In my view, we have to get beyond the disincentives to mentoring. It seems more important now than ever to try to preserve the bonds that grow out of sharing with and helping colleagues. Surely this approach helps our relationships within the profession, helps our patients, and perhaps puts some of the fun back in medicine. In teaching positions, we're paid to be mentors, and many training programs teach us to work with peers, junior residents, and medical students. Mentoring can go in many directions and involve many players.
Older physicians can learn from as readily as teach younger physicians.
The nursing staff has much to teach us, as we have much to share with them. Even patients are part of the mentoring circle. We can advise them on wellness and how to keep their bodies as healthy as they are able, and they can teach us about their illness and how to help them in the most meaningful way. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration.