A Call for Sponsoring Physician-Scientist Trainees in Health Professions Education

To The Editor: Mentorship refers to the process of advising on professional development, while sponsorship goes a step further and involves advocating for and creating opportunities for high-potential, early-career trainees.1 As two physician-scientist trainees attempting to combine residency training with a research career in health professions education (HPE), we have often felt confused about our developing professional identities. We feel that we belong to a landscape of practice2 in which we are oscillating between the community of practice of clinicians and that of HPE researchers. As a result, we often struggle to figure out who would be our ideal mentors and sponsors, and how they could help. Even though our clinical mentors advise us on the clinical part of our career, and research mentors advise on the research part of our career, being able to combine them has been difficult and lonely to figure out. Oftentimes these two parts do not align, and we must navigate the boundaries of the different parts and communities on our own. We have been lucky that we found mentors and sponsors who have facilitated our careers so far, and we are grateful, but this did not come easily. We call on the HPE community to reflect on and consider whether they value the integrated identity of physician-scientist trainees and whether they could sponsor someone similar. We would love for senior leaders in HPE to sponsor physician-scientist trainees and create a meaningful journey together. Gerbrich Galema, MD Fourth-year resident in anesthesiology, and PhD student in health professions education, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; email: [email protected]; X (formerly Twitter): @Gerbrich_Galema; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5971-4855 Stephanie N.E. Meeuwissen, MD, PhD Third-year resident in internal medicine, and researcher in health professions education, Maastricht University Medical Center, School of Health Professions Education, Maastricht, The Netherlands; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5434-4226