Mentoring is the social foundation of research. The mentor has the opportunity to draw the best from the junior person by acting as an adviser, teacher, role model, motivator, and supportive advocate. Mentoring is an ideal way to pass ethical and professional values to others in the field. Institutions that pursue long-term development and growth must foster an encouraging, jointly supportive environment. A key element in that cultivation process is creating a mutually respectful relationship between mentor and trainee.
Learning Objectives
After reading this module, you should be able to: * Clarify the roles and responsibilities of mentors and those that they mentor. * Provide guidance to assist all who participate in research to avoid problems and to optimize the mentoring experience. * Describe barriers to mentoring, particularly for women and minority researchers, and potential solutions to these barriers. * Describe the importance of mentoring and the way in which mentoring occurs.
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Foundation
Mentoring is one of the primary means for one generation of researchers to impart their knowledge to the next generations. More than textbooks and formal classes, the relatively informal dimensions of research, including the relationship between mentor and trainee, prepare the next generation of professionals.
In her 1977 speech at the Nobel Banquet, prizewinner Rosalyn Yalow addressed the students of Stockholm, identifying them as "the carriers of our hopes for the survival of the world and our dreams for its future." Yalow spoke of an ever-widening circle of learning. She said, "If we are to have faith that mankind will survive and thrive on the face of the earth, we must believe that each succeeding generation will be wiser than its progenitors. We transmit to you, the next generation, the total sum