Mentoring the Mentors of Underrepresented Racial/Ethnic Minorities Who are Conducting HIV Research: Beyond Cultural Competency

Abstract

The majority of literature on mentoring focuses on mentee training needs, with significantly less guidance for the mentors. Moreover, many mentoring the mentor models assume generic (i.e. White) mentees with little attention to the concerns of underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (UREM). This has led to calls for increased attention to diversity in research training programs, especially in the field of HIV where racial/ethnic disparities are striking. Diversity training tends to address the mentees' cultural competency in conducting research with diverse populations, and often neglects the training needs of mentors in working with diverse mentees. In this article, we critique the framing of diversity as the problem (rather than the lack of mentor consciousness and skills), highlight the need to extend mentor training beyond aspirations of cultural competency toward cultural humility and cultural safety, and consider challenges to effective mentoring of UREM, both for White and UREM mentors.

A scoping review of mentor training programs in medicine between 1990 and 2017

“…The topics covered in general mentoring skill training include communication skills [122], aligning expectations [11,78,95,109], establishing and overseeing compliance of codes of conduct, standards of practice, timelines and the roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees [71], assessing professional development [114], and mentoring progress [78,95,109]. Additional topics include promoting professional development, handling difficult scenarios, challenging mentees effectively, nurturing mentoring relationships [12], addressing diversityrelated issues [45,123], fostering independence [40,46,73,77,78,97,105,111], role modelling, networking, career advising and guidance on publications, promotions, departmental politics and addressing psychosocial issues [114,119]. Pfund et al (2014) adapted the Entering Mentoring [124] program that focuses on maintaining effective communication, aligning expectations, assessing understanding and diversity, fostering independence and professional development and articulating a mentoring philosophy and plan [16] to the clinical research setting and found an improvement in competencies in all domains.…”

“…Mentor training boosts confidence in aligning expectations, working with diverse mentee groups and nurturing mentoring relationships [77,78,105], improved communication skills, providing negative feedback, and addressing 'difficult conversations' [12,[76][77][78]105,123]. Tsen et al (2012) found that mentors reported a renewed sense of enthusiasm after the mentor training program [77].…”

Building a More Diverse Workforce in HIV/AIDS Research: The Time has Come

“…One of the more salient mentorship concerns is the issue of cultural sensitivity and competency-mentees often seek mentors who can speak their language and understand their world. In view of the dominance of the Western culture in the health research world, mentors would benefit from cultural competency training to recognize the cultural values and beliefs of mentees, and may even need to go beyond cultural competency to the challenges of cultural humility and safety [40].…”

“…Brewer et al [45] provide a perspective of the mentee from Black early-career HIV investigators, reflecting on their needs, challenges, and opportunities regarding the right mentor and mentorship environment as well as contributions and ''threats'' to success. Subsequent papers in the mentoring process section discuss tailored mentoring programs for Latinos and other individuals from diverse communities [46], cultural competency of the mentor in HIV research [40], multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary HIV research teams within mentoring programs [47], HIV network-based mentoring programs [48], and mentor training to improve mentee skills and outcomes [49]. The final section focuses upon next steps and directions for mentoring programs, going beyond individual level issues to considerations that may lead to career success.…”

Future HIV Mentoring Programs to Enhance Diversity

“…These principles are not fixed, but serve as a framework to guide mentees, mentors, mentoring programs, and institutions [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. These principles can help guide the approach for the establishment and development of collaborations that foster an environment that promotes and rewards quality, effective research mentoring-ultimately moving the mentee toward research independence.…”