Mentoring

All physicians attend Grand Rounds every Friday from 7-9AM, where there are two hour-long presentations. Some of these are formal presentations. However, many are interactive sessions where ideas can be bounced back and forth regarding optimizing patient care, testing innovative treatment modalities, conceptualizing new research strategies, and modifying hospital policies to enhance the patient experience. These interactive sessions provide a way for physicians in our Department to learn from each other and from others in the Keck School of Medicine.

As with any top-tier medical school, the Keck School of Medicine has frequent school-wide workshops dedicated to mentoring junior faculty. Some of these workshops are designed to provide guidance in how to apply for grant funding. Others are focused on leadership, negotiation, handling difficult conversations, teaching strategies, etc. All are freely available to all USC faculty.

Each faculty member has an individualized mentoring team tailored to their own needs and career goals. In addition, all junior faculty members meet twice a year with mentoring committees comprised of the senior faculty, who can provide critical support and guidance.

The process of mentoring is given below:

1. 1. Mentees include every Clinical Assistant and Associate Professor (including any Division Chiefs at these levels).
   2. Each mentee will identify an Individual Mentoring Team having at least 3 faculty members, of which a maximum of 2 can come from USC OHNS. It is acceptable to have a mentor from an OHNS department outside USC, if desired. It is the responsibility of the mentee to solicit feedback from their Individual Mentoring Team at least twice a year, ideally through group meetings or conference calls.
   3. The chair meets with assistant professors quarterly for group mentoring.
   4. All faculty get one-on-one mentoring with the chair during the annual review process.
   5. Division chiefs meet with faculty in their division every 6 months for mentoring

All research faculty and their laboratory personnel will participate in the Department research seminars that occur every 1–2 weeks. These seminars permit lab trainees to present their work and obtain feedback while allowing research faculty a chance to keep abreast of what their colleagues are doing. Importantly, this forum will also play a key role in the review and mentoring process of research faculty PIs.

As with any top-tier medical school, the Keck School of Medicine has frequency school-wide workshops dedicated to mentoring junior faculty. Some of these workshops are designed to provide guidance in how to apply for grant funding. Others are focused on leadership, negotiation, handling difficult conversations, teaching strategies, etc. All are freely available to all USC faculty.

Annual Presentations: All research faculty should aim to present annually at the Departmental research series. Faculty presentations at the research seminar series are often informal “chalk talks”, during which they present an overview of their laboratory’s research goals and projects (“work in progress”), including specific hypotheses and plans for testing them. Chalk talks provide an important opportunity to air and discuss ideas, such as concepts for grants, papers, new projects, peculiar results, musings about current research directions, and so on. Chalk talks or other work-in-progress seminars will not generally be advertised outside the Department. Of course, not every yearly faculty presentation needs to be chalk talk; presentations of new or noteworthy findings are strongly encouraged.

Mentoring Committees: All junior research PIs (Assistant and Associate Professors) have a Mentoring Committee consisting of at least 2–3 of the senior research PIs and one or more faculty members from outside the Department to provide an external perspective. At least two members of the Committee should have the expertise necessary to provide detailed advice on the mentee’s research program. The Mentoring Committee meets with the mentee at least twice a year to discuss current status and future plans and to offer advice and assistance. In addition, the Committee is available to provide feedback on manuscripts and grant applications (see below). Whenever possible, one of the two meetings should be scheduled soon after the mentee’s annual presentation (see above).

Review of Grant Applications: Grant applications submitted by junior research faculty must be read by the Mentoring Committee for internal review and feedback. For this to be of value, applications need to be distributed for review well in advance of the deadline (at least 5–6 weeks). The most effective means of getting feedback and resolving possibly conflicting advice is to convene a meeting among those who read the application. Holding an early chalk talk devoted to the conception, formation, and writing of the grant is also strongly encouraged. Although only required of junior faculty, a similar internal grant review process is recommended for faculty at all levels.

