title: Mentoring health researchers globally: Diverse experiences, programmes, challenges and responses.
abstract: Mentoring experiences and programmes are becoming increasingly recognised as important by those engaged in capacity strengthening in global health research. Using a primarily qualitative study design, we studied three experiences of mentorship and eight mentorship programmes for early career global health researchers based in high-income and low- and middle-income countries. For the latter, we drew upon programme materials, existing unpublished data and more formal mixed-method evaluations, supplemented by individual email questionnaire responses. Research team members wrote stories, and the team assembled and analysed them for key themes. Across the diverse experiences and programmes, key emergent themes included: great mentors inspire others in an inter-generational cascade, mentorship is transformative in personal and professional development and involves reciprocity, and finding the right balance in mentoring relationships and programmes includes responding creatively to failure. Among the challenges encountered were: struggling for more level playing fields for new health researchers globally, changing mindsets in institutions that do not have a culture of mentorship and building collaboration not competition. Mentoring networks spanning institutions and countries using multiple virtual and face-to-face methods are a potential avenue for fostering organisational cultures supporting quality mentorship in global health research.
authors.affiliation: a Dalla Lana School of Public Health , University of Toronto , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Donald C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.affiliation: b Johnson Associates , Hamilton , Canada.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: c Hospital de Clinicas , University of Buenos Aires and Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES) , Buenos Aires , Argentina.
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mejia
authors.affiliation: d Malaria Capacity Development Consortium , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , London , UK.
authors.forename: Hazel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McCullough
authors.affiliation: e École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal , University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre , Montreal , Canada.
authors.forename: Anne-Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Turcotte-Tremblay
authors.affiliation: f Research Department , Cardiovascular Unit of Guatemala (UNICAR) , Guatemala City , Guatemala.|g Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences , Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis , MO , USA.
authors.forename: Joaquin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barnoya
authors.affiliation: h ESE:O , Santiago , Chile.
authors.forename: María Soledad
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Falabella Luco
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building / Q000379:methods; D014943:Global Health; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D000071252:Mentoring / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012107:Research Design; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education*
keywords: Global health research; capacity strengthening; narrative synthesis; postgraduate training; qualitative research methods