Mentoring in epidemiology and public health training

In the past, mentoring was the job of one senior researcher in which the mentor molded the mentee in his/her own image. With public health being a very multidisciplinary field, mentoring may need to evolve to facilitate the needs of emerging scientists—including epidemiologists. The mentoring relationship can begin at many education stages, including high school. Involving students at all education levels acts as a way to recruit and nurture interest in public health. On the basis of the experience in the medical sciences, mentoring programs also can be used to recruit and retain high-quality professionals in our discipline. Mentoring functions nurture a young mentee with the bonus of greater workplace satisfaction for the mentor. Nevertheless, more understanding of what constitutes successful mentoring and how to develop programs that create great mentors is needed.