Medical Educator Minute – Mentorship in Health Professions Education

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In health care, mentorship is crucial for professional and personal growth. Mentors have a multifaceted role for trainees, including improving knowledge and skills, shaping attitudes, helping to achieve goals, developing professional networks, and promoting well-being.

Successful mentoring provides adequate support while also challenging the mentee, as this leads to a growth mindset. Mentorship aims to provide support in three domains:

  1. Canonical competence: a foundational knowledge base
  2. Contextual competence: ability to apply knowledge and skills
  3. Personal competence: focused on quality and satisfaction in practice

Considering the time constraints and diverse needs of mentees, modern mentorship models can significantly enhance their growth. Speed mentoring offers mentees the chance to connect with multiple experts in a short timeframe, receiving tailored advice about specific challenges while gaining diverse perspectives on a single issue or question. Meanwhile, peer and group mentoring fosters structured discussions around shared work-related topics, simultaneously building a professional network enriched by insights from individuals at varying career stages.

Practical strategies for mentors:

  • Promote psychological safety by getting to know the mentee as a person
  • Understand the mentees personal and professional goals
  • Set an agenda with goals and expectations for meetings
  • Allow for open reflection on challenges and debrief solutions
  • Keep track of mentee successes
  • Facilitate reflections and learning portfolios
  • Provide support with networking

Practical strategies for mentees:

  • Communicate your interest to potential mentors
  • Create specific long and short-term goals and think about a feasible timeline
  • Discuss personal strengths, weaknesses, and challenges
  • Be prepared to be challenged
  • Reflect on progress towards your goals
  • Set agendas and action plans to meet goals

Subha Ramani, Rashmi A. Kusurkar, Johnny Lyon-Maris, Eeva Pyörälä, GaryD. Rogers, Dujeepa D. Samarasekera, David C.M Taylor & Olle ten Cate (2024) Mentorship inhealth professions education – an AMEE guide for mentors and mentees: AMEE Guide No. 167, Medical Teacher, 46:8, 999-1011, DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2023.2273217