Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation

Mentoring to promote professional fulfillment and reduce burnout in a Department of Medicine

Provider burnout is on the rise in physicians. Mentorship has been shown to reduce stress, a leading cause of burnout. We propose to address physician burnout by offering mentoring around the topic of physician wellness, taking the mentorship one step farther. As content matter experts, we feel we have the unique skill set to train mentors to work with mentees in a way which supports the mentee and results in learning for both parties on topics pertaining to wellness. We will assess the success of the program by measuring stress and burnout and stress pre- and post-mentoring. The materials developed as a result of this project will be shared with others in an effort to reduce stress and burnout and increase joy and satisfaction in the practice of medicine.

The project will use an upcoming retreat to build upon individual division directors receiving their own division’s data and providing skills to develop individualized action plans for each division. Each director will receive training in burnout reduction. We will randomize half of the sixteen divisions to receive mentoring programs in addition to this baseline teaching at the retreat. We will assess stress and burnout before, during and after the mentoring; one year of follow up should provide sufficient data to determine the incremental benefit of mentoring on burnout and professional fulfillment.