Expressions of Interest for 2023 are now closed

Our mission at the AAAPC is to advocate for high quality multidisciplinary primary care research, education, policy and practice. Mentorship is the relationship between a more experienced person (mentor) and a less experienced one (mentee), with the purpose of sharing the mentor’s skills and knowledge with the mentee, and to provide guidance, support and encouragement. Mentorship can be considered integral to nurturing research excellence, by providing a safe space for less-experienced researchers to receive guidance and support.

Mentorship produces more successful primary care academics and professionals. It fosters social connections, personal development, and enables career guidance. Formal mentorship has found to increase productivity. Mentoring programs have led to greater retention rates in academia, greater success in funding applications, and improvements for the inclusion of diverse populations .

As a multi-disciplinary organisation, the AAAPC is launching our own mentorship program for early- and mid-career academics, to progress our goals of fostering and supporting career development in academic primary care, encouraging originality, questioning and exploration of ideas within academic environments, in education, research and leadership, providing a forum for the exchange of information and ideas, and encouraging shared academic activities.

Aims of the mentoring program

• To support early- and mid-career researchers in their professional development
• To improve excellence through teaching and learning, research and leadership
• To provide networking opportunities and promote connections between multi-disciplinary researchers

What will the mentoring program entail?

We will aim to connect mentees from the EMCA Network with a mentor working in academic primary care, and provide guidance for the conduct of the mentoring relationship. After mentor-mentee matching, it will be the responsibility of the mentee to manage the ongoing relationship. The time required for participation will depend on the individual mentor/mentee relationship and expectations. Please see guidelines below to foster a successful mentoring relationship.

Note: we will endeavour to match mentees and mentors based on preferences in the EOI form, but cannot guarantee this.

Who can be a mentee and mentor?

This program is open to all AAAPC members who are primary care academics, including education-focused academics, research-focused academics and PhD candidates. Early- and mid- career academics will be matched with more senior academics. For example, a mid-career academic may mentor an early-career academic, and a third year PhD candidate may mentor a first year PhD candidate.

Expressions of Interest process

Expressions of interest for both mentees and mentors should be submitted by completing the applicable form and submitted to the AAAPC Secretariat (secretariat@aaapc.org.au) by 5pm (AEST) Friday 30th September 2023. 

Mentee Expression of Interest Form

Mentor Expression of Interest Form

Guidance for mentees and mentors

1.       Professionalism

We encourage the mentorship to be a semi-formal relationship. Mentors play a very different role to, and are not a substitute for, work supervisors or experienced colleagues. However, professionalism is still expected from both mentees and mentors.

2.       Confidentiality

Meetings and discussions between the mentee and mentor should be kept confidential at all times, and should not be discussed elsewhere unless with the explicit permission of the mentee/mentor.

3.       Expectations and availability

Mentors and mentees should be upfront and honest regarding their capacity and expectations for the mentoring program. Lack of time is detrimental to a mentorship program², so early discussions regarding expectations and mentee/mentor availability are critical.

4.       Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the mentee to organise meetings, set meeting agendas and come prepared to each meeting with their mentor. Mentees are encouraged to identify their goal(s) for the mentoring program and keep track of their development.

It is the responsibility of the mentor to provide a supportive and encouraging environment for the mentee. Ideally, mentors should share their own experiences, act as a sounding board, provide advice and inspiration, and networking opportunities (where relevant/appropriate).