Medical college teachers has extensive responsibilities of treating patients, handling administration along with teaching students. Apart from teaching, hidden responsibility is to keep nobility of this profession alive by inspiring students for being compassionate and professional. Students may forget what is taught to them, but they will always remember how do you made them feel. These feeling would be transferred in their behaviour when they will treat patients. So teachers are playing role models for student in unnoticed way. Hence, this is the need of an hour to make things more structured so that every student gets same experience.
Clutter Buck 1990 have defined mentorship as off line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge work or thinking. Role of mentor goes beyond the boundaries of teaching which pouring knowledge in them to planting thirst of knowledge in them. Another speciality of mentoring is that respecting individuality of the mentee and accepting their thoughts & wishes. Hence, John C Crosby has rightly explained that mentoring is the brain to pick, ear to listen & push in right direction. Parsloe, 1992 extended mentoring preview to help and support people to manage their own learning in order to maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.
An experienced person can guide unexperienced person if he or she is keen to take interest in welfare & growth of the mentee by uncovering a hidden talent. With experience and compassionate attitude mentorship relation can extend beyond the boundaries of profession to personal and emotional support. There is no discrimination of hiarchy, anyone with good intent can proved to be an effective mentor. Not only teachers, senior students or peer group students can mentor junior student. In fact, students as the mentors can provide an insight as well as support into life as a medical student. They can better guide for Negotiating access to resources and navigate aspects not formally covered in the medical school curriculum. Students mentors are more able to relate to their mentees, and vice versa.
Although word mentoring seems to be simple but full of challenge while on implementation. First challenge for mentor is win trust of mentees to open his heart to gaze into the brain of mentee. This can be done by following two-way approach by mentors ie being facilitator, problem solver on one way and building relation on other way. Being motivator, encouraging finding the way which suits to mentee can help to empower mentor mentee relationship. 3A is the key of being an ideal mentor i.e. mentor shall always be approachable, available and active listener. Sharing experiences and guiding with wisdom will help to mentee to overcome present and future challenges in learning. Giving assignments with proper balance content which are inspiring and challenging will retain interest in association with you. Imparting feeling of “I am with you” will strengthen bond and raise performance bar of mentee. In Medical college, mentorship can be done to achieve short- and long-term goals like facilitating & supervising academic advancement, reliving students from work and study related stress and helping to teach work life balance. Mentors as a role model can inspire medical students in making carrier choice in various specialities of Medicine. Mentor by his experience will guide students for research projects. Mentor mentee association may start as goal oriented and result based project but may ultimately result in to lifelong association of respect and friendship.
Mentorship program can be key to success for students for scholastically weaker section.
As per idiom which says “be like flower which gives fragrance to crushing hands”, dedicated and religious mentoring will polish mentor’s ability to communicate, lead and problem solving. In the quest of making mentee progress, mentor himself gets a chance to rekindle his own passion and excitement about speciality. It would accelerate productivity of mentor in terms of his own research. Today’s mentee is tomorrow’s consultant which can bring recognition of mentor in his professional areas too. Wisdom & experience of mentor when gets complimented with enthusiasm and creativity of young minds will bring much more innovative and meaningful results for the benefit of patients, society and institute. So mentoring is an activity which will help both mentees and mentor to shine and rise in their respective fields.