Mentor Resources

Mentoring is the cornerstone of residency and fellowship education. Mentorship is an instructional requirement for all accredited residency and fellowship programs. The following resources will help you prepare to meet the expectations of residency and fellowship mentorship.

• The ABPTRFE Quality Standards for Clinical Physical Therapist Residency and Fellowship Programs outlines the mentorship requirements for programs.
• The APTA Learning Center provides a course entitled “Successful Mentorship for Residency & Fellowship”  that provides an in-depth overview of residency and fellowship mentoring, including: how resident/fellow mentoring is different from student mentoring; how to build a resident/mentor relationship; and strategies for assessment and remediation.

• Mentor training and faculty development resources:
  • ABPTRFE Mentoring Resource Manual
    • Includes sample mentor session preparation forms
    • Includes sample mentor evaluation documents
  • Mentoring the Mentor Course Reference List
    
    
  • TIRR Memorial Hermann Annual Mentoring Workshop
    • Includes example learning objectives, educational methods/format, and assessment strategies
  • The Academy of Education’s Residency & Fellowship SIG provides a number of mentoring resources under the “Resources for Program Administration” section.
    • Sample mentor training documents from Moss Rehab Neurologic Residency Program’s mentor training documents are available through this site

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Are all program mentors required to have a specialty certification?
  • No. At least one ABPTS-certified neurologic specialist must be on the program faculty and involved in all aspects of curriculum development, resident mentoring/advising. 
  • If a mentor is not ABPTS-certified, then they must be a graduate of an ABPTRFE accredited neurologic residency/fellowship OR demonstrate at least 3 years of significant and current experience in neurologic physical therapy. 
• What are different structures for residency/fellowship mentorship?
  • Residency programs utilize a variety of mentoring structures based upon program resources, curricular design, and preferences. As you develop your program’s mentoring structure, ensure that the ABPTRFE requirements for mentoring are met (ie: at least 150 1:1 hours of clinical mentorship, of which 100 hours must be in direct patient care). Consider the following structures to achieve these requirements:
    • What hours will mentoring be scheduled in direct patient care versus outside of patient care?
    • Will mentoring occur side by side with a resident while both are treating patients or with both mentor and resident working with the same patient?
    • Will the resident self-select their mentor(s) or will mentors be assigned?
    • Will residents stay with 1 mentor throughout a given rotation or the entire program?  
    • Will residents rotate between different mentors? 
    • Will a shared model be used where 2 residents work with 1 mentor?
• What mentoring adjustments are allowed by ABPTRFE given the mentoring challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • Programs may wave up to 50 of the required 150 1:1 mentoring hours. A minimum of 65 of the required 100 must be in person and 1:1 for residency programs.
  • The requirement for annual mentor faculy observation/evaluation has been temporarily suspended.
  • For additional information, please refer to the ABPTRFE COVID-19  Guidance Document