So you think you want to teach? Teaching is a time-honored tradition and medical innovation could not move forward without it. For many surgeons, becoming a mentor or instructor is a natural next step once they become experienced or earn recognition in their field. It goes beyond simply technical training; it involves building relationships and sharing knowledge in a novel way. For education to be truly effective, however, it must also be engaging. Do you have what it takes to deliver a dynamic training experience?
A passion for sharing
An effective educator must genuinely like conveying knowledge to his or her peers. It’s important to be comfortable talking and relating with others. For those who prefer to spend long hours alone typing scholarly articles, rather than conversing with colleagues, peer-to-peer training might not be the right avenue for them.
Humility
Another important quality for a trainer is humility. People are drawn to a leader who is humble and willing to learn, even from his students! Mentoring relationships no longer follow the traditional training paradigm where knowledge is passed down from a senior physician to a junior physician. Today, mentoring can be more of a “horizontal relationship” where the exchange of knowledge is multi-directional. The traditional badges of honor—age, seniority, titles—no longer apply. To put it simply, there must be a shared respect between the trainer and trainee.
Charisma
An effective trainer must be able to command an audience, even if it’s an audience of one. He or she should be able to maintain control over the entire educational experience, including the tone, the topics and the training environment. By being generous with their time and knowledge, and serious about the responsibility they are assuming, surgeons have a real opportunity to make a powerful impact on their peers while staying up to date with innovations in their field.
Empathy
Lastly, in order to get more effective along the different training sessions, a trainer must be willing to walk a mile in their trainees’ shoes. This means understanding what trainees have been experimenting, accepting to ask them for feedback, being open to constructive suggestions… in order to improve the sessions to come.
Enthusiastic about sharing your knowledge but not so much about handling logistic details… How about entrusting the administrative part of training to specialists? Organize your agenda and send your available training slots to Invivox! Your surgical training opportunities will be displayed on a dedicated online platform.
Become a medical mentor on Invivox
