Mentorship availability and needs for junior faculty members at the United States and Australian dental schools

Objectives: The aims of this study were to understand the experiences junior faculty have during their professional socialisation as educators and how they perceive the need and value of mentorship.

Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative study design was used. Data were collected in 2019 through a pre-survey and focus groups with junior faculty (defined as 0-5 years) across four institutions in Australia and the United States of America. Framework analysis was used to identify themes in the data, based on our defined research questions, and socio-cognitive career theory was applied to guide our analysis.

Results: A total of 22 junior faculty participated in the study. Only one of the four institutions had a formal mentoring programme for junior dental faculty. At this institution, 83% of participants indicated they were likely/extremely likely to remain in dental education. Across the three institutions where formal mentoring for junior dental faculty was not available, only 40% of participants indicated they were likely/extremely likely to remain in dental education. We identified five themes in the qualitative data: motivation for career choice, the importance of relationships, personal goals and the need for self-direction, expectations of the role, and institutional effects.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that mentoring is a critical factor in a junior faculty member's experience entering and socialising into a career in dental education. The perceived value of mentoring emerged across all themes, both from the perspective of participants who had received formal mentoring and those who had not.