ILD-INN Mentorship Summer School June 2018
The ILD-INN Mentorship Programme was launched in the autumn of 2017 held its inaugural Summer School 27th-28th June in Birmingham. The programme provides an opportunity for healthcare professionals working in ILD to receive guidance and advice from a dedicated mentor. The first cohort of Mentees who secured a place on this inaugural event included healthcare professionals from England, Wales, Belgium, Croatia and Ireland. Mentees completed a formal application identifying their individual needs and what they hoped to achieve. Mentees were carefully matched with a mentor according to the skills, experience and knowledge of the mentor.
Our approach was uniquely based on the work of Nancy Kline with the focus clearly on developing a ‘thinking environment’ for the mentor and the mentee to work together. Creating a thinking environment the mentor and mentee find solutions together. The mentor spends a lot of time listening which was not without challenge for nurses who are used to ‘solving problems’. The art of attentive listening enables the mentor to be a catalyst for the mentees own ideas, allowing the mentee to generate their own solutions
The training delivered by Sophie Stephenson (www.thethinkingproject.co.uk) a skilled mentor and coach in creating thinking partnerships enabled mentees to explore their own needs rather than to be a recipient of advice form the mentor.
Working in groups and pairs the aim of the day was to create a thinking mentor / mentee partnership. This foundation will support future work specific to their work ILD specialism. All attendees embraced the approach on the day with mentors gaining as much from the experience at mentees.
This is just the start of this relationship and a new way of working. We will be evaluating the programme and will report on how our mentee / mentor relationships evolve over the coming year. There are plans to ensure that we maintain a rolling programme so please apply in the early autumn to secure a place for next year
The ILD-INN would like to thank speakers Sophie Stephenson for delivering an inspiring programme, Dr Max Thomas, Clinical Scientist, for helping us to understand statistics and Dr Mal Palin, Senior Programme Manager for opening our minds to NIHR clinical academic pathways with opportunities for further study. Further information available at: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-for-training-and-career-development/training-programmes/nihr-hee-ica-programme/
We thank EUIPFF for their financial support and the provision of bursaries to enable European mentors and mentees to attend.
We would like to acknowledge that this programme has been supported by a grant from Roche Products Limited. Roche Products Limited has had no control over the educational content of this activity.
