communication
I've been blessed with an embarrassment of riches. While most of my classmates have found teachers they respect, and many have found role models, I've been fortunate enough to have crossed paths with some true mentors. What's the difference? Isn't having a role model enough? Obviously, role models are essential. They show you how to behave, what a doctor is supposed to act like, how to make decisions and treat illness, and to a certain extent, how to be a doctor. It seems to me that there is another step that can be taken, though, and taking that step allows a teacher to move from the realm of role model into the realm of mentor. That step, of course, is sharing with a student the internal workings of being a person who practices medicine, rather than teaching solely the mechanics of how to be a doctor. It's a risky and potentially embarrassing step to take, it's time-consuming, and it takes more energy than other forms of teaching. Medicine seems to attract more than its fair share of mentors, however. I've spent the last two years with a family practitioner in Stowe, Vermont, who immediately leaps to mind when discussing mentoring. Every other week, I spent an afternoon in his office, seeing patients with him, shooting the breeze in his office, working with the other doctors and nurses in his practice, and even spending time with him at his house. It started off as most clinical teaching experiences will, with me shadowing him as he met with patients. He would explain what he was doing as he did it, both for my benefit and for the patients'. Soon, he was asking me general questions about treatments or diseases, and I was able to answer most of them based on what I had seen him do in previous cases.