Mentorship in Nephrology: Getting It Right

The useful part

Nephrology faces a persistent workforce challenge, and mentorship is one of our strongest tools for drawing trainees into the field and keeping them there. They open doors, protect time, guide career decisions, and model what a sustainable life in nephrology looks like. Chopra, Edelson, and Saint described "mentor malpractice" in JAMA, and it comes in two forms.

How it works

• Active malpractice includes the hijacker, who takes over a mentee's project, and the exploiter, who assigns busywork that serves the mentor's goals.
• For a specialty working to recruit, these failures cost us future nephrologists.
• The possessor blocks outside collaboration, and the saboteur undermines the mentee's progress.
• The world traveler is never available, and the country clubber avoids conflict and so never gives honest feedback.
• The fix starts with clear expectations, regular check-ins, shared authorship agreements, and mentorship teams rather than a single mentor.

Details worth keeping

A good mentor does more than teach acid-base or dialysis prescriptions. Passive malpractice is quieter and often more common. The bottleneck sits on manuscripts for months.