The Influence of Faculty Mentors on Junior Pharmacy Faculty Members’ Career Decisions

OBJECTIVE. To assess junior faculty members' perceptions regarding the impact of past faculty-mentoring relationships in their career decisions, including the decision to pursue postgraduate training and ultimately an academic career. METHODS. A mixed-mode survey instrument was developed and an invitation to participate in the survey was sent to 2,634 pharmacy faculty members designated as assistant professors in the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) directory data. RESULTS. Usable responses were received from 1,059 pharmacy faculty members. Approximately 59% of respondents indicated that they had received encouragement from 1 or more faculty mentors that was very or extremely influential in their decision to pursue postgraduate training. Mentor and mentee pharmacy training characteristics and postgraduate training paths tended to be similar. US pharmacy degree earners rated the likelihood that they would have pursued an academic career without mentor encouragement significantly lower than did their foreign pharmacy and nonpharmacy degree colleagues (p = 0.006, p = 0.021, respectively). CONCLUSIONS. For the majority of junior pharmacy faculty members, faculty mentoring received prior to completing their doctor of pharmacy degree or nonpharmacy undergraduate degree influenced their subsequent career decisions.