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The Neurology Resident Mentoring Program at University of Rochester is a longitudinal 4-year experience that focuses on guiding residents in 4 key areas:

1. Fellowship and career decisions
2. Structured development of a scholarship project
3. Defining personal and professional career goals
4. Developing leadership skills 

YEAR ONE

Residents complete a written assessment to identify goals, career interests and research interests, and meet individually with the mentorship director to discuss.  Residents are then paired with a specific mentor by the end of PGY1. Their mentors are intended to help them throughout residency and may alsoserve as their research, content, and/or subspecialty mentor.

YEAR TWO

Following a kickoff social event, mentor-mentee pairs meet at least quarterly to discuss progress, career goals and interests, elective selections, and scholarship projects. Toward the end of this year, mentors begin to work with mentees to begin planning for fellowship applications. Other content, project, and/or subspecialty mentors are identified. Formal updates are provided by faculty mentors.

YEAR FOUR

 Residents are encouraged to continue their scholarship work but are also expected to be more independent and create their own timelines. The primary focus of this year is leadership and career development, with a curriculum that culminates in creation of a structured academic development plan that the resident will initiate after completion of residency and the development and implementation of a chief resident group leadership project.

The curriculum is focused on defining core values and understanding strengths in order to define and achieve goals.   Topics addressed are listed below:

• Defining Leadership
• Identifying, clarifying and prioritizing your values
• CV workshop:  strengthening your CV and aligning it with your values
• Developing long term goals:  deciding what you want to do with your life
• Identifying short-term goals that will lead to success
• Creation of a one-year learning contract
• Determine your personal mission and vision
• Using your time wisely and efficiently
• Understanding your emotional intelligence
• Conflict resolution
• Effective negotiations
• Building and sustaining teams
• The work of becoming a leader

The chief resident leadership project consists of:  

• Identifying objectives
• Creating an action plan
• Addressing barriers
• Implementing the project

RESEARCH MENTORSHIP

In addition to working towards career goals in years two through four, there is also a focus on developing and implementing a structured and guided scholarship project to present at the annual Schwid Resident, Fellow and Student Research Symposium, and ideally submit as a manuscript and/or poster on a national level over the course of residency. This process is guided not only by general and research mentors, but also takes advantage of the breadth of research expertise of our diverse faculty. Residents participate in a longitudinal curriculum integrated within the academic half day, in which they will discuss development of their projects, learn new skills, and identify resources for completing their scholarly activities. This curriculum covers the following topics:

YEAR TWO

• Finding your project and mentor
• Development of a research question
• Reviewing the literature on your topic
• Study design
• Research methods
• Proposal presentations and critiques

YEAR THREE

• IRB guidance
• Data collection

YEAR FOUR

• Statistical methods for data analysis
• Writing an abstract
• Creating a poster
• Presenting your work
• Writing a manuscript

Our structured general and research mentoring program for residents is one of the most unique and valued components of our residency!