Leading change in health care requires an understanding of making change in complex social systems; this is an area largely unexplored in the traditional medical curriculum. However, it is increasingly important as we adapt our health care systems to the needs of patients and families and to an ever-changing health care system.  The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Leadership Preventive Medicine residency program is designed to provide experiential learning about improving health care.  Since its inception, the program has matched each resident with a faculty coach. This is unique in graduate medical education in that there is a single primary faculty member assigned to each resident; the relationship is continuous over the two years of training; and the work is centered on the challenges of measurement of outcomes for defined populations, understanding systems of care, and leadership of change in those systems.  As we have refined and developed this model over the last decade, we have learned about the work required of both resident and faculty to make such a relationship successful, the benefits of the relationship to the work of both, and the preparation required for coaches to coach and for residents to understand a faculty role which is quite different from their prior experience We will discuss how residents and coaches describe this experience, and explore our lessons learned and the implications for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education.

Concepts derived from past research presented in the University of New Mexico’s 2012 Mentoring Conference paper “Creating a Mentor Training Program for Transformational Mentoring in the University of Minnesota Leadership Programs” led to the creation of a new training program for Transformational Mentoring.  In this paper, third in our ongoing study of Transformational Mentoring, we discuss the results of that training program based on new surveys that complement last year’s work. As in previous research, the framework for our study incorporates Sharon Daloz Parks’ three broad developmental concepts: “(1) becoming critically aware of one’s own composing of reality, (2) self-consciously participating in an ongoing dialogue toward truth, and (3) cultivating a capacity to respond—to act—in ways that are satisfying and just” (Parks, 2000, p. 6).  The survey participants again represent three co-curricular leadership programs that are open to the university at large: First Year Leadership Institute, LeaderQuest and the Tom Burnett Leadership Program. Each participant has a mentor selected from senior students, faculty, staff and community, representing a variety of professions for interdisciplinary development. The training approach is highly interactive and participatory, including experiential mentoring simulations.  Tools and resources used in the training will be made available to all. We believe that the maturing training program helps all mentors to be effective in establishing a developmental relationship leading to a transformational experience, and the achievement of Parks’ goals.

We suggest that mentor novices necessitate a transformational journey promoting anti-dialogical thinking. The Academy for Teacher Excellence’s field-tested culturally efficacious mentoring model, situated within a socioconstructivist-transformative lens, will be shared.

As we move through the 21^st century into a more diverse world, are we ready to embrace the notion that we must transform our practices to meet learners and teachers needs alike? Too often, teacher preparation programs, through their limiting actions or lack of attention, do not engage in transformative practices (Flores, 2008).  To prepare teachers for diverse settings, we must be bold and innovative in developing support structures to enhance teacher preparation. Providing culturally and linguistically sensitive induction programs for beginning and career teachers is imperative for this changing world.  These support structures must be transformative, sensitive, and responsive to deal with systemic change. Such induction programs are based on a clear understanding of this reality, a transformative vision and a plan of action. An overview of a field-tested model for the preparation of culturally efficacious mentors is presented.

The organizational theory of sensemaking describes how individuals in an organization generate what they interpret in the service of a sense of identity and self-esteem.  In a recently published study, we implicated physician sensemaking that occurs in the service of an autonomous provider-centric hierarchical identity as a significant factor in resistance to implementation of high reliability (HR), patient safety initiatives. However, sensemaking need not be resistant to HR. Weick has described templates for each of the seven properties of sensemaking that could sustain an identity of autonomous expertise committed to the pursuit of HR. We propose that the seven properties of sensemaking can be modified to approximate these templates through the incorporation of sensemaking theory into the curriculum of mentoring. As a consequence of sensemaking education illuminating the ubiquitous process that transforms the pre-conceptually encountered to plausible narrative, both mentors and the mentored can analyze their narratives utilizing this sensemaking metric.  The iterative relationships among the individual properties of sensemaking, notions of identity and self-esteem, and the defining characteristics of HR, suggest that modified narratives can have far-reaching consequences. We have observed the ability of insight into sensemaking theory and the promotion of repetitive enactments, appreciated as such, to foster a quality of sensemaking that reinforces HR narratives. Organizations are encouraged to school their mentors regarding the sensemaking implications of HR initiatives. A lack of individual and organizational transformation of sensemaking that reinforces HR may result in such initiatives proving unsustainable.                                                               

At its heart, mentoring requires sincerity and depth in relationships, and indeed integrity.  It also requires a commitment from the organization to empower both the mentor and the mentee with the necessary time and space to implement personal growth and development.  So while mentoring may first and foremost be based on a highly interpersonal component, any organization that would seek to implement mentoring must in turn ensure that not only is its stated mission-statement friendly to mentoring, but also its organizational structure, processes, and leadership practices; in other words, the spirit behind mentoring must be institutionalized in the very organization itself.  This of course can be easier said than done. We propose a covenantal model for ensuring that such is the case.  Covenant is a deeply historical idea and practice, and indeed a deeply human one, and at its core, is based upon the notion of empowerment.  Empowerment in turn is a key aspect in the mentoring relationship.  Further, a covenantal relationship engenders best practices in terms of leadership behaviors, organizational structure, processes, and even culture.  Thus our paper would seek to do the following: explore the importance of empowerment in mentoring relationships; explain the link between empowerment as seen in mentoring relationships and as defined by the literature for leadership and organizational best practices; and, explain how a covenantal approach to organizational behavior and leadership engenders and “institutionalizes” the practices of empowerment that are so helpful to true mentoring relationships.

