Mentorship in anesthesia: how little we know

Excerpt

Mentorship has been shown to be an important factor during career progression in the spheres of both medicine and business.1-3 While mentorship is frequently related to success in research, it likely has an impact on many aspects of medical practice, including clinical and educational skills. Mentorship has been defined as a relationship in which a person with useful experience, knowledge, skills, and/or wisdom offers advice, information, guidance, support, or opportunity to another for that individual’s professional development.4 “Mentees” are typically more junior than their mentors, and they may have several mentors for various aspects of their career development. Mentors may offer general career guidance, specialized knowledge, research advice, and networking opportunities. Mentorship may result from formal programs or through informal relationships. Formal mentorship is facilitated through programs that provide matching of mentor-mentee pairs, while informal mentorship exists when both parties voluntarily establish the relationship. With both types of mentorship, the mentor and mentee should be compatible in personality, interests, and goals.5 …