Steep and deep: Mentoring

BySam Dyer, PA-C, MHS

I decided to be a ski instructor this year, and the good snow has, shall we say, appeared on everybody else’s days off. However, the other day at the mountain, I was faced with a day off, over a foot of powder, a couple hours on my hand and a phobia — I hadn’t skied any steep and deep powder of consequence since last year, at the end of the season. Even then, it came at great personal risk (we’re talking fear, here) and, of course, tremendous reward.

I patiently waited at instructor line-up, watched the instructors go off with their classes, then quietly but certainly, spoke up, “Is there an Instructor clinic going out for conditions of the day?” The supervisor looked around — nobody around but me, and a couple of pro-level instructors busily cleaning up signage.

“Well, you can ask Kris or Dave if they want to stick around.” Dave looked sideways me, and I had to grin – we had just had this conversation inside, when he encouraged me to go for the clinics as a way to break past a couple of my current boundaries. Little did he realize he was setting himself up to stay late and clinic with me.

But he did take the time to mentor me, in spite of the fact that it probably wasn’t his first choice for that particular moment in time, and we had a great session focused on steep and deep. I fell a few times, made a fool of myself a few times and each time kept setting that sense of “I feel stupid” aside to benefit from this pro who had offered his knowledge and time to make me a better skier. He didn’t have to rescue me, he didn’t have to bail me out and, in the end, I “almost” kept pace with him. We had a great time.

I thanked him profusely and that night even sent him a thank-you note that was so ridiculously appreciative it reminded me of the last time I had seen somebody be ridiculously appreciative — when I mentored a student not 2 days earlier.

She was astute, intelligent, quick, appropriate and had been trying to find PAs to shadow — completely on her own and without mentors. She stumbled across me, and I invited her to shadow me for a day in our ortho clinic. We had some great, heartfelt conversations in tiny snippets and, by the day’s end, she felt like she had formulated answers to key questions she’d been carrying around about entering medicine, the rewards and the potential consequences of choosing this career. She was thankful, enthusiastic, bubbling over — the same kind of the exuberant thankfulness I had felt when I’d been mentored on the ski slopes.

I’ve thought a lot since then about the importance of good mentoring, because I’ve been in situations as a PA where I’ve distinctly not been mentored and others where I’m not only mentored, but encouraged to spread my wings and apply the newly mentored knowledge. I’ve worked with physicians who have kept me in a very narrow range of practice and then been offended when I started looking for more challenge. I’ve also worked with physicians who love to grow the practice with physician extenders and take advantage of every opportunity to teach, counsel, offer tips and nudge me a little further down the steep and deep slopes. These are great mentors, and they’ve given me many days of exuberant thankfulness for their willingness to mentor. We all value the practice we are building together. The patients love the breadth of attention and continuity of care, the hospital loves the burgeoning revenue — and I love my job.

Mentoring should not be about holding someone back or about keeping them in a place where they won’t compete with you. It should be about expanding someone’s place, about nudging them gently down the steep and deep slope, giving them a tool or two to get down it safely and with style. Mentoring someone is not about what they will do for you once they are “trained,” it’s about how you will have contributed to the skill of another professional.

Mentoring is what we do when we’re taking time out of our own lives to invest in someone else’s success. Does that mean it requires long hours and broken engagements? Not necessarily — it might just require an extra moment in X-ray review, pointing out to your PA why you just made the treatment decision you did and encouraging them to look for similar patterns in future patients.

Mentoring is about helping someone else succeed in the same ways that you have — sharing your experience and knowledge of pitfalls. Wouldn’t you want to be shown and encouraged on how to get down a steep and deep slope? Your PA wants that too. The success of your PA is tightly interwoven with the success of your practice — and, if it’s not, it should be. Mentor your PA. Your practice will benefit, your hospital will benefit and your community will benefit. Tackle those steep and deeps together!