The teaching and learning context in higher education is rapidly changing due to demographic, technological, and globalization pressures. Similarly to K-12 classrooms, college faculty must work effectively with students from a variety of cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and learning backgrounds. Essential questions for those coaching new instructional college and university faculty are: What are the unique challenges of managing the higher education classroom? How can faculty meet these challenges in ways that establish positive rapport and a productive teaching and learning environment for learners? Are there lessons from the K-12 and counselor training arenas that can be applied to new higher education faculty coaching? The authors offer a nuanced, faculty- and learner-centered approach to the developmental coaching relationship, one in which the faculty member’s goals, learning preferences, and teaching context are used to shape the content, pace, and tone of the work. Two models are presented to achieve this. The first is a classroom environment model with a quick learning curve that coaches can use to help new faculty 1) proactively establish academic and behavioral norms, 2) diagnose, and 3) address challenging student behavior. The authors next offer a Rogerian-based approach using a variation of Carkhuff’s “soft skills” communication model, designed to foster a trusting and productive coaching relationship that is safe (confidential and empathetic), productive (goal-centered), and contextualized (taking into account relevant personal, professional, and sociocultural circumstances). This model can also be taught to new faculty to help them create deeper levels of satisfying learning interactions with their own students

As America becomes increasingly more diverse, it is imperative that health care practitioners are prepared to meet the needs of this population.  To this end, there is significant evidence that documents the need for additional practitioners of color, at all levels of care.  Grand Valley State University (GVSU) is a major conduit for future health care professionals in the West Michigan region.  GVSU understands the need to increase the number of minorities graduating from majors within the health professions, and the need to improve the probability that these students gain employment in health related careers.  With this in mind, GVSU has collaborated with the Grand Rapids African American Health Institute (GRAAHI) to design and implement a mentorship program.  With a mission to reduce disparities in health and health care for minority populations, GRAAHI is a local non-profit organization that understands the need to increase minority presence in the healthcare system. Grand Valley State University’s College of Health Professions created the “Teaming to Enrich Academic Minority Mentees” (TEAMM) program.  This program works to build bridges between the classroom and working environment to ensure the successful transition between college and career.  In partnership with GRAAHI, TEAMM matches participating students with area health care professionals.  Mentees are required to meet with their mentor and attend group-facilitated sessions on a monthly basis. In addition to benefiting students, the program is an asset to the community as well.  This partnership assists students in becoming vested members of the community, thereby increasing the potential for local retention upon graduation.  

Participants will learn step by step strategies utilized to change long standing placement procedures that no longer serve the purpose of increasing the quality, frequency and intensity of assessed quality clinical practices as support by The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) findings and other relevant research.  Participants will learn the challenges that faced the field office team when trying to adhere to multiple school districts’ rules and regulations on placement procedures within each school district.  Participants will learn how the field office identified and selected a unified action group to develop a strategy for more creative configurations and time efficient placement procedures. This unified action group consisted of program faculty and school district personnel. The presentation will provide a step-by-step look into how and why the placement process was modified to meet quality and timely placements in diverse settings in order to provide more meaningful, interactive and engaging clinical practices for our teacher candidates. This paper is particularly relevant to those in large university settings that place interns across multiple school districts as well as those participants interested in crafting new efficient and effective placement configurations that are cost saving strategies and yet still maintain the quality of mentorship and research based best practices.

I would like to present a holistic and comprehensive Humanscape model for the development of a new type of Mentoring Studies being developed at the International Mentorship Association in Japan. The Humanscape model consists of five human intelligences, namely IQ ( Head Intelligence ), EQ ( Emotional Intelligence ), BQ ( Body Intelligence ), SQ ( Synergizing Intelligence ), and FQ ( Field Intelligence ). The SQ stands not only for synergy,, but also for synthesis, symbiosis, symphony, synchronicity, and spirituality. This synergizing SQ, being placed at the center of the Humanscape model, represents a sort of driving force which integrates all the multiple polarities such as yin and yang, self and others, mentor and mentee, body and mind, art and science, and Eastern perspectives and Western perspectives, etc. The SQ is presented in the form of the Moebius Ring as a connecting and integrative conceptual tool. I would like to apply the Humanscape model and the Moebius conceptual tool to a new type of mentoring program which is being implemented in Japan. In this presentation, a mentor is broadly defined as an individual who assists and supports a mentee to grow in a totally synergistic way by developing his or her five areas of human intelligences through the mentoring process. And the mentoring process is presented as a co-evolving process, in which both mentor and mentee are mutually evolving and impacting each other for mutual growth.

Mentoring relationships serve to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities of individuals.  The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Program), a federally funded program implemented at institutions of higher learning, utilizes mentoring to aid in the development and preparation of college students to prepare for graduate school.  The overarching goal of the McNair Program is to increase the number of doctoral degrees earned by minorities and underrepresented groups.  Through a variety of activities, the McNair Program exposes students to the rigor of graduate school and provides students an opportunity to develop personal and professional relationships with faculty members. This research serves as a foundational component to develop future tools and strategies (i.e. competency model for mentors, competency based training programs, etc.) to support the McNair Program.  The current research examines the McNair Program’s mentoring component. Specific focus is placed on faculty mentor competency and its impact on McNair student intent to attain a doctoral degree and awareness of graduate school.  Cohen’s Principles of Adult Mentoring Scale-Postsecondary Education Scale is utilized to assess McNair student perceived faculty mentor competency.  Carrera’s measures of effectiveness for the McNair Program’s mentoring component are also used in this research. At the core of a successful mentoring experience is mentor competency.  The study identifies faculty mentor competencies, as defined by Cohen, which impact McNair scholars’ intent to attain a doctoral degree and their awareness of graduate school.  Sequential multiple regression is the employed method of analysis for this study.