Annual Review: The Chair conducts the annual review of all Otolaryngology research faculty, and the procedures for this review are at his discretion. They may take into account the annual presentation described above as well as summaries provided by each faculty member that describe their current laboratory and its members, research publications over the previous year, projects planned for the coming year, teaching and professional service, the status of current grant funding, as well as plans and prospects for future grant applications.

Our Audiology division is proud to host rotating 2^nd and 3^rd year students from credentialed Southern California AuD programs throughout our hospital and satellite clinics, as well as a 4th year extern from a highly competitive national pool of applicants for our Caruso Family Center for Childhood Communication. These students earn hands-on training in hearing and balance diagnostics and hearing management with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and tinnitus strategies, as well as the opportunity to participate in clinical research, further progressing the field of Audiology.

Our pediatric externship program is unique in its collaboration with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and our involvement with the California Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (CA-LEND) Training Program. As the only LEND program in California, and one of the oldest LEND programs in the United States, our extern has a unique opportunity to train under an interdisciplinary learning community where leaders in Maternal and Child Health prepare to serve children with, or at risk for, neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. Since 1966, this program has been training leaders, educating community providers, conducting research, and promoting systems change for children with or at risk of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD).

Audiology faculty meet weekly to discuss cases, strategies for improving patient access to care, and division program development. There will often be special meetings to tackle projects as a group, including an annual retreat to focus on big picture goals for our program. One-on-one meetings occur annually to discuss individualized professional goals, set objectives for the upcoming year, and provide feedback. Junior faculty members are often paired with more senior faculty upon onboarding in order to provide support. All audiology faculty are encouraged to participate in university-wide activities, from community service to seminars on hearing and balance.

The USC Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology (MS-SLP) program includes mentoring of students and faculty. Within the program, students are assigned advisors who work with them throughout their two-year journey.  Each faculty member meets with students to provide individual mentoring regarding their academic, clinical and interest areas, in addition to providing support when needed if other matters arise. The Clinical and Academic faculty additionally serve to mentor students in specialized areas of interest throughout the program.  The students also have their own Mentoring Program where Second-Year students are matched with First-Year students for support and the ability to talk to someone “who has been there.” Students meet monthly during the Coffee and Conversation sessions.

Faculty hold bi-monthly faculty meetings to discuss academic, student and program issues.  Frequently, special meetings are schedule to work on projects. The Program Director and the Clinical Education Director have a standing weekly meeting, and other faculty have monthly meetings with the Program Director to discuss their own personal growth and goals. We are a small program, so faculty work closely together and support each other throughout the program including in teaching and professional development.  All faculty participate in various department and university activities.

The faculty includes experts in clinical patient care and research. At each participating rotation site, there are board-certified faculty members who instruct and supervise all residents. Each faculty member brings his or her expertise through participation in teaching rounds, instruction in clinics and surgery, formal teaching conferences, and research. All faculty members are strongly committed to resident mentoring.

Furthermore, all residents have a dedicated clinical mentor throughout the residency program. These are selected within the first few months of starting internship. Meetings are scheduled with their clinical mentor at least twice a year to discuss their residency training, their career goals, and their plans to achieve their goals.

A resident may choose to add additional clinical mentors as they begin to develop key areas of interest, or they may simply change. This is up to the discretion of the resident. In addition, each resident should select a research mentor prior to beginning any research project. The research mentor will help the resident develop a hypothesis and the appropriate methodology for testing it. The mentor will guide the resident throughout the project, but it is up to the resident to carry out the research and to write it up for submission to a scholarly journal.

All OHNS administrative staff participate in our monthly staff meeting to discuss administrative affairs, clinical operations and to participate in professional development activities.

1. There are regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings to develop goals and objectives for each individual.
2. Ongoing coaching provides feedback and opportunities to refine goals with annual performance reviews provided to direct reports by their supervisors.
3. Training is provided based on operational needs and responding to goals set by clinical and administrative staff.

• • How to create a strong team culture.
  • How to identify issues and effectively problem solve.
  • How to achieve accurate and effective calendar management to meet the clinical operation needs.
  • How to facilitate and process business actions using school and health system
  • How to stay one-step ahead of your routine clinical and academic support duties