5 REASONS YOU NEED A MENTOR IN MEDICINE: AN EARLY-CAREER PHYSICIAN’S PERSPECTIVE.

Hello! Welcome to my first ever blog post! Can you tell that I’m excited to have you here? (I totally am!) Now that you’re here, let’s dive in!

I have a question for you to ponder on: Have you noticed how, despite the word “mentoring” being all over the place, it seems to be watered down, and has little impact on people? Do you ever wonder why? Well, these are the issues I’d be dissecting in my blog posts (let me warn you that some tables may be shattered in the process!). Through this post and subsequent ones, I plan to share important principles to help you get the best out of a mentor-mentee relationship.

It is an established fact that one of the ways to excel in medicine is through receiving guidance from someone (a mentor) who has successfully gone through similar phases that you find yourself in and has the right information needed to foster your personal and professional development.

I remember graduating from medical school bursting with the excitement of being a freshly minted medical doctor and filled with the enthusiasm of what life had to offer.  I was so euphoric on my induction day you would have thought I had finally completed my sojourn in medicine. I know right, LOL. Unbeknownst to me, the journey had just begun! Ahead of me lay so many uncertainties: What career and life decisions would I make? How would I navigate specific issues peculiar to my journey as a woman in medicine? You know the drill. If there was something I became increasingly certain of, it was that I needed someone who has previously trodden this path to shine their light on mine and hopefully make my transitions seamless.

This is the experience of many young physicians, like me, especially in Africa and many third world countries where data has shown a dearth of well-established frameworks for physician mentor-mentee relationships.

In this blog post, I will highlight 5 ways a mentor in medicine would be beneficial to your journey.

1. Guidance with choosing a career path

I have learnt that there is such a wide range of options to choose from, post MBBS/MBChB, ranging from academia, research, and other career choices in medicine. This is where a mentor comes in handy, to help you streamline your choices based on your interests, their knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses as well as experiences from their own journey. Not many medical graduates have their choicest specialty all figured out by the end of medical school. This is why investing in a mentorship relationship early on in your career will help you see the possibilities and opportunities based on your passion, skills, or purpose.

2. Opens you up to networking opportunities

This is by far one of the greatest benefits I have enjoyed from being in a mentorship relationship. I have had the utmost opportunity of networking and building a community with ambitious, talented women in medicine; many of whom have been instrumental to my professional and personal development to date. A mentor knows what you need and who can get you what you need; and if within their sphere of influence, would not hesitate to make the necessary connections with such people so you can leverage and succeed. They also make recommendations through these opportunities and the possibilities are endless.

For you to have an excellent career as an early career physician, you need to be intentional with setting SMARTER goals (The EIM inner circle uses SMARTER). While setting goals is potentially profitable, accountability fuels the actualization of these goals. This is where your mentor comes in to keep you accountable, hold your hand,  show you possibilities, and rekindle your passion when you seem to be falling off the radar.

4. Provides clarity for your decisions.

Ever thought you had it all figured out and then realized down the line that the path you were toeing wasn’t meant for you at all? Now, imagine if you had a neutral, unbiased person with the tools of personal experience and gift of foresight, to run your decisions by? As a young early-career physician, more often than not your primary medical qualification is the starting point, following which you will be required to make career-defining decisions, the consequences of which will impact you for the most part of your career. If not all, a mentor will be helpful in this case to critically appraise your decision-making process and work with you to make the right choices.

5. Serves as your sounding board when times are difficult

One experience that comes to mind was during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic when plans were stalled, and chances of career progression became unpredictable. The exasperations and frustrations of continuous roadblocks and detours I’m sure are relatable. One blessing I was constantly grateful for was the gift of a mentor who was there to reassure, comfort and inspire me in those uncertain times. As you may already be aware by now, sometimes we face challenging situations in medicine and life generally that bring our “why” to question. This is where your mentor comes in to act as your support system in difficult times. Sometimes, you just need to rant and air your thoughts while your mentor gives you the opportunity, time, silence, and wisdom, with no judgment.

To wrap this up,

Are you an early-career physician, confused about what next? And unsure if you want to commit to a mentorship relationship, hopefully, this blogpost would have inspired you to not only desire having a mentor but also take active steps to find the right one. I can recommend mine if you like. Her heart is large enough and she has created an amazing community for me to thrive and give back.

Interested in learning more about my mentoring experience? It will be a great pleasure to bring you along with me as I document this journey in this series.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments which of these points resonates with you and if you have any additional points to share. I hope to see you in the next one!

Yours,

Dr Aarinola.