Mentoring for Residents - Not the Advice You Were Expecting

This article is not about getting a mentor when you’re in residency training. You already know that you should have one or more, whether they are assigned by your institution or residency program or initiated on your own. When you engage in active mentoring (personal or group, assigned or chosen), you are likely to experience increased personal and professional success and wellness. Since you all have one, then that advice is moot. I hope.

About 15 years ago, there was a call to action, one to promote and improve on current mentorship in academic emergency medicine.¹ That call, which continues today, was heard. The concept of mentoring became widespread and various types of programs were initiated, mostly geared towards junior faculty members. Now that call to promote and improve on mentorship in academic emergency medicine needs to be directed at you as residents. Be a mentor now, at your career stage. Not THE mentor, but rather A mentor.

Only fifteen per cent of medical students have a mentor, and formal mentoring programs for medical students are lacking in most countries.^2,3 Most of the mentor programs and outcomes studied are from faculty mentoring students, not from resident physicians mentoring medical students. Very little data is available on this tier of mentoring. What is known is that mentorship in medical school can have a meaningful effect on career choice and professional development as well as research productivity, interest in academic careers, wellbeing and specialty choice.^3,4

I hear the self-doubt, the imposter syndrome, invading your thoughts. You’re not ready yet? What could you possibly have to teach? You’re are far from being alone with those thoughts. Not so different from most successful women in emergency medicine, it took years to feel confident and competent in my own experiences and maturity to be a mentor. True enough, it does take experience and maturity to guide others successfully. Women especially, tend to wait until they feel overqualified.

You have been through undergraduate and medical school. You are a physician. You have taken the boards, applied for residency, interviewed, and moved to a new city. Some of you have spouses and children, some have experienced divorce. Some may have previous careers and various advanced degrees. All of you have to balance work and life and, certainly, have valuable life experiences. You are already at a time when you are qualified to be a mentor, to share knowledge and wisdom. See for yourself if you check the boxes to be able to enter a resident-student mentor relationship.

• Ideally, a mentor should be one career stage above a mentee.⁵
• A mentor is a person who takes a special interest in the professional development of a junior colleague.⁶
• Great mentors share professional, personal, or intellectual interests with their mentees and help foster growth in one or all of these domains by helping less experienced colleagues navigate obstacles, opportunities, and resources.⁷

The benefits from venturing outside of your comfort zone and mentoring at this point in your career are numerous. The flow of advice, support and guidance isn’t unidirectional. A mentor inevitably learns valuable tips from their mentee during time spent together. Mentees may serve as a source of networking and collaboration. Professional bonds may be formed, ones that last a lifetime. Mentees may one day serve as a mentor themselves in an area of expertise or as a collaborator in a project or committee. Mentoring gives back to our medical community and provides a sense of fulfillment. Helping a junior colleague navigate the difficult pathway of medicine and watching their success inherently improves satisfaction in one’s own career. And in terms of academia, mentoring is beneficial for building a strong resume. It simply adds one more component to be propelled forward in your own career.

Overcome the hesitancy to mentor others by cultivating your skill set. Inquire in your department and within your institution as to professional development programs, workshops and lectures offered on this subject matter. A Google Scholar, PubMed, or other internet search opens the door to a myriad of mentoring articles and research. Look for existing local and national programs in which to become involved, e.g. The EMRA Resident-Student Mentoring Program. If there isn’t a local program available, then consider establishing one. Sounds like a great project with potential to have profound impact. Lastly, don’t forget to ask your mentor for guidance. After all, that is what they are there for!

Respectfully submitted November 2018

References:

1. Marco, C. A. (2004). Mentoring in Emergency Medicine: Challenges and Future Directions. Academic Emergency Medicine,11(12), 1329-1330. doi:10.1197/j.aem.2004.09.001
2. Dehon, E., Cruse, M., Dawson, B., & Jackson-Williams, L. (2015). Mentoring During Medical School and Match Outcome Among Emergency Medicine Residents. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine,16(6), 927-930. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2015.9.27010
3. Frei, E., Stamm, M., & Buddeberg-Fischer, B. (2010). Mentoring programs for medical students - a review of the PubMed literature 2000 - 2008. BMC Medical Education,10(1). doi:10.1186/1472-6920-10-32
4. Welch, J. L., Jimenez, H. L., Walthall, J., & Allen, S. E. (2012). The Women in Emergency Medicine Mentoring Program: An Innovative Approach to Mentoring. Journal of Graduate Medical Education,4(3), 362-366. doi:10.4300/jgme-d-11-00267.1
5. Lee, J. M., Anzai, Y., & Langlotz, C. P. (2006). Mentoring the Mentors: Aligning Mentor and Mentee Expectations. Academic Radiology,13(5), 556-561. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2006.01.050
6. Yeung, M., Nuth, J., & Stiell, I. G. (2010). Mentoring in emergency medicine: The art and the evidence. Cjem,12(02), 143-149. doi:10.1017/s1481803500012173
7. Van Vliet, H. Mentors Defined Across the Gender Line. https://www.acep.org/how-we-serve/sections/american-association-of-women-eps/news/april-2016/m e n t o r s - d e f i n e d - a c r o s s - t h e - g e n d e r - l i n e / # s m .00003msxej5mcfb6zwb2eoky3aqz2

Diann M. Krywko, MD, FACEP
AAWEP Newsletter and Didactics Committee Member
Professor of Emergency Medicine
Director of Wellness and Professional Development
Medical University of South Carolina