Mentoring New and Early-Stage Investigators and Underrepresented Minority Faculty for Research Success in Health-Related Fields: An Integrative Literature Review (2010–2020)

Abstract

Mentoring to develop research skills is an important strategy for facilitating faculty success. The purpose of this study was to conduct an integrative literature review to examine the barriers and facilitators to mentoring in health-related research, particularly for three categories: new investigators (NI), early-stage investigators (ESI) and underrepresented minority faculty (UMF). PsychINFO, CINAHL and PubMed were searched for papers published in English from 2010 to 2020, and 46 papers were reviewed. Most papers recommended having multiple mentors and many recommended assessing baseline research skills. Barriers and facilitators were both individual and institutional. Individual barriers mentioned most frequently were a lack of time and finding work–life balance. UMF mentioned barriers related to bias, discrimination and isolation. Institutional barriers included lack of mentors, lack of access to resources, and heavy teaching and service loads. UMF experienced institutional barriers such as devaluation of experience or expertise. Individual facilitators were subdivided and included writing and synthesis as technical skills, networking and collaborating as interpersonal skills, and accountability, leadership, time management, and resilience/grit as personal skills. Institutional facilitators included access to mentoring, professional development opportunities, and workload assigned to research. Advocacy for diversity and cultural humility were included as unique interpersonal and institutional facilitators for UMF. Several overlapping and unique barriers and facilitators to mentoring for research success for NI, ESI and UMF in the health-related disciplines are presented.

Building bridges and capacity for Black, Indigenous, and scholars of color in the era of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter

“…Mentoring is critical to retention and successful advancement of BIPOC faculty, more specifically collaborative mentoring ( Matthews et al., 2020 ; Mkandawire-Valhmu et al., 2010 ; Ransdell et al., 2021 ; Zajac, 2011 ). Collaborative mentoring has been described as a relationship consisting of mutual respect, admiration and is reciprocal ( Mkandawire-Valhmu et al., 2010 ).…”

Building a Diverse Workforce and Thinkforce to Reduce Health Disparities

“…In this regard, creating a compendium of best practices for pilot projects programs [16] and for professional development activities would be valuable for the IDC Consortium. Recently, a literature review of 46 papers published in English from 2010 to 2020 examined the barriers and facilitators to mentoring of new and early-stage investigators, as well as underrepresented minority faculty in health-related research [17]. Lack of time, lack of mentors, lack of access to resources, and heavy teaching and service loads were the most frequently mentioned barriers to achieving success in health-related research.…”

Precision mentoring (PM): a proposed framework for increasing research capacity in health-related disciplines

“…In a recent literature review covering the 10 years of mentoring research, we examined personal, interpersonal, and institutional barriers and facilitators related to research productivity in new investigators (NI), early-stage investigators (ESI) and underrepresented minority faculty (UMF), also known as underrepresented minorities (URM) [ 1 ]. For definitions of these terms, see https://grants.nih.gov/grants/esi-status.pdf .…”

“…Research productivity, (e.g., peer-reviewed publications and external grants), is one of the most important components of success in higher education. Mentoring is an essential component for helping faculty succeed in higher education, and numerous literature reviews and meta-analyses have espoused the benefits of mentoring [ 1–6 ]. Although most existing research on mentoring has focused on mentoring new and early-stage faculty, it is also important to specifically consider the needs of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty (e.g., racial and ethnic minorities), women in some disciplines, and mid-career faculty [ 1 ].…”

“…Mentoring is an essential component for helping faculty succeed in higher education, and numerous literature reviews and meta-analyses have espoused the benefits of mentoring [ 1–6 ]. Although most existing research on mentoring has focused on mentoring new and early-stage faculty, it is also important to specifically consider the needs of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty (e.g., racial and ethnic minorities), women in some disciplines, and mid-career faculty [ 1 ]. Given the importance of mentoring, the purpose of this paper is to describe a framework for precision mentoring (PM).…”