1. Choosing a mentor Valérie Biousse, MD
Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology
Emory University
Chair of Mentoring Committee
Department of Ophthalmology

2. How to find a mentor?
(And how do you make busy people -- who do not know you - want to mentor you?)

3. What’s a mentor? “A wise and trusted counselor or teacher”
Particularly important in occupational settings

4. Mentor Serves as: coach, role model, sponsor, provider
Provides: guidance, advice, skills/knowledge, assessment/feedback

5. Hippocrates Oath (late 5th century BCE)
I swear … to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:
To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art

6. Mentor ≠ Role Model Mentoring refers to an active process
Role modeling refers to a more passive process

7. The mentor might be a role model
A mentor interacts one-on-one with a mentee and offers wisdom, guidance and encouragement
In doing so, the mentor frequently comes to know the mentee on a personal level

8. What’s mentoring?
Symbiotic relationship aimed at advancing careers and career satisfaction for both the mentor and the mentee
Dynamic, collaborative, reciprocal relationship focused on a mentee's personal and professional development
Can develop either spontaneously, based on mutual interests, or be set up institutionally

9. What studies have shown
Increased mentoring associated with increased overall satisfaction with resident training
Lack of mentorship associated with a loss of interest in pursuing a career in academia
Mentorship helps with:
career decisions; finding a job; productivity with research; promotion; reducing stress

10. Where do you find a mentor?
On the field (not in the classroom)
In clinic / in the hospital / in the lab
Not by
Rarely on a list of “potential mentors”

11. “Managing up” by the mentee
Corporate concept
Requires the mentee to take responsibility for his/her part in the collaborative alliance and to be the leader of the relationship by guiding and facilitating the mentor's efforts to create a satisfying and productive relationship for both parties

12. “Managing up” by the mentee
Being mentored is the responsibility of the mentee
Do not complain that “you are not being mentored”…
Make it happen!
Keep the relationship active