Medical faculty are required to juggle clinical duties with teaching and research requirements. On an average day, physicians see patients, teach students and residents, supervise some aspect of an ongoing grant, manage and administrate. The basic scientist's average day involves gathering data on current research grants, planning for the next grant application, advising graduate students, teaching medical, pharmacy, nursing or dental students and preparing manuscripts. An age-old argument against mentoring has been that it is unnecessary if only the best and brightest faculty are recruited in the first place. The father of this argument, Franklin Mall, Chief of Anatomy at the Hopkins Medical School, promoted the method of teaching by not teaching, believing that individuals were responsible for their own learning.
Mentors are guides.
They lead us along the journey of our lives. We trust them because they have been there before. They embody our hopes, cast light on the way ahead, interpret arcane signs, warn us of lurking dangers and point out unexpected delights along the way. Obviously this approach is limited in its appeal and utility. The argument behind this handbook is that mentoring is a developmental stage in one's professional life and since each development stage is crucial for growth, failure to serve as a mentor can lead to stagnation and internal conflict.