Residents as Mentors: Reflections and Tips
In 2014, the authors met as Meredith began residency and Wynne, then a PGY-3 resident, was assigned as her senior resident mentor. In the two years since, we have become friends and collaborated on a number of academic and administrative projects. Below are some of our thoughts on this unique relationship.
Throughout college, medical school, and residency, we have the opportunity to encounter many different role models. While senior residents are still in training, we are able to draw on the few years of extra experience to guide more junior residents through the transition to becoming a physician. Whether it’s showing the best place in the hospital for snacks or guiding someone through their first IRB submission, seeing our knowledge benefit others is uniquely gratifying.
Residencies sit within departments, which sit within medical schools, which are a part of a university. And then there’s the hospital system. In other words, there are layers of administration and leadership that feel insurmountable to the new resident. Having a guide through this maze is essential for success!
Frustrated with the glacial pace of change? Questioning your career choice after a bad outcome or too many call shifts? Mentorship is a place where you can be vulnerable with questions and frustrations. Chances are, the mentor has had similar experiences and has advice for navigating the rougher waters of residency. Of course, we caution that this is a professional relationship, not necessarily a friendship, and that discretion is always advisable.
While only one of us was assigned as a mentor to the other, the truth is that this relationship has been highly symbiotic. Our backgrounds – Wynne as a community organizer and Meredith as a high school teacher – provide complementary skillsets that strengthen our shared work. And while the experience and perspective of the senior resident is helpful, particularly at the beginning of residency, the junior resident provides a crucial perspective as well. A junior resident is “down in the trenches,” so to speak, and this special vantage point provides opportunity for fresh ideas.
Establishing our relationship prior to Meredith’s intern year and continuing to meet monthly through the transition to intern year gave us the structure we needed to develop a relationship, as well as providing Meredith with a non-faculty contact within the residency. As we learned of more shared interests, we developed a friendship, which led to shared academic projects. Without the early and consistent investment in this relationship, we do not believe it would have flourished as it has.
While it is tempting to imbue a mentee with all of your enthusiasm (and projects), a good mentor helps to develop the mentee’s interests and strengths. While we share interests in education and women’s mental health, our interests diverge in many other realms. Recognizing these differences, and facilitating connections with other, more appropriate mentors with respect to a particular interest will allow the mentee to flourish.
While senior residents may have comparably more experience and insight, they are in fact very junior within a department. Finding faculty members to mentor both residents is key for providing perspective and guidance. We are grateful to the faculty who have helped us develop initiatives and navigate challenges.
The authors are fortunate in that they were unusually well-paired with respect to interests, strengths, and personalities. Not all assigned mentor-mentee relationships will be so fruitful. The ability to acknowledge when a mentor-mentee relationship isn’t working demonstrates self-awareness and maturity. If possible, helping the mentee to identify another mentor is ideal.
Our mentors include a historian, a political strategist, a urologist, a principal, and a surgeon in addition to fellow psychiatrists. Despite a lack of obvious career overlap, each of these individuals has shaped us as physicians and aspiring academicians. Remaining open to mentorship from all sectors has nurtured creativity and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Wynne Lundblad, MD graduated from residency in June 2016 at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC), where she is now an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Meredith Spada, MD is a PGY-3 resident in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry program at WPIC.
AAP Bulletin – Summer 2016, Page 5 of 7
