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Mentoring in Medicine – by Dr Rachel Collings

Medicine

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Following its recent release ‘Mentoring Doctors’ has gained widespread interest as the first book of its kind globally. Mentoring Doctors provides the tools and knowledge on how to design and implement a mentoring program specific to the needs of junior doctors within a hospital-based settings. One of the co-authors of the book Dr Rachel Collings is currently completing a RANZCOG Fellowship at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Medicine is a demanding profession, making the wellbeing and support of doctors, especially those in their first years of medicine, of significant importance. Junior doctors face a multitude of pressures, including external pressures of heavy workloads, shift work and long hours, as well as significant internal pressures such as the ongoing drive to achieve career goals and finding work life balance.

The 2013 beyondblue survey of medical students and doctors provided vivid insight into the health of the medical profession. Alarming findings included that 47.5% of doctors aged 30 years and younger reported emotional exhaustion. These findings prompted the recommendation for increased support for younger doctors, including strengthened mentor and mentee relationships.

Mentoring is uniquely positioned to provide support that is appropriate and accessible. However what does mentoring in medicine actually mean, and how can it provide much needed support?

MacLeod defines mentoring as a learning relationship, to help others help themselves. A variety of benefits can flow from effective mentoring relationships including benefits for the mentee, that is the individual being mentored, the mentor themselves, as well as positive outcomes within the organisation in which mentoring occurs. A 2006 systematic review of mentoring in academic medicine found that mentoring was an important influence on personal development, career guidance, career choice and productivity. It also concluded that the satisfaction of doctors through mentoring had the potential to increase staff retention within organisations.

Mentoring in medicine can of course have a number of challenges. As boldly stated by Freeman: ‘Who would voluntarily risk yet more contamination from the distress of others, particularly if these others are peers?”. Dysfunctional mentoring relationships can develop through a lack of understanding of the mentor and mentee roles and when boundaries have not been established. Challenges can also arise when mentors personally take on the problems of their mentees. A formalised mentoring program can aid in addressing these challenges through education and training of mentors and mentees.

Mentoring in medicine certainly is not a new concept, in fact it could be argued that mentoring in some form has always been present in medical practice. In 2008 the AMA Junior Doctor Health and Wellbeing survey found that 5.9% of junior doctors identified mentoring as their main coping strategy for work related stress. What is new however, is the appreciation of the role that mentoring can play within medicine through the formalisation of mentoring programs and how these mentoring programs can improve the junior doctor experience.

Once mentoring goes beyond one partnership to multiple partnerships co-ordinated by an organisation, it is a mentoring program. A mentoring program within medicine is a strategy for delivering mentoring to a chosen target group of doctors, a network of relationships and an investment in the well-being and development of junior doctors.

Formalised mentoring programs can address a breadth of issues including provision of debriefing, career advice, support, goal achievement and informal feedback. Hospital-based programs have the additional benefit of being able to provide mentors who understand hospital processes and offer accessible onsite support. Formalised programs can identifying systemic concerns and provide advocacy to improve conditions – mentors can be agents for change.

In 2011 one of Queensland’s first formal mentoring programs was established –Doctors for Doctors. It has grown into a popular, self- sustaining program that has created a culture of support and collaboration. The interest in this program ignited the inspiration for the publication of Mentoring Doctors – the first book of its kind globally which details how to develop an effective and successful mentoring program for doctors.

Since its recent release Mentoring Doctors has generated widespread interest. Mentoring Doctors provides guidance on how to recognise the needs of a unique target group of junior doctors and how to develop a program that meets these needs.

With the health of junior doctors a serious concern, the need to ensure effective support services are in place is more important than ever. Mentoring in medicine can build a workforce where sharing knowledge and support is the culture, collaboration instead of competition is the driving force and where conversations are constructive and inspiring.

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