**4. Mentorship and academic productivity**

It has been shown that mentees generate more peer-reviewed publications, receive more grant funding, report greater career satisfaction, and are more likely to be mentors themselves [8, 35, 36]. Mentees are also likely to achieve faster academic promotion and have greater faculty retention [37, 38]. Despite these benefits, the number of physicians engaged in academics and research is decreasing, the proportion of NIH-funded principal investigators over age 60 is increasing, and it is becoming more difficult for early-physician scientists to find mentors [37]. Furthermore, the expectations of physicians at the conclusion of their training are extensive, and include proficiency in clinical, teaching, scholarly, and administrative duties [39–41]. Mentorship is a means for mentees to develop soft skills such as written and verbal communication, team building, leadership, professionalism, and various other nontechnical skills – items that are often not included in our standard curricula or overlooked during training [39]. In addition, mentees benefit from professional coaching, emotional support, and networking opportunities provided by mentors [42], and mentorship meetings that include discussions of wellness, mindfulness, and coping skills add further benefit to participants [22, 43–45].
