What is mentorship?

The word mentor is defined as both a noun (“a trusted counselor or guide”) and a verb (“to serve as a mentor for”) (1). The idea of “mentorship” for most of us in veterinary medicine defines a process that combines both applications of the word.

At various points in our lives, we all identify and seek to learn from, and often emulate, our mentors. They become models for the development of proper problem solving and decision making techniques, the demonstration of technical skills, developing interpersonal abilities, and providing personal guidance. Mentors and the idea of mentorship has taken on increased awareness in veterinary medicine today, particularly among new veterinary graduates and new practice owners who are dropped suddenly into new and unfamiliar roles and face the challenge of high expectations, information overload, and little time to learn to become master of all tasks.

Veterinary schools, ironically, face the same challenges in attempting to educate veterinary students. While veterinary students graduate with sound knowledge and adequate or higher entry level technical skills, the schools cannot be expected to send them into their new roles as practitioners with a complete and versed set of skills and coping abilities. Individual graduates also enter the workplace with differing levels of confidence and experience, thus creating great variability in their need for mentoring.

The need for further education and training, therefore, continues for some time following graduation; it is significantly influenced by the willingness of experienced veterinarians to teach and coach, and by the confidence and willingness of the new graduate to listen and take direction.

The stumbling block in many mentoring relationships is in defining exactly what mentorship means to the individuals involved. The interpretation of mentorship is largely subjective, so the process and contents of this activity need to be defined at its inception for it to be effective for both parties. If there is no open communication between mentors and pupils, expectations could be set unrealistically on both sides of the relationship, so that frustrations will mount, performance will be affected, and, inevitably, many of the relationships will dissolve unnecessarily.

New or recent graduates or associates with one or more areas that they feel require further development or improved problem solving abilities should be encouraged to identify these areas openly; they should not perceive them as weaknesses that they should hide and somehow try to correct or improve on their own, but as areas that once developed and refined will help the practice to achieve its goals. It is conceivable that some new graduates, particularly those lacking confidence, may be seeking some continuance of the student environment, where they received reinforcement and observation on most things they did in the hospital. Others who are extremely independent from the beginning simply need to know that the voice of assistance is but a phone call or yell for help away.

Practice owners or more seasoned veterinary mentors and coaches should define how they propose to bring about the transition of a new veterinarian into the practice, what they expect, in terms of feedback, with respect to difficulties the new veterinarian is experiencing, what the ascending levels of responsibility and challenge for new veterinarians will be, and who individual or multiple mentors are and when they will be accessible for questions, conversation, and hands on guidance, if necessary. Employers should also set some kind of reasonable timeline or end date with respect to performance goals for these new employees. While mentorship is an ongoing process, it should taper off in its intensity and, therefore, is not an endless process.

Focus groups that I conduct annually among new graduates always identify one of their largest frustrations as being the scenario where a new graduate is thrust into a practice on day 1 with either an absent owner or an experienced veterinarian being unavailable to them, or, even more frustratingly, being on site but simply having no time. The concept of being part of a team working towards a collective goal is quickly lost in these settings, which is a key factor leading towards the unnecessarily high turnover rates that the veterinary profession has among new graduates. While formal continuing education gatherings can always play a valuable role for veterinarians of any experience level, the issue with newer graduates is often simply in having someone available to reinforce their decisions and thus help them to build confidence and establish a sound frame of reference for the future.

The goal of any mentorship activities should be to create an environment that allows new associates to progress as rapidly as possible along the learning curve and mature their practice skills. That environment can be formalized in discussions leading to defining the terms of employment or later in writing by creating an employment contract with new associates.

New associates are generally pleased to have the terms of their mentorship defined, as those requiring more intensive mentorship feel that easing into full responsibilities and decision making provides a temporary security net for them and sets a more comfortable level of what is expected during the initial phase of their employment. Wording to define mentorship in an employment contract can be captured by defining progressive independent scheduling and responsibilities, defining time and/or activities spent working directly with other veterinarians, establishing regular times for meetings during the workweek, scheduling a performance review or reviews at specific periods over the duration of the contract, when the mentorship activities can be reviewed and tapered off in their intensity as the new associate progresses.

The issue is much the same for new practice owners, who now have the multiple issues of running a business to deal with, in addition to the actual practice. If a new owner or owners are inside the practice already, hopefully much of that mentorship has happened by observation and a sharing of the business activities. For purchasers coming from outside the practice, transition with an outgoing vendor is important both for maintaining the culture of the business and for helping to guide the new owner(s) with respect to the management and leadership of the practice.