Advance-CTR

Mentoring Training Program

Improve your research mentoring skills through this nationally recognized program from the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN).

About the Program

This year, Advance RI-CTR will be hosting multiple Mentoring Training Sessions. Please see the dates and links to registration below:

  • Session 1: December 19th  from 8am-5:00pm (in-person) session completed
  • Session 2: March—Last 4 Fridays in March from 9am-11/11:30am (virtual) 

Register

The Advance RI-CTR Mentoring Training Program is a 9-hour, peer-driven program that provides faculty mentors with skills and techniques to enhance communication with their mentees and improve outcomes for professional development and success.

This interactive training provides faculty mentors with an opportunity to experiment with various methods, and a forum to solve common mentoring dilemmas with colleagues. The training is based on a nationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum from the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and Center for Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) that is designed to help research mentors maximize the effectiveness of their mentoring relationships. This research mentoring training program has been tested and shown to be effective in increasing mentoring knowledge, skills, and behavior (see below for more information)

The structure of the program is based on the experience of researchers who originally developed and implemented the program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Case studies and reading materials provide tangible starting points, and the mentors often expand from the hypothetical examples to their own experiences. This training process expands attendees' knowledge through case studies and secondhand exposure to the experiences of all participants, thus enabling attendees to engage with as many mentoring experiences as they would typically handle in a decade.

Each Advance RI-CTR Mentoring Training session is led by faculty from Brown University or the University of Rhode Island who are NRMN-trained facilitators. They develop customized mentoring training curricula and facilitate discussions of case studies and written mentoring tools at the training sessions. Their primary role is to enable participants to take ownership of their own learning by helping them engage in self-reflection and shared discovery and learning. They help the participants work through their thoughts and ideas and share mentoring strategies and experiences.

View a list of trained mentors here.

222

Faculty Trained

On becoming more effective research mentors

13

Training sessions held

With faculty mentors across the state

8

Trained Advance-CTR Mentor Facilitators

Who are developing a statewide mentor network

Findings from the RCT

The published curriculum, Mentor Training for Clinical and Translational Researchers, has been successfully tested via a multi-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) led by the University of Wisconsin Madison. Findings include: 

  • Trained mentors reported significantly higher learning gains as compared to the control. They also reported they had implemented more changes in their mentoring practice.
  • 88% of seminar participants reported that the 8-hour seminar was a valuable use of their time and 90% said they would recommend it to a colleague.
  • Mentees of trained mentors noted a greater number of positive changes in their mentoring relationship over the study period.

Pfund et al., Training Mentors of Clinical and Translational Research Scholars: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Acad Med. 2014;89:774–782.

“ I think this was an amazing and thoroughly helpful program. I found all topics to be extremely useful. I wish I had participated in something like this much earlier in my career. ”

Mentoring Training Certified Facilitators 

Meet the Mentor Facilitators

  • Aisling Caffrey, PhD, MS

    Aisling Caffrey, PhD, MS

    Associate Professor, Health Outcomes
  • Suzanne Colby, PhD

    Suzanne Colby, PhD

    Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences
  • Susan D'Andrea, PhD

    Susan D'Andrea, PhD

    Assistant Professor of Kenisiology
  • Michael Mello, MD, MPH

    Michael Mello, MD, MPH

    Professor of Emergency Medicine, Professor of Medical Science, Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Director, Injury Prevention Center - Rhode Island Hospital, PI, Injury Control Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) - Rhode Island Hospital
  • Ulrike Mende, MD, FAHA

    Ulrike Mende, MD, FAHA

    Professor of Medicine, Lifespan Cardiovascular Institute and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
  • Mark R. Zonfrillo, MD

    Mark Zonfrillo, MD, MSCE

    Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Director for the Master of Science in Population - Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Principal Investigator, Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network - Hasbro Children's Hospital