At Iowa, we recognize the importance of quality mentorship in helping our residents lay the foundation for personal and professional success in their future careers.  We, as the residency administration, will do as much as we possibly can to help match our residents with mentors that can help them grow.  Our distinction tracks (links), pathways (link), StARR program (link), and PSTP (link) all provide formal avenues of identify mentors and working with them towards a specific goal.

Additionally, research leaders from across the subspecialties of internal medicine talk to the residents at noon conference on an annual basis about the research mentors in their department who have active research projects that are looking for help from residents.  Furthermore, one of our Associate Program Directors’ role in the residency program is dedicated to facilitating mentorship, scholarly activity, and application to fellowship.  They are our go-to person to help find mentorship for our residents’ unique scholarly interests.

Since switching the X+Y schedule, we have also found that residents now have the opportunity to have a longitudinal clinical experience with a faculty in a subspecialty of their interest.  These clinical experiences often lead to mentorship opportunities.