Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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To determine (1) the prevalence of mentoring relationships for U.S. medical school junior faculty; (2) the quality of these mentoring relationships; (3) any variation by gender or race; and (4) the relationship between mentoring and junior faculty members' perceptions of institutional professional support; research-, teaching-, and clinical-skills development; allocation of time to professional activities; and career satisfaction. ⋯ Mentoring relationships are prevalent in academic medicine and should be promoted to support the career growth of junior faculty.
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In 1995, the Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation (HPSISN) program was launched under the auspices of the Pew Health Professions Commission as a national demonstration of an innovative form of community-based education called service-learning. The foundation of service-learning is a balanced partnership between communities and health professions schools and a balance between serving the community and meeting defined learning objectives. ⋯ Further, the author discusses how service-learning programs may benefit students, faculty, communities, higher education institutions, and the relationships among all these stakeholders. The article concludes with brief descriptions of recommended resources for integrating service-learning into the medical school curriculum.
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Medical schools must become more successful in training minority faculty. Minority faculty development programs at schools of medicine must involve trainees from the undergraduate years (if not before) through junior faculty and must involve MD and combine-degree (MD-PhD) students. The authors describe the comprehensive minority faculty development program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, which involves minority undergraduates, medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. ⋯ The medical student component provides general counseling, research development, and activities to enhance performance in the clinical courses. The components for advanced trainees (residents, fellows, and postdoctoral trainees) and faculty consist of training in research methods, mentoring, teaching skills, and scientific writing skills. Through this program, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has increased the number of under-represented minority faculty by 32% since 1993-94 and created an environment conducive to the professional growth and development of minority faculty.
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To examine the attrition rates of underrepresented minority (URM) students and non-URM students at the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Medicine (UIC-COM). ⋯ Many URM students need special academic attention after matriculation. Existing academic support programs should be assessed regularly to ascertain whether they may be improved to minimize attrition.