A facilitated peer mentoring program for junior faculty to promote professional development and peer networking.

PURPOSE: To explore the design, implementation, and efficacy of a faculty development program in a cohort of early career junior faculty.

METHOD: Interested junior faculty members were divided into interdisciplinary small groups led by senior faculty facilitators. The groups met monthly for 1.5 hours to review a modular curriculum from 2011 to 2013. Using a survey at two time points (September 2011 and 2013) and an interim program evaluation, the authors collected data on participants' demographics, faculty interconnectedness, and self-reported knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) in the domains of professional development and scholarship, including the ability to write career goals and align activities with those goals.

RESULTS: A total of 104 junior faculty participated in the program. They demonstrated changes in self-reported KSA in the domains of professional development (P = .013, P = .001) and scholarship (P = .038, P = .015) with an increase in ability to write career goals (P < .001), ability to align activities with those goals (P < .001), and number of and amount of time spent pursuing activities related to those goals (P = .022). These changes were more significant among female faculty and were not affected by academic rank or time since last training. Interconnectedness among faculty increased during the period of study-the number of nodes and ties between nodes within the network increased.

CONCLUSIONS: This facilitated peer mentoring program for junior faculty was effective in improving the KSA necessary to promote early career advancement and peer networking, especially for women.