President’s Message

PSG

WINTER 2023 RumblingsPENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF GASTROENTEROLOGY / NEWSLETTER

President’s Message / David L. Diehl, MD, FACP, FASGE www.pasg.org

@DavidDiehlMD

The Importance of Mentoring

The PSG is launching a mentorship program for GI Fellows and early career GI physicians. We will be reaching out to those of you who would like to participate in this project.

Many of us have benefitted from mentors. Perhaps some of us have suffered for the lack of a mentor during our education or training. Mentors can have a lifelong impact on their trainees, but the relationship does not go in only one direction. Mentors can get as much benefit and satisfaction as their mentees can. Gastroenterology, like other areas of medical training is akin to a “guild”, where the experienced take the novice under their wing to train them in the arts of their chosen field. All GI fellows, including us way back when, had trainers and coaches that typically were staff gastroenterologists at our program. Many medical schools provide for mentor relationships, but this is less common in GI training. Certainly, attending physicians at one’s own training program work very hard to train GI fellows, but this is generally different from a mentoring relationship.

I have been lucky enough to have some important mentors in my medical career. The first was assigned to me when I was a firstyear medical student. His name was Eugene “Skip” Felmar, MD and he was a Family Practice attending in the San Fernando Valley area of Southern California. I enjoyed going out to his office and shadowing him closely while he saw outpatients, rounded on inpatients, and did office procedures. Beyond gaining valuable insight into the practice of medicine, I found out why his nickname was “Skip” after he took me out on his sailboat which he kept docked at the Los Angeles harbor. Skip Felmar became a role model for me, and the mentor-mentee relationship was mutually rewarding.

Another highly impactful mentor that I had was someone that I chose myself. Dick Kozarek, MD was (and

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is!) one of the most well-known ERCP specialists in the country, working at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. I had completed an ERCP fellowship but I realized that there was a lot more for me to learn in the field. During this formative period after my advanced fellowship, I flew up from Los Angeles to Seattle at least 3-4 times per year and hung out with Dick for a week at a time. I stood directly behind him in the fluoroscopy suite, asking a million questions, and picking up many invaluable tips. I am certain that I would not have gotten as far in my career if it wasn’t for Dick Kozarek.

What is a mentor? A mentor is someone who shares knowledge and serves as an experienced and trusted advisor. While it may at one point have been synonymous with an academic advisor, the role of a mentor has expanded and often includes supervisor, collaborator, professional development coach, advocate, and friend.

“Mentors are: • Advisors, people with career experience willing to share their knowledge; • Supporters, people who give emotional and moral encouragement; • Tutors, people who give specific feedback on one’s performance; • Masters, in the sense of employers to whom one is apprenticed; • Sponsors, sources of information about and aid in obtaining opportunities; • Models, of identity, of the kind of person one should be to be to excel in their field.”

—Morris Zelditch (“Mentor Roles”, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Western Association of Graduate Schools, Tempe, Arizona, 16-18 March 1990) “A mentor is an individual with expertise who can help develop the career of a mentee. A mentor often has two primary functions for the mentee. The career-related function establishes the mentor as a coach who provides advice to enhance the mentee’s professional performance and development. The psychosocial function establishes the mentor as a role model and support system for the mentee. Both functions provide explicit and implicit lessons related to professional development as well as general work–life balance”.

American Psychological Association. (2012, January 1). Introduction to mentoring: A guide for mentors and mentees. https://www.apa.org/ education-career/grad/mentoring

“Cultural Capital” “Becoming successful in any profession requires acquisition and display of the cultural capital that established members of a group or field recognize as indicative of those who “belong” in it. Cultural capital is the ways of knowing and behaving —that family and others pass on to younger generations, often unknowingly. Cultural capital is highly contextual; knowing and behaving appropriately in one setting often does not translate to another setting. Ideally, mentors should make sure all trainees have access to the cultural capital appropriate to their fields”.

Womack VY, et al. The ASPET mentoring network: enhancing diversity and inclusion through career coaching groups within a scientific society. CBE— Life Sciences Education. 2020;19(3):ar29.

What are the roles of a mentor? “The physician-researcher as mentor has at least seven roles to fill: teacher, sponsor, advisor, agent, role model, coach, and confidante. The mentor needs to customize each role to match the characteristics of the fellow”.

Tobin MJ. Am J Resp Crit Care Med. 2004;170:114-117 Identifying a good mentor “A mentor might be a faculty member, a project leader, a more senior student, a wise friend, or anyone who can provide trustworthy advice. A person needs to possess —several qualities in order to be an effective mentor: 1. Experience with the challenges that the trainee may confront, 2. Ability and willingness to communicate that experience, 3. Interest in helping another person develop into a successful professional, 4. Admirable character traits, 5. Willingness to share time, 6. Professional respect from others (including current and former trainees).”

Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 1997 https://nap.nationalacademies. org/catalog/5789/adviser-teacher-role-modelfriend-on-being-a-mentor-to

Why be a mentor? “Mentors typically find satisfaction in sharing their knowledge and experience and renew their enthusiasm for the profession. It can help the mentor develop and enhance professional networks, extend their professional contributions, and contribute to the advancement of the field. Mentors can gain the opportunity to learn about new research areas, build a strong research program, gain new friendships, and affect the future by leaving a part of their expertise and values in every trainee.”

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1997. Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/5789.

Sometimes more than a single mentor is needed; this increase the scope of knowledge and expertise being handed down. Similarly, mentors may change or transition as the trainee’s career path evolves