Portrait in Professionalism: Mentoring
As I completed my first year of medical school, I realized I had
begun a most mysterious transformation; I am evolving into a professional.
Integral to my evolution has been the IUSM Medical Student Mentoring
Program.
Medical education is both a science and an art. Our formal studies
deliver, with precision, the requisite base of knowledge to become
physicians. At the same time, an informal curriculum is artfully
shaping neophytes into professionals through a process that is long
and ill defined. Fortunately, vertical mentoring offers an opportunity
to hone professionalism.
During my first month as a student, an afternoon was reserved to
introduce my classmates and me to the mentoring program. For me,
it meant postponing a gross anatomy class, thereby cutting into
my dissection time. With no notion of what lay in store, I thought
this interruption would have little impact on me as a student or
physician. We split into small groups, each having a few students
from each class year. Two faculty mentors also participated in each
group – not as superiors but as equals.
We discussed a range of topics, personal and professional, and
then the subject quickly segued into how some students perceived
being mistreated by residents during rotations. Our faculty mentors
encouraged us to view the issue from a resident’s perspective
as well as a student’s. We delved deeper into the ups and
downs of being a resident.
Days later, I realized that we had unknowingly practiced aspects
of professionalism at the mentoring session. Clearly, it was an
exercise in effective communication and, more important, an expression
of the humanism vital to become a professional physician. We were
asked to walk in residents’ shoes, see the world from their
view. Additionally, the advanced students had served as mentors
by advising newer students how to prepare for the coming year.
On reflection, I was astounded how this session had been an unacknowledged
rehearsal in professional behavior. At later mentoring sessions,
we discussed clinical experiences, focusing on respect for the patient,
doctor-to-patient interaction and professional obligations. At times,
we discussed hot-button issues such as abortion and physician-assisted
suicide. The faculty mentors seemed to temper these discussions
and their presence encouraged professional behavior.
We also tackled the difficulties and deficiencies of our pre-clinical
curriculum. Elder students encouraged us to take responsibility
and to bring our complaints and concerns to the IUSM administration.
This depicts how mentoring can encourage commitment to excellence
and advancing our profession.
Students must paint their own self-portraits in professionalism.
Fortunately, the IUSM mentoring program can supply the palette and
brush needed to complete the picture.
Gregory J. Nadolski is a second-year student and has been researching
mentoring and its relationship to professionalism.
More information about the Medical Student Mentoring Program
can be found at http://msa.iusm.iu.edu/mentor/. |
