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From the day you decide to become a doctor, whether as a precocious toddler or as a mid-career professional looking for a sense of fulfillment, there are so many steps from the start to the finish line.
How do I decide if I even want to be a doctor? What classes should I take (and avoid!) in college? What extracurricular activities do I need to be competitive? The MCAT costs how much? I didn’t get into medical school, now what? How can I choose a specialty if I haven’t rotated through all of them? Is academic medicine the only path after residency? So, there’s THREE Step Exams for USMLE, and then I still have to take a specialty board exam? Is fellowship training necessary?
Even at the coveted “finish line” of attending-hood, a fresh obstacle course appears—research, grant funding and promotions, often necessary evils to keep advancing in your specialty.
The whole experience can feel overwhelming if left to navigate all these questions and decisions by yourself. I learned early on that none of us gets through this medical journey alone—we’re not supposed to and definitely shouldn’t have to!
Medical school, residency, and fellowship can be filled with moments of exhilaration but also a lot of uncertainty, self-doubt, and straight-up exhaustion. In those times, mentorship was one of the most valuable resources I’ve had.
The Benefits of Mentorship
- Mentors can normalize the experience. Medicine is its own world with its own language that you really can’t fully understand unless you’re in it. Mentors can help normalize the struggle and chaos. Even something as simple as a fourth-year medical student who offers you their flashcards or helps you strategize a study schedule that meets the demand of all the new information you’re expected to learn at this early stage, mentorship is important to find ways to balance personal life and academic demands.
- Mentors can offer guidance and direction. The right mentors can make the difference between feeling lost and actually finding your path forward—not just professionally, but personally too. They’re often the ones who help you navigate tough career choices—should you subspecialize, should you pursue research, how do you handle burnout?
- Mentors can be sponsors. In medicine, what you know (and how you can prove it exam after exam) is just as important as who you know! Some mentors can also be sponsors. Sponsorship is a little different from mentorship but just as important. Sponsors don’t just offer advice but instead can speak your name in rooms you are not in. They can leverage their influence to open opportunities to advance your career and even help to finance these dreams (those conference costs can build up, right?)!
How to Find a Mentor
One thing that we don’t have in medical training is an abundance of time, so the real question is, how do you find (and keep!) a mentor? Mentorship isn’t meant to be cookie-cutter and there are lots of different ways to find a mentor and leverage mentorship to reach your personal and professional goals!
Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when looking for a mentor:
- Look for people you admire, not just people in power. The best mentors aren’t always the most senior or renowned physician. Sometimes, they’re the senior resident who explains things clearly, or the attending who balances medicine and family life in a way you’d like to emulate. Pay attention to who inspires you.
- Start with small and specific asks. Instead of emailing someone and saying, “Will you be my mentor?”—which can feel very vague—ask for a 15-minute meeting to talk about a specific topic like advice on MCATs or which residency programs to apply. If the conversation goes well, it can naturally grow into a longer-term relationship. However, it’s okay to have a very specific role for your mentor and let the mentorship relationship come to a natural end after the goal is reached.
- Diversify your mentors. Like any good relationship, one person can’t always meet every need. It can put a lot of pressure on a mentor to fill every role. You don’t need just one mentor. In fact, it’s better to have a “mentor team.” This allows you to have very specific asks for each of your mentors! I had one person I went to for career advice, another for work-life balance, and another who helped me explore other opportunities outside of academic medicine.
- Use formal mentorship programs, but don’t stop there. Many schools and hospitals have official mentor-matching systems. Those can be helpful starting points, but the most meaningful mentorships often come from organic connections.
- Show up prepared and follow through. When someone gives you advice, act on it and circle back to let them know how it helped. If you connect with a potential mentor and they ask you to reach out to set up a meeting, do it and be timely. That’s how you build trust and show you value their time.
- Consider mentoring. Mentoring others can actually help you to be a better mentor. No matter where you are on your medical journey, you also have guidance and advice to offer for those coming after you! Building your own relationships as a mentor can help you understand what you might want or need out of a mentor!
Ready for Mentorship?
Medicine can be hard—there’s no sugarcoating it. But what makes it doable, even meaningful, is the people who guide us along the way. Mentorship is not about hierarchy or formal titles; it’s about connection, honesty, and growth. The mentors I’ve had at different stages of training shaped not only the doctor I am today but also the person I’m becoming outside of medicine.
If you’re just starting out, don’t wait for the “perfect” mentor to appear. Seek out people you admire, ask for advice, and be open to learning from those around you. And when the time comes, be the mentor you wish you’d had. That’s how we keep the cycle going—and that’s how we all get better together.
Find other mentorship and medical school resources in the Panacea Resource Library.
