsky and Mark Otto Baerlocher
JAMA. 2007;297(19):2134-2136.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT