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| Resident Sudesh Ebenezer, MD, networks at the inaugural Resident Mentoring Reception during the AANS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Information on how to participate in the program as a resident or as a mentor is available at www.aans.org/residents/mentoring.asp, or from Vanessa Garlisch, AANS education manager, at (888) 566-2267 or [email protected]. |
Within neurosurgery, attention to mentoring has lagged far behind until recently. During the five years of neurosurgical training, residents are greatly influenced by the academic environment in which they typically work and by their program directors. This traditional experience now can be augmented formally through the AANS Resident Mentoring Program.
“The job of the mentor is to complement what the resident’s program director already is doing,” said Samuel Hassenbusch, MD, PhD, chair of the AANS Resident Mentoring Program. “The resident benefits by receiving an additional relevant perspective on a career in neurosurgery.”
The AANS Resident Mentoring Program, launched last January, already has attracted more than 100 participants, with mentors currently outnumbering residents nearly 2 to 1. Each seasoned neurosurgeon acts as an available and approachable mentor who engages the resident and guides his or her professional development over time. Mentors share their experience and expertise as astute listeners, observers and problem solvers with the goal of helping the residents attain the professional goals they have developed for themselves.
As a participating mentor myself, I relish the opportunity to help a resident navigate the career paths and pitfalls I once experienced and that I’ve experienced in a different way working with residents as training program faculty. How to prepare for an interview, determine the type of practice to pursue, balance a personal life with a professional career — these are among the issues important to residents standing on the brink of the neurosurgical profession. I certainly am in good company — and the residents are in good hands — with my mentor colleagues, all of whom represent a remarkable depth and breadth of neurosurgical experience, and among whom are current and past leaders of the AANS.
Inherent in the concept of mentorship is that the relationship develops with some degree of choice. The program matches each participating resident with a neurosurgeon mentor based upon the criteria that the resident deems most important. Residents rank criteria important to them, such as the type of neurosurgical practice — private, academic, military — geographic location and subspecialty, by completing and submitting a brief form.
Many of the residents met their mentors face-to-face for the first time at the Resident Mentoring Reception held Sunday, April 17, during the AANS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Dr. Hassenbusch spoke to the group on the benefits of mentorship to residents, mentors and neurosurgery, and attendees took advantage of the opportunity to network with colleagues in an informal atmosphere.
A survey of residents who are participating in the program indicated great satisfaction with the process of enrolling in the program, receiving a mentor, and developing contact with the mentor. Nearly all of the respondents said that their mentors were helpful and available. They also said that e-mail communication provides an easy and suitable way for ongoing contact.
Initial feedback on the success of the AANS Resident Mentoring Program indicates that for neurosurgery the potential of mentoring finally has begun to be tapped.
“I have a new understanding and a better confidence in my decisions as a result of conversations with my mentor,” commented Brian Snyder, MD.
Another resident highlighted the challenges of mentoring as an active rather than a passive process:
“Good idea!” noted Sudesh Ebenezer, MD. “I think this program will be what an individual makes of it [and that] it has great potential.”
Deborah L. Benzil, MD, is associate professor at New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.