Mentoring during anesthesia residency training: challenges and opportunities

Excerpt

Mentorship: “The guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or an institution.” Oxford Dictionaries¹

Three key components are required for success at any stage of a medical career: an engaged physician, one or more experienced mentors, and the time to invest in learning. Mentorship is a vital component for success, and few would argue the benefits of having one or more experienced and engaged mentors during their career. In medicine, the many benefits of being mentored have been well established, and some such advantages include enhanced career planning, greater productivity and career satisfaction, and increased confidence as educators.1 Furthermore, there is a greater likelihood that those who are mentored will pursue an academic career and achieve higher academic deliverables in regard to promotion and scholarly activities, including peer-reviewed publication and grant procurement.2 Mentorship is also a key to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada CanMEDS Physician Competency Framework (http://​www.​royalcollege.​ca/​portal/​page/​portal/​rc/​common/​documents/​canmeds/​framework/​framework_​series_​1_​e.​pdf) and should provide trainees with role models in such intrinsic roles as collaborator, communicator, and manager. Results of a recent survey of internal medicine residents in training programs affiliated with Harvard Medical School showed that mentored residents were nearly twice as likely as their non-mentored counterparts to have excellent career preparation.3 At the same time, effective mentorship should be equally valuable to those choosing careers in community hospital settings by providing guidance in such areas as professionalism, personal growth and development, and work-life balance. Reciprocally, mentors can also benefit from mentorship programs by attaining leadership and coaching skills, the ability to reflect on personal performance, and the satisfaction of sharing experiences and knowledge. …