Scientific mentoring for early career clinician scientists: a mixed-methods approach for understanding mentor roles

Mentoring is considered an important means to support early career clinician scientists navigating demanding scientific and clinical career paths. Yet, conditions for successful mentoring in this dual context are not fully understood. Theoretical frameworks outline roles mentors should fulfill and stress the importance of agreements between mentors and protégés. Using a mixed-methods design, we examine which roles scientific mentors perceive as relevant in this setting and compare these perceptions with established theories. Structured interviews with 11 mentors reveal strong alignment with theoretical models, although some mentors question the relevance of roles such as acting as sponsors or friends. A survey of 49 early career clinician scientists shows that protégés’ viewpoints broadly align with those of mentors. However, contrary to mentors’ own assessments, protégés identify the roles of friend and sponsor as being performed. This points to a lack of mentors’ awareness of their (psychosocial) impact beyond strictly professional mentoring roles.