Title: Challenges associated with mentoring medical trainees in the Trauma Emergency Department, King Edward Hospital. The findings of the study indicated that mentoring is essential for the professional development of physicians.
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
- Introduction
- Background of the study
- Problem statement
- Aim of the study
- Research questions
- Objectives of the study
- Significance of the study
- Overview of the methodology
- Dissertation outline
- Conclusion
What is the role of the mentor and mentee in a medical internship in the Trauma Emergency Department at King Edward Hospital. To identify the role of the mentor and mentee in the medical internship in the Trauma Emergency Department at King Edward Hospital.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Introduction
- Theoretical Foundations
- Career functions
- Psychosocial functions
- Initiation phase
- Cultivation phase
- Separation phase
- Re-appraisal
- The definition of mentorship
- Types of Mentoring
- Traditional mentoring
- Peer mentoring
- Group Mentoring
- Virtual Mentoring
- Benefits of Mentoring
- Challenges of mentoring in medical institutions
- Conclusion
If the mentoring relationship is forced, it results in a mismatch between mentors and mentees (Law et al., 2014). Monitoring the mentees' career progress - Having confidence in the mentees and maintaining confidentiality of the mentor subject.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Introduction
- Research design
- The qualitative approach
- The case study
- Target population and sampling
- Data collection tools
- Focus groups
- Interviews
- Data analysis
- Ethical considerations
- Trustworthiness
- Conclusion
In this way, the reason for choosing the case approach is to maximize the researcher's understanding of the phenomenon. In distinguishing between population and sample, Neuman claims that “the abstract idea of a large group of many cases from which a researcher draws a sample and to which the results of a sample are generalized.” Thus, purposive and convenience sampling was most applicable in this case because the researcher selected participants who were involved in the trauma.
The researcher therefore selected the first 15 medical interns stationed in the trauma department during the data collection period and those who volunteered to participate in the study. The researcher also explained that participation in the study was voluntary, which they confirmed by signing the consent form. Essentially, the researcher ensured that no harm was done to the participants who would have volunteered to take part in the study.
Any research product is judged on the validity and reliability aspects of how the researcher arrived at the conclusion of the study.
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
Mentor and mentee’s roles
The responses of mentors and mentees speak to the theoretical foundations of this study, the theory of the mentoring role as advocated by Kram (1985). The role of the mentor is to provide the necessary support and advice and to act as a role model for the protégé (Kram, 1985). From the above answers, one participant highlighted a very important issue, i.e. enough time for supervision by a senior doctor, which according to the participant was not true due to the busyness of both mentee and mentor.
The same sentiments were also raised by one of the mentees who noted that being a mentor is "useless, not enough time to orient or train them adequately". In addition, the notion that the mentors and mentees have the same expectations reveals one important thing, namely sharing the same goals and objectives. The psychosocial functions are therefore the elements in the mentoring process that aim to strengthen the mentee's sense of identity, competence and efficiency within their professional areas.
The responses of the participants are also reflected in the assumption that the relationship between the mentor and the mentee is aimed at promoting the protégé's personal and professional growth through support, guidance and coaching (Muir, 2014; Templeton & Tremont, 2014).
Mentor-mentee working relationship
What this implies is that the mentors and the mentees must recognize the essence of good communication between each other. 2014) noted that if there is respect between the mentors and the mentees, it encourages the mentees to work harder. In the same way, the mentees must also respect their mentors' ideas and decisions (Cunningham & Hillier, 2013).
Essentially, students can also learn, appreciate and understand organizational culture, which is a very important aspect of any organization (McMurray et al., 2012). As the mentor and mentee work in harmony as employees, they are promoted and rise in rank, increasing their morale and organizational productivity while simultaneously improving the mentee's career development (Mangan, 2012). The mentees' responses that some senior medical officers are difficult to deal with are also reflected in the literature (Wu et al, 2012), which shows that it is sometimes difficult for the mentees to initiate and maintain mentoring relationships, especially if the mentors don't.
Again, if the mentoring relationship is forced, it results in a mismatch between mentors and mentees (Law et al., 2014).
Mentees’ long working hours
The issue of long working hours for junior doctors has been in the public domain, especially after one female doctor died in a car accident after “allegedly falling asleep at the wheel due to a very long shift” (Phaliso, 2016). . In Chapter 2, we discussed that medical students often suffer from emotional exhaustion, low personal achievement, and depersonalization.
