Mentor was the man Odysseus entrusted with the care and
education of his infant son, Telemachus, as he was leaving Ithaca on
what would be a 20-year absence to fight in and slowly return from
the Trojan war. The role of mentor thus implies guiding the
maturation and development of the person being "mentored."
The mentoring of junior scientists (students and post-doctoral
fellows) is one of the most important obligations of senior
scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Scientific
mentoring has several important goals: teaching an approach and
methodology for scientific investigation, developing a sense of what
questions are technically able to be answered and have important
answers, transmitting a history of ideas in a discipline including
identification of major contributions and contributors, encouraging
the development of the ability to evaluate critically the quality of
one's own and others' research, providing an ethical framework for
the conduct of research and dealing with collaborations, enhancing
the development of oral and written communication skills, and
facilitating entrance into the research community in the discipline.
In addition, the mentor is expected to assess the progress of the
junior scientist, make suggestions for improvement on a regular
basis, and provide advice and counsel regarding career development
decisions. Mentoring may be obtained by the fellow from others, as
well.
Mentoring is a practitioner-apprentice relationship, and by its
nature, requires interaction between them. According to a survey of
post-doctoral fellows conducted at the NIH, a subset of fellows
interact with their mentors less frequently than once a month and
some reported never having had a discussion about career development.
Disturbingly, women reported these conditions significantly more
frequently than did men. While the nature of mentoring relationships
can vary widely, the NIH Scientific Directors consider the following
guidelines as the minimal requirements for effective mentoring.
1. The mentor (or a surrogate when the mentor is on travel) should be
readily available to the trainee to answer questions about research
and discuss results and future research directions; this availability
implies responding within 24 hours to specific inquiries initiated by
the trainee and meeting in person with the trainee (either alone or
with other laboratory staff) at least every 2 weeks.
2. The mentor should work closely with the trainee in the preparation
of oral presentations of the research and the preparation of papers
and abstracts describing the work.
3. The mentor should advise the trainee about the best fora for
presenting the research work and when attending meetings together,
the mentor should strive to introduce the trainee to important
contributors to the research field.
4. On an annual basis, the mentor should provide the trainee with an
oral and written assessment of the trainee's progress, strengths, and
areas requiring improvement. This meeting should include a
discussion of the trainee's professional goals and the mentor's
feedback on their appropriateness, the likely length of stay in the
laboratory, and planning and preparation for career decisions after
the NIH training.