Last Updated on 26/08/2020

Our hope is that trainees will establish mentoring relationships that will support their work related development needs and help to make training a valuable and manageable experience. Please note that mentoring is optional (but strongly encouraged) for trainees.

We recognised that what makes a mentoring relationship work for one mentee/mentor pair may be very different from another. Your mentoring relationship can be one that is shaped by you and focuses on what is important for you.

You can find guidelines for getting started with mentoring, information on how to develop a mentoring contract and an example template for the contract in the Getting started with Mentoring document.

Being a mentor

My initiation into being a mentor seemed to evolve quite naturally. Having been a trainee on the Lancaster programme, I have remained working in the north-west and have built up a number of links over the years through working in different departments. I was initially approached to be a mentor by a trainee I was supervising at the end of her placement with me…

Being aware of how precious time is as a trainee I have feel that it is important that mentoring sessions are useful and beneficial for the mentee. What’s useful can change throughout the process of training so flexibility is important…

Prospective mentors should complete the Mentor Pro-forma document.

Being a mentee

I’m a second year trainee, and I’ve had a mentor since my first month on the course. When the idea of a mentor, or personal tutor as it was then, was mentioned it sounded like something that would be really useful. I didn’t know any clinicians in the area though, and I was hesitant about just choosing someone off the list without knowing anything about them…

It was difficult to know where to start with approaching people at first. To narrow it down I decided to focus initially on people working in the same geographical area, thinking that might make it easier to meet around busy times such as deadlines…

In the early days I generally would reflect upon my experience of the course so far and enjoyed having a source separate from my peers with whom I could check out my experience. I often use my mentor as a sounding board for how I am finding things…

Further information and queries

For further information or for any mentoring related queries please contact Claire Anderson (Personal Development Clinical Tutor)

Getting started with Mentoring
Mentor Pro-forma