How to be a true mentor in medicine? Figure out what the mentee wants to do. 1

How to be a true mentor in medicine? Figure out what the mentee wants to do. 1

How to be a true mentor in medicine? Figure out what the mentee wants to do. 1

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You have mentored thousands of doctors at Harvard Medical School over more than 50 years. What does it mean to be a mentor in medicine today? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Well. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The mentor's job is to figure out what the mentee wants to do. Mentor must help that person to choose their goals. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The important thing is this. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The mentor's job is not to convince the mentee to do what the mentor did. Mentor must help the mentee to think about what would give them joy in their professional life and help them achieve that. Over 90% of our viewers are outside of the US. So from the US and international perspective, how to become the best-trained doctor today? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. What makes a training program wonderful is the quality of your fellow trainees. Because they will be with you the rest of your life. When I trained at the Brigham Hospital, there were fourteen interns. Of my 13 colleagues, one is deceased. I had a very distinguished career in this institution and NIH. One doctor runs a huge practice, and all the others are professors of medicine. I learned a lot from them in my training program. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The thing that makes the training program wonderful is what they learn from their colleagues. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The faculty is nice. But your colleagues are especially important. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The trick is to find a program where you feel comfortable. You should like the colleagues in your medical training porgram. Those people should be talented and accomplished. Some young physicians graduated from medical school. They are at a training program internationally. Perhaps there is not a lot of very high caliber, very determined physicians in training or in faculty around. Nevertheless, a young physician is very determined. What could a young physician do to maximize their chances to be the best modern doctor? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. It depends on whether you are talking about being the best practitioner of medicine. Or if they want to have an academic medical career. A young doctor may want to be a great clinician. Then they need to find some great clinicians and work with them, and learn from them. Join a medical practice where people are good. Stay in that practice for a while, and learn from your colleagues. A young physician may want an academic career. Then you are going to have to find an academic medical center. That requires your figuring out how you are going to get to such a place. I don't think you can have a successful academic medical career without help from an academic medical center. It must have a training program to train physicians who want to do academics. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The other thing is that. If you are talking about an academic career, then also the quality of faculty becomes a little more important. Because you need a mentor on the faculty who will help you develop a set of skills. Dr. Marshall Wolf, MD. The mentor also will help you meet other people in the field. Your mentor should help advance your academic career. Is it possible to become a good practitioner of medicine today without being at an academic medical center? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Oh, yes! You can become a good clinician, if you work with good clinicians. You should find a group of talented dedicated medical practitioners. These doctors may have trained at an academic center many years ago. But they practice medicine. You can learn how to practice medicine from them as you work with them and pay attention. Dr. Marshall Wolf has legendary status as a mentor for physicians. Dr. Wolf shares wisdom on how to become the best-trained clinician. He highlights the value of peers in a training program.

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