MENTORSHIP HANDBOOK: FOR MENTEES

● Why do you need a mentor?

○ Many of you will find yourselves wondering whether you need a mentor. While
medical school may seem pretty straight forward – work hard and you’ll do well –
it is actually an experience that you will want to maximize. You have the
opportunity to get to know a number of excellent faculty: professors, researchers,
administrators, and clinicians. Talking to some of these faculty and learning from
their experiences can enrich your medical school experience. Also, you will be
faced with several important decisions throughout medical school.
■ Are there research opportunities for me?
■ How do I balance professional and personal life?
■ In what field of medicine am I interested?
■ How might issues of professionalism affect me?
○ A mentor who knows you well is able to guide you in these decisions. A mentor
also can serve as a resource for opportunities that may interest you, such as
finding out more about a particular field of medicine, more opportunities for
working with patients, or informing you of research opportunities. A mentor can
also give you feedback on research projects or patient write-ups you may be
doing. Finally, even if you feel that you don’t need a mentor now, you may later. If
you do need some advice as you go through medical school, it best comes from
someone who knows you well. Therefore, it is best to establish a relationship with
a mentor before you feel you really need one.

● 10 tips for being a successful mentee

○ Define your goals.
○ Develop an agenda (or list of questions) for each mentor meeting.
○ Drive the relationship (“Mentee- Driven” Mentoring Relationships). Know what
you want from the mentor-mentee relationship. Tell your mentor how he/she can
be helpful to you.
○ Invest enough time in the relationship. Make your mentor meeting a priority.
○ Be open to another viewpoint, to learn new skills, or to suggestions.
○ Ask your mentor for feedback periodically.
○ Reflect on feedback your mentor gives you. What are you doing well? In what
ways can you improve? Develop an improvement plan to match those
recommendations.
○ Take advantage of opportunities your mentor offers you if it fits your career goals.
For example, taking on a volunteer role in an organization may lead to national
recognition.
○ All personality types need to network. If approaching new people is difficult, go to
a meeting with your mentor and ask your mentor to introduce you to people that
you might want to collaborate with or who have similar interests.
 ○ Tell your mentor how much the relationship has helped you or how much you
appreciate the advice that has been given. Regularly update your mentor on your
successes and explain how your mentor’s work contributed.

● Who should I have as my mentor?

○ Having a go-to mentor is very important in the professional workforce and
medicine is no exception. Often the mentor is specialty specific and physiatry is
no exception. Not only is the pathway into the field different from many other
specialties, but there are also a plethora of avenues to take once you graduate in
terms of fellowships and creating your niche as a physician.
○ There is always the possibility that your mentor will undergo mentor fatigue if
they are your person for all questions. Thus, it is important to identify all of the
mentors in your life even if you don’t realize they are a mentor and decide what
they can offer you in your career journey. These can be peers as well as
established physicians.
○ Primary mentors – your go to person(s)
○ Professional development – Promotion, networking
○ Clinical skills – From whom can I learn the skills I want to employ
○ Research skills – Case presentations, poster preparation, grant proposal writing
○ Work-life balance - Physical/mental health, family life
○ Future mentors – Whose advice do I need to succeed?

● What should I do once I have made contact with my mentor?

○ Establish the mentor-mentee relationship. Take time for each of you to talk about
your personal history. Discuss the mentor’s professional goals and discuss what
your goals are. Discuss the challenges, interests, or themes that have impacted
their journey in their professional career.
○ Structure the foundation for future interaction/mentoring sessions. Determine the
frequency of subsequent meetings/conference calls/email exchanges. Agree on
conduct, such as confidentiality. No idea is a bad idea.

● How can my mentor allow me to grow and develop professionally?

○ Exchange CVs: You should each review the other’s CV to learn more about their
past experiences and strengths.
○ Discuss commonalities, common interests or themes
○ Have the mentor look into what your area of focus is (perceived area of focus or
lack of focus); discuss ways to develop focus or to adjust the CV to better reflect
or document the area of focus.
○ Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of involvement in service (either
professional or community based. Discuss how each of you decide which
committees or organizations to become involved with.
○ Discuss the importance of scholarship to an academic career. Discuss
scholarship goals and ask the mentee to think of a scholarship goal.
 ○ Has the mentor had a mentor previously. If so, in what capacity? Was it
successful? Why or why not?. If not, what can be done differently in this
relationship to make it successful?
○ Discuss importance of keeping the CV up to date (not losing experiences)

