Well-Being Guide to Mentorship

The ACR® is committed to supporting your well-being. Resources like these, curated by fellow radiologists, are designed to help identify activities that can enhance your well-being and mitigate burnout. These resources are part of the ACR Radiology Well-Being Program, which includes access to the Well-Being Index for ACR members and an ACGME-aligned well-being curriculum for program directors.

Additional support guides are available on topics including mentorship, resilience, conflict resolution and more.

About Mentorship

  • Mentoring relationships are important to career success.
  • Differences in race, gender, age, career interest and culture can adversely affect the effectiveness and value of mentoring relationships.
  • Given that there are multiple vulnerable groups in radiology (women and other underrepresented groups) due to the predominantly non-minority male makeup of the specialty, there may not be enough mentors of similar race, gender, etc., for all mentees. Thus, it is important to learn how to mentor across these differences so that all members of the radiology community can benefit from effective mentoring.

These readings, activities and other resources can help you learn how mentoring across differences can improve well-being and reduce burnout.

Resources

Mentoring Sessions — Article and Workshop Exercise

MedEdPORTAL: Mentoring Across Differences

The Mentoring Across Differences (MAD) sessions are designed to address challenges that arise in mentoring relationships due to differences in race, gender, age, career interest and culture. This resource provides the framework and exercise needed to mentor across differences in the mentor-mentee relationship by learning how to facilitate workshops, making the mentor-mentee relationships more valuable and effective.

To access details such as the timelines for sessions, case examples and presentations, download the appendices from the MedEdPORTAL page.

Time: Approximately 45 minutes to read the resource. Implementing the curriculum takes two 90-minute interactive sessions.


Establishing Mentor Groups — Article and Exercise

Tales of Mentoring in Radiology: The Experience of Residents and Mentors at a Single Academic Program

This paper describes how to implement mentoring groups in residency training, though it can also be applicable to practicing radiologists. The article demonstrates how mentoring groups can be a valuable addition to residency training. These mentoring groups serve as support groups as well, so residents (and practicing radiologists) can ideally reach out to these groups, particularly for help with career advice and work-life balance.

Time: 45 minutes to one hour to read the article and one hour, four times a year to implement the mentoring groups.