PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

S Diehr

Publications and source records attributed to S Diehr.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

A descriptive, cross-sectional study of formal mentoring for faculty.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Professional academic skills (PAS) encompass the values, collegial relations, and career management skills essential for faculty success. Mentoring has been proposed as a way for junior faculty to acquire these skills. In this paper, we present a summary of literature on formal mentoring and report an evaluation of a formal mentoring program (FMP) on the PAS development of junior family medicine faculty. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was used to examine FMP impact on two groups of junior faculty with 18 months (n = 8) and 6 months (n = 10) of program exposure. We developed a Likert-type questionnaire to assess PAS development and used semistructured interviews to identify unintended outcomes of program participation. A qualitative, template analysis helped surface themes from the descriptive data. RESULTS: The FMP had an overall positive impact on junior faculty PAS development, with greatest improvements in their understanding of academic values. Proteges with longer program experience had greater gains. Unintended benefits included improved preparation to mentor others and increased perceptions of a supportive academic environment. CONCLUSIONS: Formal mentoring programs can improve the PAS of junior faculty and positively impact an organizational culture that supports faculty development.

Cross-Sectional Studies

Use of Native American healers among Native American patients in an urban Native American health center.

To gain an understanding of the prevalence, utilization patterns, and practice implications of the use of Native American healers together with the use of physicians, we conducted semistructured interviews at an urban Indian Health Service clinic in Milwaukee, Wisc, of a convenience sample of 150 patients at least 18 years old. The mean age of patients was 40 years, and the sex distribution was 68.7% women and 31.3% men. Thirty tribal affiliations were represented, the largest groups being Ojibwa (20.7%), Oneida (20.0%), Chippewa (11.3%), and Menominee (8.0%). We measured the number of patients seeing healers and gathered information on the types of healers, the ceremonies used for healing, the reasons for seeing healers, and whether patients discuss with their physicians their use of healers. We found that 38.0% of the patients see a healer, and of those who do not, 86.0% would consider seeing one in the future. Most patients report seeing a healer for spiritual reasons. The most frequently visited healers were herbalists, spiritual healers, and medicine men. Sweat lodge ceremonies, spiritual healing, and herbal remedies were the most common treatments. More than a third of the patients seeing healers received different advice from their physicians and healers. The patients rate their healer's advice higher than their physician's advice 61.4% of the time. Only 14.8% of the patients seeing healers tell their physician about their use. We conclude that physicians should be aware that their Native American patients may be using alternative forms of treatment, and they should open a respectful and culturally sensitive dialogue about this use with their patients.

Adult