● Questions that you can ask your mentor

○ Field of physiatry
■ How do you define physiatry and how do you feel your specific niche in
the field has changed that definition?
○ Their personal training
■ Why did you decide to go through the training that you did? (insert certain
aspects of interventional, pharmacology, prosthetics, ultrasound, etc that
fit your mentor)
■ Why did you choose the fellowship you choose? Or why did you choose
not to go for a fellowship?
■ In what direction do you think the field of physiatry is going and how can I
prepare myself now for that future?
○ Medical school
■ What did you do to make yourself more competitive to get into the field of
physiatry?
■ What experiences should I look for as a medical student?
■ While shadowing/working with a physiatrist, what resources should I use
to learn more about the field or the diagnoses/treatments I see during the
day.
■ What other extracurricular training or research should I be doing along
with my coursework?
■ What would be useful to do with my scheduled breaks during medical
school in preparation for a PM&R residency?
■ How much do you use OMM in your clinical practice?
■ How much do you use your palpatory skills while diagnosing and treating
patients? How did you get better with those skills?
○ Residency
■ What made you choose your residency?
■ How do I identify those aspects in residencies that are good or bad for
me?
■ How did you maintain a balance of personal life with also trying to
maximize your training in residency?
■ What residency programs are well known and well respected? Why?
■ Are there any residency programs that you would not recommend? Why?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

● Who should be my mentor?
- Mentors can be formal or informal. Formal mentors may be assigned to you
through the AOCPMR Mentorship Committee. However, if there are potential
 mentors who share your same interests or who you feel would be able to guide
you well along your path to physiatry, feel free to seek them out.
● What should I do once I’ve made contact with my mentor?
- Work together to establish realistic expectations, goals, and plans with your
mentor to help form a successful mentoring relationship together.
● What should be expected of me as a mentee?
- Be communicative with your mentor by being responsive to calls, e-mails, or
texts in a timely manner.
- Strive to keep in touch with your mentor as much as possible based on what you
and your mentor decide together.
- Be respectful of your mentor’s time and efforts.
● How can my mentor help me develop professionally?
- Your mentor may provide valuable advice to help guide you towards a career in
physiatry during any step or phase of your education
- PM&R is a small world. They may have other professional contacts and networks
with whom they may be able to connect you.
- Mentors can give you advice about different aspects of physiatry, and especially
their practice focus, which may help you decide how you want to practice in the
future.
- Mentors may be helpful in terms of rec letters, editors of your personal statement,
application, etc.
● How can I strengthen and maintain my relationship with my mentor?
- Stay in contact. Try not to go extended periods of time without communicating
with each other in some degree. Many mentoring relationships have fizzled out
due to mentors and mentees losing touch with each other.
- Turn to your mentor for questions you have about physiatry or anything else you
feel is appropriate.
- Offer to give back and help your mentor in any way you can. This may be in the
form of assisting them with a research project or clinical responsibility.
- Be appreciative. Mentors often sacrifice much of their time, energy, and
resources to help you succeed. Don’t take it for granted.
● What are common challenges while working with a mentor and how can I overcome
them?
- Staying in contact: This is probably the most common challenge. This may be
due to yourself, your mentor, or a combination of both. If you haven’t heard back
from your mentor in awhile, do your best to reach out to them again. If you’re still
having difficulty contacting them, feel free to let the AOCPMR Mentorship
Committee know and we can try on our end to get a hold of them. If your mentor
is generally responsive but you find yourself not taking initiative in contacting
your mentor, ask yourself how important the mentoring relationship is to you. If it
is important to you, you will find the time to stay in touch with your mentor. If it
isn’t important and you’d rather not participate anymore, please let us know as a
committee and we can switch you out with a different mentee for your mentor. No
hard feelings.
- Knowing what to do, what to ask, or how your mentor can help: Hopefully this
mentorship handbook is a useful guide to you, although by no means is it
comprehensive. There are many other resources online or elsewhere you may
look to about mentorship. Feel free to reach out to the AOCPMR Mentorship
Committee with any questions, concerns, or for ways we can help.
- Having an unhelpful mentoring relationship: This may be due to a variety of
reasons. You may need to seek out a different mentor that better aligns with your
personality, goals, or aspirations. Let us know if that’s the case with you and we
will try and re-assign you a new mentor.