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Benefits, barriers and enablers of mentoring female health academics: An integrative review

journal contribution
posted on 2021-11-14, 23:48 authored by Merylin Cross, Simone Lee, Heather Bridgman, Deependra K Thapa, Michelle ClearyMichelle Cleary, Rachel Kornhaber
This integrative literature review synthesizes the primary research evidence on mentoring female health academics published from 2000 to 2018, to identify the benefits, enablers and barriers to mentoring women. The need for this review is underpinned by the magnitude of change in higher education, the high number of women in health disciplines, limited progress in advancing women’s academic careers, escalating role expectations, faculty shortages and staff turnover. Data were sourced from Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature. Twenty-seven studies were included. Although effective mentoring facilitates personal and career development, academic craftsmanship, psychosocial support and job satisfaction, it is complicated by organizational factors and personal and relational dynamics. Enablers of mentoring are mentor availability and expertise, supportive relationships, mutuality and responsiveness. Lack of, or inadequate mentoring compromise women’s job satisfaction, career development and academic productivity. Providing female health academics access to experienced, well-connected mentors with common interests who are committed to advancing their career, is an investment in optimizing potential, promoting supportive work environments and increasing productivity and retention. Realizing the institutional potential that mentoring female health academics offers, is contingent on academic leaders valuing mentorship as faculty business and understanding the role that the contemporary academic environment plays in achieving mentoring outcomes. Further empirical and longitudinal research is needed to evaluate effective approaches for mentoring women in the contemporary academic environment.

History

Volume

14

Issue

4

Start Page

1

End Page

21

Number of Pages

21

eISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Location

United States

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Publisher License

CC BY

Additional Rights

CC BY 4.0

Language

eng

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • Yes

Acceptance Date

2019-03-30

External Author Affiliations

University of Tasmania

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Medium

Electronic-eCollection

Journal

PLoS ONE

Article Number

e0215319