Speaking at the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress, Frank I. Scott, MD, MSCE, cautioned that mentorship—while often career-accelerating—can become actively or passively harmful if toxic behaviors go unrecognized.
Scott, an associate professor at University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine and codirector of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s IBD Qorus program, emphasized that strong mentorship is linked to higher publication rates, more protected time, better job satisfaction, and stronger career retention. But when mentorship fails, it can quietly derail academic progress.
He outlined several mentorship archetypes, noting that effective mentoring often comes from a network—not a single individual—including traditional long-term mentors, skill-focused coaches, sponsors who advocate for visibility, and connectors who open new professional doors.
Problems arise, Scott explained, through mentorship malpractice, which can be intentional or unintentional:
- Active malpractice includes mentors who take credit for work (“the hijacker”), overload mentees with low-value tasks (“the exploiter”), or restrict independence and outside collaboration (“the possessor”).
- Passive malpractice, which Scott described as more common, often emerges as mentors grow busier and more senior—creating bottlenecks, avoiding difficult conversations, or becoming largely unavailable due to leadership roles or travel.