Mentoring support

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is the process by which an experienced, highly regarded, empathic person (the mentor) guides another individual (the mentee) in the development and re-examination of their own ideas, learning, and personal and professional development.

The mentor achieves this by listening and talking in confidence with the mentee.

Mentoring relates primarily to the identification and nurturing of potential for the whole person. It can be a long-term relationship, where goals may change. The goals are always based around the needs of the mentee, who also sets the agenda.

Feedback does not come from the mentor. The mentor instead helps the mentee to develop insight and understanding through intrinsic observation - that is, becoming more aware of their own experiences. Mentoring has been shown to be important to the personal and professional development of doctors.

You can download our standards and definitions documents below.

Become a mentor

Want to develop your skills to effectively mentor others? Why not attend our highly interactive one-day course which provides paediatricians with the core skills and knowledge to be an effective mentor. It will allow delegates to have effective learning conversations with their mentees and by extension with other colleagues, patients and parents and carers.

Topics covered:

• What is mentoring
• Benefits and value of mentoring
• Building effective mentoring relationships
• Mentor toolkit and interactive skills sessions

Browse our courses

Join our peer support webinars

Our short, interactive webinars help you develop your mentoring skills. Share your experiences with other mentors, accessing both peer support and input from an experienced mentor and coach trainer.

They are open to new and experienced paediatricians and paediatric trainees who are actively mentoring others - including, but not limited to, those who have attended RCPCH mentoring skills courses or who are registered as RCPCH Mentoring Champions.

Browse our webinars including past webinar recordings

Become a Mentoring Champion and join our network

Mentoring Champions are paediatricians who are active within their own organisation or Deanery in promoting mentoring and supporting paediatric mentors and mentees. Champions may have established a mentoring scheme already or be planning to develop one locally.

Our Mentoring Champions Network aims to support these paediatricians.

Typical College support for a Champion includes:

• RCPCH standards for mentoring
• RCPCH endorsement process for existing schemes
• Definitions of mentoring, coaching and related activities
• Opportunities to work with us on RCPCH Mentoring programme projects
• Mentoring FAQs
• Mentoring Skills course
• Mentoring Champions courses

Apply to become a Mentoring Champion

RCPCH mentoring standards

This document below outlines the essential components of high-quality mentoring schemes and training programmes. These are likely to be of equal interest to those providing mentoring support and paediatricians seeking it.

It is supported by our definitions document below.

Access a mentor

Below is a list of local mentoring schemes that can provide mentors to local paediatricians; these have applied and meet the RCPCH standards. If you are not able to access one of these, contact us and we can see if a RCPCH Mentoring Champion is running a scheme in your area.

Existing mentoring scheme providers can apply for RCPCH endorsement - it's optional and applications are free of charge.

Contacts

The Mentoring Lead, Dr Quen Mok, and RCPCH mentoring team can be contacted for further support at mentoring@rcpch.ac.uk