We were proud to host Dr. Nancy Spector, known in the education world for her impressive work on mentoring within medical education. She gave a phenomenal Grand Rounds presentation on the topic of “Mentee-Centered Mentoring”, and provided some wonderful pearls on the topic that participants could immediately take back to their home institutions. She discussed different models for mentoring, including a riveting discussion of “Speed Mentoring” (akin to “speed dating”). She provided us with five steps to successful facilitated mentoring, which I will summarize here:
Step 1: Determine an important project.
Step 2: Find the right leader to facilitate.
Step 3: Communicate effectively (planning regular communication), which may include getting work done during meetings.
Step 4: Manage projects skillfully.
Step 5: Assure benefits to participants.
Some of her final pearls for successful mentoring programs included the importance of cultivating mentoring relationships, consider having a portfolio of mentors, and also that mentees should drive the process. Her talk provided the audience with a framework for how to create a successful mentoring program. It provided us with outstanding reflection on how we can improve ourselves and each other! I highly encourage you to follow our tweets from the Grand Rounds presentation, which can be found at #IUPedsGrRounds.
Alexander M. Djuricich, MD, FACP, is Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education and a Program Director in Medicine-Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. This post originally appeared at Mired in MedEd, where he blogs about medical education.
