adminWe’ve all had that teacher, friend, or colleague who has made a difference in our lives and given us the courage to take a chance and become the person we want to be. Perhaps it’s a professor or fellow student you encountered during medical school, or it may be a physician colleague who provided you with trusted advice and support.
As National Mentoring Month draws to a close, PAMED acknowledges its member physicians who have selflessly shared their stories and had a positive impact on the lives of their friends and colleagues. PAMED is dedicated to facilitating these mentoring relationships through our Match-a-Member Mentoring Program.
Mentoring matters, and PAMED’s program is a pathway to engage colleagues, cultivate future physician leaders, and shape effective health care teams. Whether you are looking for a mentor or want to help a mentee, PAMED Match-a-Member Mentoring Program can help.
Mentoring Partnerships Empower Both Parties
A mentoring relationship is a unique one. “Mentoring really is about sharing your gifts, your talents, your tragedies, your victories with another person,” William “Marty” Martin, PsyD, MPH, said in PAMED’s training video for mentors and mentees.
Dr. Martin identified four ways people benefit from a mentoring relationship:
- Development—Both the mentor and mentee develop skills
- Altruism and affirmation—There is real value on both sides in a voluntary relationship that comes from the heart.
- Network—Strengthen and broaden connections
- Growth as an individual and as a person
There are many types of mentoring relationships, and Dr. Martin singled out these five: formal, informal, virtual, face-to-face, and peer to peer. The flexibility inherent in these relationships is a significant part of their value. Both the mentor and the mentee are choosing to engage in a partnership, and they work together to determine how that partnership will unfold.
What is the ultimate goal or purpose of mentoring? Empowerment.
Even if you’re not able to engage in a mentoring relationship now, National Mentoring Month is the perfect time to acknowledge the people in your life who provided you with the safety net you needed to grow and develop as an individual, and give back by signing up to be a mentor.