A Board of Mentors to Support Clinical Education Research

As a clinical educator, you likely have many areas of expertise that will assist you as you embark on conducting clinical education research. For example, you likely have expertise in providing high-quality, evidence-based services to clients. It is also likely that you have developed effective methods to help students grow their own clinical skills. Your expertise in clinical practice and education provides you with the essential foundation needed as you begin to evaluate methods and approaches surrounding clinical education. If you reflect on your training that has allowed you to get to this point in your professional career, it is also likely that you received much support along the way from people, such as instructors, supervisors, peers, and even your clients and students. As you work to expand your professional skills and gain expertise in conducting clinical education research, it is no different. You will need support and guidance from many individuals to help to ensure your success. You need mentorship. I purposefully use the term mentorship here to help convey that the guidance and support you need is multifaceted. There will likely be several individuals who you will need to help guide you as you gain skills in several different areas over time. Thus, one model that may serve you well for clinical education research, given its complexities, is a board of mentors.