Mentorship

“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction.”

John C. Crosby

This week, I guarantee my grandfather is beaming ear to ear watching over me. Dare I say I’m actually having fun on my surgery rotation? I have been allowed to suture, suction, hold retractors, navigate the laparoscopic camera and *gasp* make an incision (all under the closest of supervision of course!). Writing these words, I am in awe that I have the opportunity to learn these things and do what I get to every day. It truly is an honor and a blessing. The deep trust patients place in surgeons to help them in their time of need is not taken lightly and is reflected in the unique ecosystem that is the OR. These last two weeks have been a crash course in learning an entirely new culture. The operating room has its own rules, norms and language. Surgery is a world of split-second decisions, where one millimeter in the wrong direction can be the difference between life and death. It makes sense then, that everything from washing your hands to donning your gown and gloves is done a certain way every time. Even each instrument has its place so that it can be found immediately when needed. There is beauty to the order.

Lest anyone gets a crazy idea that I am no longer team #Med-Peds, holding a scalpel was wild and cool, but that kind of power is not something I could shoulder every day! In my precious spare time, I’ve been getting ready to apply for away rotations and researching residency programs. It’s crazy how time has flown. With only one more rotation between me and my last year of medical school, I find myself thinking about how far I’ve come. Just two short years ago, I was a timid first year who was in a new state, who knew no one and who was just happy to be given a chance. Now, I’ve found confidence in my knowledge and ability as a future clinician. I’ve published a manuscript, presented my research at several conferences and met some incredible people along the way. Sitting at a conference on Friday with several of my mentors, where I had the opportunity to present a poster about my role as an advocate for my classmates and how our feedback has shaped the curriculum, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and pride.

I left the conference wondering how many students actually have mentors in their area of interest who they trust to guide them. Medicine is undoubtedly a team sport. You need a squad by your side to support you and show you the way. Neither of my parents are in medicine, so I’ve had to take the initiative to put myself out there and find mentors on my own to coach me along this journey. In the end, my mentors were people I just gravitated to. They’re people who care about me as a person and whom I trust. They encourage me to think big and aim for goals loftier than I could ever have imagined myself. For those who are quieter and introverted, finding mentors can be challenging and uncomfortable. Throw imposter syndrome into the mix trying to trick you into feeling like you’d be wasting Dr. X’s time asking for help, and you have a serious dilemma. Don’t even get me started about how this is exponentially more difficult for women and underrepresented groups in medicine.

In the first two years, our clinical skills facilitators serve as academic/career advisors and our early clinical experiences are often limited to general Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Family Medicine. If there is a mismatch between your area of interest and your preceptor’s specialty, you’re at a relative disadvantage. This is even more true if you have an interest in a surgical specialty, which there is often minimal exposure to prior to third year. Students have to find their own experiences on their own time to learn about specialties to which they haven’t been exposed. This is difficult when students feel such intense pressure to perform well in the classroom and on their board exams. For many competitive specialties, third year is nearly too late for students to decide to pursue a specialty as they require significant research in the field and other outside experience.

Expanding our current mentoring pool, helping connect students with individuals in their current specialty of interest and providing more clinical exposure in the preclinical years is something I would love to see. It would help students make connections and find career advisors well before third year, who can connect them with research opportunities and provide advice about what residency programs want in applicants. When I first applied to medical school, I had no clue what I was doing. I had no one to help me either. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful. I don’t plan to make the same mistakes applying to residency and hope to help others learn from my experience.