E-mentoring program organized by the Turkish Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry during the COVID-19 pandemic

Excerpt

Mentorship is defined as a relationship between someone with experience in a certain field or area (“mentor”) and another individual who can gain from that experienced person’s guidance (“mentee”). In this relationship, the mentee can gain important information and skills that will aid them with their professional growth throughout the years. Mentorship is an important component during training period in many areas of medicine, including child and adolescent psychiatry [1]. During residency, physicians-in-training experience extraordinary professional and personal growth, obtain interpersonal and clinical skills that will serve as a foundation for their forthcoming profession, and also form significant interpersonal relationships [2]. The mentor acts both as a coach and a role model, must be willing to share experiences, and must be enthusiastic about the success of mentees. Mentors with those qualities can positively influence mentees’ careers, boost their self-esteem, vocational fulfillment, and research efficiency while providing networking opportunities, fostering independent thoughts, and providing different and novel viewpoints [1, 2]. Mentoring also helps in setting and maintaining boundaries and in planning careers [3] and good examples of mentoring tend to continue across generations of researcher-clinicians [1]. …