Challenges hindering the productivity of the mentees
Lack of professionalism, which causes staff to try to avoid work or take responsibility for their actions, is the biggest problem. From the responses presented above, the mentors pointed out a lack of professionalism among the trainees, while the mentees mentioned a lack of supervision by the senior medical officials. Here again, the lack of supervision implies that the students become involved in trial and error, which is inappropriate in the medical field.
Another challenge highlighted relates to the lack of sufficient infrastructure and resources to support an improved mentoring experience. In medical institutions such as government hospitals, the lack of the latest technological infrastructure is a challenge for many mentors and mentees, whose role is to successfully care for patients. As a result, medical staff are ultimately faced with alternatives, but in most cases, patient care is often delayed due to a lack of necessary resources (Tolar, 2012).
In addition to the issue of resources, staff shortages and lack of experienced staff or senior medical officers often delay certain procedures such as surgeries, as mentees cannot do such critical procedures without supervision.
Conflict management
This is something that is detrimental to patients, as it puts patients at risk of complications during the waiting period. The mentors were also asked how they handle mentees who would have made mistakes. If it was a reckless mistake because they didn't seek advice from a senior, explain their mistake and emphasize the importance of asking for help.
The mentees noted the following about how they resolve conflicts with their senior physicians. Talk, try to understand the real cause of the conflict, identify what the expectations of the different parties are and try to address them. Chapter 2 indicated that mutual trust, honesty, constructive feedback and open communication are the necessary conditions for effective mentoring (Distelberg & Schwarz, 2015; Eller et al, 2014; Ayinde, 2011; Herholdt, 2012).
It was previously stated that mentees would sometimes want to share confidential information with the mentors, therefore the mentors must be honest and trustworthy (Eller et al, 2014).
Ways of improving medical internships in the healthcare sector
Therefore, this implies, as described by the participants in their responses, the creation of a favorable and open environment to enable the partners involved to communicate freely. Senior medical officers also echoed the same sentiments about reasonable working hours for junior doctors, improved working conditions, workplace safety, and increased staffing to deal with staff shortages.
Discussion
Responses from mentors and mentees also indicated that mentoring activities are essential for developing their skills, their confidence, their ability to provide feedback, as well as helping them identify their learning and development needs. Therefore, the process requires commitment from both mentors and mentees, as the benefits of the process outweigh the challenges (Dziczkowski, 2013). Study participants indicated that the element of time is very important in the mentoring process, as mentors need to devote some time to work with mentees.
Making time for mentees thus becomes a difficult objective to achieve, yet it is imperative that mentors make the effort, time and commitment to help mentees achieve their objectives (Rikhotso, 2011). In the midst of the mentoring process, it is important for mentors and mentees to be aware of each other, practice patience, focus on the moment, and deal with issues as they unfold. Basically, Saint and Chopra (2018:1) emphasize the need for mentors to put themselves in the shoes of the mentees.
By putting ourselves in the role of the mentees - and doing this purposefully several times during our interactions - we learned to take the lead.
Conclusion
For example, when we criticize our student's suboptimal case presentation, we think to ourselves "they are doing the best they can". In fact, the realization that most of us do the best we can given the circumstances reminds us that criticism without kindness can be cruel to the recipient.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Introduction
- Summary of findings
- To identify the role of the mentor and the mentee in medical internship
- To identify the benefits of medical internship
- To establish the challenges associated with medical internship in the Trauma
- Recommendations
- Limitations
- Areas for further research
- Concluding remarks
Overall, the findings of the study, summarized in the objectives mentioned above, clearly indicate that the objectives of the study were achieved. The findings of the study showed that mentoring is an essential aspect in the medical profession, therefore it should be considered a mutual responsibility of both mentors and mentees. The participants in this study pointed out that the lack of necessary resources becomes a challenge and a hindrance to their performance, as they are sometimes forced to improvise or postpone important medical procedures, which is harmful to patients.
From the findings of the study, as well as from the researcher's own personal experience, time is always a challenge, senior doctors do not have enough time to teach and supervise the mentees. Similarly, the participants of the study were difficult to get hold of, due to their urgent schedules. The qualitative nature of the study is also a limitation, as a large sample of participants in the quantitative approach can help quantify the responses of the participants (Arghode, 2012).
Journal of the Association for Communication Administration Mentoring at work: Developmental relationships in organizational life', in D.L.
Focus Group Discussion Questions
Interview Guide
Ethical Clearance Certificate
I………(full names of . participant) hereby confirm that I understand the content of this document and the nature of the research project, and I agree to participate in the research project.
