Mentorship

Mentorship is a vitally important aspect of the programme

You may need more than one mentor

Good mentorship is invaluable in helping you negotiate the complexities of a clinical and academic training.  You may well need more than one mentor – perhaps someone to offer advice on research and another for your clinical training.  Your mentor may be your head of department, but may also be someone you do not work with from day to day.

Mentorship covers everything from advice on writing your papers or experimental approaches needed, through to making introductions and showing you how to navigate the national and international biomedical world.  A good mentor will give you sound and impartial advice, show you what is possible, and help you develop yourself and your career to achieve your goals.

A rewarding relationship for both sides

ECAT lecturers are provided with a clinical and research mentor, but there is nothing to stop you from approaching someone you respect and asking them to mentor you.   The mentor-mentee relationship is a very individual one, involving a certain amount of time and commitment from both parties, but can be highly rewarding.  With time, such relationships can evolve from a master-pupil one to a collaboration of peers.

Mentorship is really, really important. I can think of two or three stages in my career when things have been difficult, or when I’ve had a decision that I’m struggling to make, when having the advice of someone more senior, more experienced, who’s worked within the system and understands the way it works, to be invaluable. Find yourself a decent mentor. Find yourself someone that can offer you that kind of critical advice.