Dr. Banaski-Hughes conversing with first-year COM students at the Mentor Networking event
MENTOR NETWORKING
Mentoring has been a common theme at UNE COM. Each year, our second-year students transition to an exciting role on campus where they have the opportunity to give back to the new incoming class by committing to various leadership roles, and modeling the kind service and behavior new students can emulate. In a changing of the guard, second-year students become the mentors, welcoming students during the first week of school as Orientation leaders, bringing new students into the fold in student government, and other service opportunities. While the importance of mentorship between the classes has been well established, a different form of mentorship has started to take shape.
On Saturday, August 4th, physicians and students came together for Mentor Networking. Forty students and twenty-one physicians took to comfy chairs in the Ripich Commons to have informal roundtable discussions about what it is like to be physicians in the current healthcare climate. To start, participants shared some personal history and interests (who has an affinity for musical theatre, who has never had a cavity) in order to break the ice. Afterwards, they had opportunity to discuss more pertinent questions such as: What made you pursue medicine? What do you
perceive is the biggest challenge our profession will face in the next 5-10 years?
Students welcomed the opportunity to connect with physicians from different backgrounds and specialties. One student commented, “I really enjoyed the event… more like it would be so appreciated.” The physicians who attended were alumni and friends of UNE COM, and attended the event in order to have a greater connection to students and to give back to the UNE COM.
Over the course of the morning, one thing was clear: there is clearly a desire for a designated mentorship program between students and physicians at UNE COM. The August event was just the tip of the iceberg. There was a large response of physicians outside the New England region who want to become mentors. UNE COM will work with these providers to pair them off with second-year COM students in the near future. UNE COM looks forward to seeing the continued growth of the mentoring program in the months to come.