My philosophy on mentoring can be summed up in the following story: I precepted a student who had submitted a paper to me with several sentences that were simply wrong. My first reaction was immediate frustration and suspicion that this student had used AI to write the literature review. My second reaction was more magnanimous: I stepped back, took responsibility for my preceptorship, and gave my student the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they just did not understand the topic at hand. We then spent several days going over the paper, line by line, reference by reference, where I highlighted parts of each reference that were particularly important and where the student explained the concepts back to me and corrected their mistakes.
Akin to a tiger mom, I used to take an inordinate amount of accountability for my students’ successes and failures. The irony is not lost on me that while I advise my exhausted friends not to be such helicopter parents so they can maintain a semblance of work life balance, I tended to hover around my students with ominous enthusiasm up until I throw my hands up in aggravation. It was no way to mentor.
And so over the years, as a resident, a pharmacist in clinical practice, and now as a medical science liaison in the pharmaceutical industry, I’ve learned and adapted, and I have come to implement the following preceptor techniques with each of my students:
- 1:1 – The sweet spot for me is to only focus on one student at a time. This way, I can adjust the curriculum to their interests, ramp up the responsibility if they are excelling, and concentrate on areas where the student is struggling. Some curricula will always be the same – for instance, administering the annual pharmacist competency to the students and walking them through the calculations, if needed.
- Constant feedback – People can tell if you just tolerate them. For this reason, I make a sincere effort to get to know my students, understand their interests and future plans and what is important to them, and tailor my feedback based on what I learn from them. I was always nervous about feedback as a learner myself; to destigmatize feedback, I give nearly continuous feedback – good feedback, constructive feedback, encouraging feedback – and I ask for continuous feedback in return on my teaching style or the curriculum so we can incorporate suggestions and adjust in real time.
- Hands-on engagement – My attention always wavered during didactic lectures, so I suspect the same thing can happen with others, and that most of us learn best with practical experience. To that end, I place the students in the hot seat as fast as possible with the “see one, do one (and teach one, if applicable)” model. Nothing tops counseling a patient and fielding questions in real life, and it is our responsibility as mentors and preceptors to prepare the students so they will succeed in this aspect.
Now that I am in a medical science liaison role, I meet with my current mentee approximately once every month. Based on his interest in residency and my own prior experiences, we practiced interview questions to help him reflect on how he presents himself and how he contributes to solutions at school and at work, and we practiced how to verbalize his experiences succinctly and positively. More recently, we worked on a clinical presentation he created for rotations, which was a fun effort that spanned many iterations over several hours over several meetings. If you are interested in participating in a mentorship program, particularly one without a structure, you may find the following helpful:
- Getting involved: My current mentee and I connected through an organization at his school that organizes a yearly mentorship program and invites preceptors to get involved. Over the years, I have ended up on several mailing lists from different pharmacy schools and organizations, many of which have established mentorship programs. If you are not currently on any mailing lists, consider checking in with your local pharmacy association.
- Structuring your meetings: Ideally, the first meeting should be in person to establish a plan, determine the learner's goals, and figure out how we, as mentors, can best support them. From this point on, some popular activities include CV review, interview preparation and prompts, mock journal clubs, and enhancing presentation skills, including anticipating questions they might face during presentations.
- Show and tell: In my recent experience, my mentee was interested in infectious diseases, and I was able to showcase some of the non-confidential projects I participated in with Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) and was able to connect him with my friend who is an infectious diseases pharmacist, which helped led to an opportunity for him to shadow her.
Amidst the busy MSL conference and travel schedule, I do sometimes feel stressed about meeting with my mentee on particularly hectic days. However, at the end of the day, I never regret these meetings because they are always so enjoyable. I gain insights into the latest hospital and school policies, discover how students are using technology (like Google Slides), and witness the next generation of pharmacists grow more competent with each passing month. It’s a little bittersweet, but incredibly invigorating knowing I helped to contribute to this field.
