Role Of Mentor ship In The Development of Emergency Medicine Resident
One of the best things life can offer you, if you are really lucky is good mentors/teachers. Mentors who selflessly act to bring out one’s utmost potential and give the required push or a pat where needed, especially if the trainee had an intimidating past or was shy or unsure of their potentiality.
For me, a good mentor is someone who says ‘You are here to learn so take your time and I am here to help any time you need me’. This mentor doesn’t give up when the resident feels incompetent or unable, doesn’t often remind the trainee of how behind on things they are but instead ensure constant monitored practice sessions and offer constant advice on how to improve on matters.
They ensure constant revisions of curriculums and practice sessions using different means of teaching among the different levels, so the core elements in managements of different disease processes and examinations become a reflex, rather than a guess or a temporary act. Both parties should set objectives and establish what the mentor aspires for trainees and what the trainee expects to achieve and how things can be improved upon and how together they may make advances in the field they are passionate about.
Goals and expectations should be explicitly set for each year, to ensure they are met and their progress assessed over monthly meetings. With the right guidance, every trainee has the potential to further the legacy of their mentors in one way or another. No mentor is there to spoon feed or guide through every aspect of professional life, rather they help with aspects where one wants to exceed which lie within their level of expertise.
Trainees should never be defensive when corrected or guided regarding a matter and should give their maximum effort in performing diligently what is expected of them and not even the busiest mentor in the world will have trouble dedicating their time upon such trainees.
If books and internet alone could teach everything, no mentors or schools were needed but there are things in life that are only learned through experience and the best trainees try to learn and grasp lessons out of all the experiences of their mentors and superiors so wiser decisions could be made earlier in regards to patients while knowing well how certain complications or mistakes could be avoided.
People I have come to inspire most in my life are, who taught me something I have always wanted to learn while giving me proper space and time to learn it in and never intimidating me for a single moment in time. They didn’t give up on me when I gave up on myself a gazillion times and they had my back when I needed it the most. As Bob Proctor wrote, ‘A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.’
To have a mentor who has your back is a blessing that can easily be assessed from the many testimonies of post graduate trainees throughout the world, who no longer loved what they did, because they had no help or support when they needed it the most at work from their seniors.
A good mentor hence ensures personal and emotional well being of their trainees and acknowledges having a good balance between family and work life. A good trainee ensures that they never let their mentor down and knowing and understanding well the privilege of having the guidance and support of someone who has dedicated decades of their life, to the noble cause of helping humanity and playing their part in advancing means to serve.