Mentoring in the workplace is a relationship in which a more experienced colleague uses their knowledge and understanding of the work environment to support the development of a less experienced colleague.  It is a learning relationship between two people which requires trust, commitment and emotional engagement.  It involves listening, questioning, challenging and support.

The initial training was to support early career Consultants and Senior Trainees transitioning to consultancy, for whom there is little provision of support. In subsequent years, Workshops have been run for additional Consultants wanting to develop their mentoring skills, along with half day follow up Workshops

Louise Wembridge Consulting Ltd has worked with the mentoring prgramme by creating bespoke mentor training and skills workshops that are run annually, these have been both in person and virtual. Our external mentoring adviser Louise Wembridge has kindly offered to write a mentee handbook to be distributed to the mentees in advance of the pairing to give those involved an idea of what to expect. 

Mentees and matched to mentees based on the information you have provided on the application form. We take into account what you’d like to discuss, parent specialty (T & O or Plastics), geographical location and how this may relate to the available mentors. As can be seen there is no exact science to this and we may not get it right. With this in mind if following your initial chemistry meeting you are not sure the relationship will work for you please let us know and we can look to re-match.

I am a member of the Education and Training committee for BSSH and volunteered to take over as the lead for the mentorship programme as I have an interest in coaching and mentoring. I have the ILM level 5 qualification in coaching and mentoring and having coached and mentored consultant colleagues, doctors in training, medical students and allied health professionals I have seen the benefits it can provide. In my role as lead for the BSSH mentorship programme I work the secretariat to oversee recruitment of mentors and mentees, match mentor/mentee pairs, liase with our excellent mentoring tutors Louise Wembridge and Julie Hickton (Lousie Wembridge Consulting) to arrange mentor training and refresher workshops and act on feedback from previous mentees and mentors to develop and improve the programme.

As a mentee, the partnership with your mentor is driven by you. We will provide you with the support and tools you need to help manage this mentor partnership. Below we have a few topics that could be helpful as a starter discussion for you chosen mentor. 

Types of things you may want to discuss:

• The mentoring process is driven by the mentee, it is your opportunity to discuss any topics which may be relevant to your individual role, career pathway or needs. To get the most from the experience it is worthwhile considering your goals prior to starting along the mentoring pathway.
• Previous topics which have been discussed include:
• Applying for fellowships, consultants posts
• The hand diploma
• Starting as a consultant in the NHS
• Managing complex clinical problems
• Developing a new service
• Non-technical skills, avoiding burnout, managing professional relationships
• Work life balance, career trajectory, personal milestones, imposter syndrome, dealing with colleagues
• Establishing private practice
• Specialising in hand surgery, the CESR route
   

Email secretariat@bssh.ac.uk to find out more about mentoring opportunities.

Feedback from previous mentors following training:

• An inspiring day
• It’s taught me a lot of valuable skills I wish I’d know sooner.
• Excellent training given which made me feel prepared to assist as a Mentor and a good matching scheme which allowed for people to select without pressure
• Engaging, clear, supportive and encouraging Tutors.
• Very good training package
   

Feedback from mentors, what did you like most about the programme:

• Give back to the hand surgery community and share the experiences I had, both good and bad.
• The opportunity to support a young hand surgeon
• Being able to give back to the profession. Seeing my mentee gain in confidence over the year.
• Very positive and rewarding
• Meeting inspiring surgeons at the beginning of their consultant career
   

Feedback from mentees, what did you like about the programme:

• A very useful programme which centred on my specific needs without becoming a tick box exercise.
• Having access to someone who understands the challenges as a new consultant
• Second opinion, reassurance from another more senior colleague in different setup but experiencing similar issues/learning

Mentor Training Day 2021

The BSSH mentoring programme was successfully launched in 2021 with 20 Consultants participating in a 1 day Workshop

A group of 22 proespective mentors attended the 2021 training day. We were pleased to have enticed an excellent group of candidate mentors. In the interest of and diversity transparency further information can be viewed below with regards to geographical variation, as well as gender, ethnicity and specialty split. 

BSSH Mentor Rebecca Dunlop catching up with mentees Kath Hamlin and Andreea Lupu at the 2022 IFSSH-IFSHT-FESSH Congress