Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
Effective mentoring plays an important role for success in the workplace. A mentor can
be defined as a trusted and experienced advisor.1 A mentor is much more than just that simple
definition and a workplace ally. I believe that being a mentor involves forming a professional
connection and willingness to guide but also to form a personal connection and trusted
friendship. There is no formal training to become a mentor, so the personal connection is an
important factor in being an effective mentor. Finding values and friendship within a colleague
can easily translate over into a professional relationship in your field of work. When you can
look up to and respect a person outside of the workplace, it is easy to respect them in their
professional life as well.
Each workplace can be unique when it comes to the ins and outs of the facility. Having a
veteran employee as a mentor is important in order to navigate your way to being an efficient
member of that team. It can be difficult coming into a functioning team as an outsider; a mentor
can help ease you into the flow and make your transition into the workplace as a new dosimetrist
or even experienced dosimetrist much smoother. Reversely, I believe that being a mentor to
others can be revitalizing to the mentor themselves. Having someone show interest in the way
you function through the work place can instill a sense of pride and accomplishment back into
your work. It is always a positive feeling to have someone take interest in your work and to pass
along your skills and thoughts to.
An effective mentor not only promotes positive workplace relationships but it also helps
to develop your skills independently. A mentor should show you a way to success but also you to
encourage your own route and personal skills to get there.1 I believe it is important in dosimetry
to develop a set of skills that make sense to you and are effective as a planner. Once a mentor is
gone, it is important to be able to function on your own and eventually become a mentor to new
members coming in.
According to Forbes, there are seven ways to be an effective mentor: develop a
relationship, sponsorship, survey the environment, guidance, teach, model, and motivate.2 The
article highlights many important aspects of mentoring such as the mentors own readiness to
assist another person and being open to sharing experiences whether positive or negative. Taking
the role of mentor can be taxing if the person is not in a place that allows the time and focus to be

Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
given to the mentee. Mentors must be able to be aware of the environment and show the mentee
ways to navigate the positives and negatives.
Even with the hectic work schedule of managers, Forbes points out the benefits of taking
on a mentee for your own career. One of the most important benefits to being a mentor aside
from a renewed sense of pride in your work is the development of leadership skills.2 The act of
guiding a new member along a successful path will develop your confidence in leadership and
help you learn more about yourself. It can also ensure you are doing your best for your
workplace. An extra set of eyes looking to adopt your approaches ensures that you are not taking
shortcuts and putting your best foot forward. Overall, there tends to be a positive learning
experience on both ends of a mentor/mentee relationship. Through communication with Louise
Francis (August 4, 2016), she says learning from each other can help build your effectiveness as
a mentor since you can continue to carry these experiences and knowledge to future mentees.
According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, it is important as a mentor to
humanize yourself.3 Mentors are more than just a title and a job; they are humans who have made
mistakes, tackled learning curves, and sometimes have regrets. Being open about these
experiences and bringing yourself down to a relatable level can be very effective for mentoring.
Another great trait is not leaving the relationship one sided. The mentor is allowed to ask favors
and feedback from the mentee as well as the reverse.3 Again, a mentor does not have to be a
person that is superior to the mentee; they just have to be more experienced. While mentoring
can seem overwhelming, I believe a large part of the process should just come naturally through
positive interactions and being open minded.
In the field of dosimetry, as well as most other fields, it is important to have more than
one mentor. There are many ways to piece together the treatment planning puzzle; only learning
from one mentor will close down your skillset to be similar to that of the mentor. Looking
outside the box and learning from multiple people will make you more marketable as a
professional. An effective mentor should guide you in the correct direction but let you think for
yourself. Taking bits and pieces of advice from multiple people can help build your own style of
planning that you can eventually pass on to others.

Resources

Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
1. Lenards N. Mentoring. [SoftChalk]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L Medical Dosimetry Program;
2016.
2. Hart E. Seven Ways To Be An Effective Mentor. Forbes website.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/30/mentor-coach-executive-training-leadership-managingccl.html. June 30, 2010. Accessed July 25, 2016.
3. Przybylo J, Vasan N. Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mentors. Stanford Social Innovation
Review website. http://ssir.org/articles/entry/seven_habits_of_highly_effective_mentors.
June 3, 2013. Accessed August 2, 2016.

Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
Appendix A
Mentoring interview with Ed Bump, CMD and chief of dosimetry at VCU Health Systems
August 3, 2016
Q: How do you define a mentor?
A: A mentor is someone who assists another person in the development of a skill for which they
have a degree of mastery.
Q: What skills do you think a mentor must have?
A: A mentor should be proficient in the skill they are teaching. It is a plus if they can tailor their
advice or training to meet the specific needs of the student. This could involve adjusting their
advice based on how the student learns best (visual, hands-on, written, etc. learner).
Q: Did you have a mentor? How did you benefit from it?
A: I have had many mentors in my life ranging from sports to work, to spiritual and all of them
had a positive effect on my life.
Q: Did you ever find yourself a mentor to others?
A: In all areas that I received mentoring in my life, I have reciprocated to the next generation by
providing similar services.
Q: What value did you learn from being a mentor to another?
A: The benefits of mentoring someone have been obvious to me. However, it is always
interesting to learn the particular ways and needs of an individual student. In that way, the value
that I may have learned is to place importance on understanding the intricacies of each individual
so as to provide the most reasonable advice possible.
Q: What value do you find in having a mentor in dosimetry?
A: Currently, I do not have a mentor in dosimetry. I seek advice from my dosimetry, physics,
and physician peers concerning difficult cases, but a mentor would have a more holistic
involvement in my development as a leader in dosimetry.

Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
Appendix B
Mentoring interview with Louise Francis, CMD and clinical preceptor at VCU Health Systems
August 4, 2016
Q: How do you define a mentor?
A: I would define a mentor as someone who offers experience in a given field, offers advice and
guidance, but also is very in depth at listening to the person they are mentoring is asking,
needing, and wanting. It is not something that is cookie cutter. Different people will need
different things. You can offer different aspects of your experiences to help them, but if you cant
listen to what they need, it is not effective mentoring.
Q: What skills do you think a mentor must have?
A: Definitely listening. I think they need to be able to think outside of the box and that will help
because if you put yourself in your mentees shoes, things that helped in your experience might
not necessarily work with their scenarios. Sometimes you have to get a little creative to help the
mentee to grow and to sharpen their reasoning skills. That is part of what you should be doing to
help them. They need to be empowered to know these are their decisions to make but I am here
to guide them.
Q: Did you have a mentor? How did you benefit from it?
A: I didnt have a specific mentor but I had a great group of people that had different amounts of
experience and in different areas. When I got into dosimetry, the combined amount of experience
amongst the staff was over 100 years. They were people that were not home grown; they all
came from different facilities so there is input of how to do things differently but getting to the
same endpoint. I think that is important. Being always in the same environment might make you
think this is the best way to do something but that is not necessarily true. That goes back to
thinking outside of the box and taking something away from everyone you are rotating with.
Q: Did you ever find yourself a mentor to others? Was it more of an unintentional
mentoring or a structured mentoring situation?
A: Both in my case. I have been a clinical instructor which is more structured. Sometimes is has
just been by being a friend to people like primarily it is in dosimetry, but if a therapy student asks
me a question I am going to answer to the best of my ability. I think that mentoring goes beyond

Ashley Coffey

Effective Mentoring
August 7, 2016
what takes place in the clinic. You want students to realize that work is important but I want to
give students seeds to start thinking beyond that, such as what should I be looking for in my first
job? Yeah, you may be excited to get your first job but what does that really mean? What aspects
play into getting the first job? Are you going to plant yourself into an environment where you
can grow or one that is high stress? Will you be able to ask questions to fill in your knowledge?
All of this comes into play. As a preceptor, I try to make sure you get everything you need clinic
wise but something extra on the side about going into the workforce.
Q: What value did you learn from being a mentor to another?
A: I took away a different perspective. Mentoring should not just be one sided. There are thinks
that I am learning from you that I think are just as important as learning from me. Whether that
be your experience from a different facility, like you at Ohio State, and it just so happens we are
working with one of their physicians protocol so your input has been helpful. I think mentors
should definitely realize the merit of getting knowledge from mentees too. I need to be able to
educate you without belittling you, empower you, and make sure you are getting everything you
actually need.
Q: What value do you find in having a mentor in dosimetry?
A: Exchange of ideas. Sometimes you get so conditioned you might become limited about
thinking outside of the box. When you guys are dialoging about different cases and scenarios and
ask why something is done a different way, I can tell you I have not thought about it but lets
explore if it would work and get input from others. That is one of the biggest things I get out of
it.