Formal & Informal Mentoring in Healthcare

Formal & Informal Mentoring in Healthcare

The main idea in the creation of a leader in a health care profession is the instance of mentoring. Leaders and their mentors have a necessity to cultivate their individual knowledge, strategic vision of their profession, participate in risk-taking, convey their creativity, experience motivation, as well as motivate those around them. Mentors should have some if not all of these characteristics. However, how these characteristics are expressed within the mentoring relationship is what defines their success. In order to have a progressive mentoring bond and an effective role in a health care leadership position, good communication is key. That is why when a novice health care leader has the chance to be mentored, the enhancement of sound communication skills are imperative to ensure success in their leadership position. It is also important to understand that the role of a mentor is fundamental in the assumption of any leadership role in conjunction with knowledge of the numerous mentoring models and programs in the health care industry (Burckhardt, 2014).

There are a variety of health care organizations that offer mentoring programs, which are both formal and informal mentoring programs and relationships. There are a multiple number of styles of mentoring within the healthcare industry. There are mentors that possess a mentoring style that is nurturing in its nature, while others are more critical in their nature, such as a trial by fire type of style. Both formal and informal programs and relationships have their advantages and disadvantages. It is important to understand these in order to truly benefit from being mentored. Mentoring programs that are formal in nature are founded on the principle that both the mentored and mentee have made the decision to submit into such a relationship. Both the mentor and mentee must concur on the objectives for the mentorship and collectively labor towards those objectives. A mentorship may last a lifetime, however, most have a defined duration. The two different styles can be effective as well as ineffective in the mentoring relationship. What is crucial is finding the proper fit between mentor and mentee so that both parties may benefit from the relationship. It is imperative that the mentor communicate adequately with their mentee, instead of just speaking at the mentee. Also, in order for the relationship to be a beneficial one, it is important that both parties feel out their relationship for a trial period prior to committing to the relationship. Once that is assessed, then the position of both mentor and mentee must be defined in conjunction with the desired goals to be attained and the desired timeline for achieving said goals (Hawkins, 2012).

Although there are informal mentoring programs, most individuals will not have the chance to develop an informal mentoring relationship. This is in part due to the responsibility and investment that all health care organizations have to aid in the optimal growth of their employees. Thereby requiring the creation of formal mentoring programs within the facility. Also, it is also true that informal mentoring programs are in some ways the more powerful than formal ones. However, the advantages of mentoring are so important that healthcare organizations should create mentoring programs that are designed well, properly implemented with all the necessary resources (Hawkins, 2012).

Now, informal mentoring is something that occurs naturally throughout society, and professionally. Informal mentoring takes place when two individuals attains knowledge, insight, understanding, encouragement, and amity from each other. In an informal mentoring relationship, the idea is for the mentor to aid the mentee, while the protégé acquires knowledge from a trusted individual. This type of relationship may be initiated by either individual and has been found in research to be more advantageous than formal mentoring. Informal mentors offer an increased number of varied types of career development roles that are comprehensive of instruction, challenging tasks, and augmenting the protégés experience and prominence. Informal mentoring participates in positive psychosocial events that are inclusive of counseling, enabling social interfaces, role modeling, and imparts amity. Hence the reason that informal mentoring protégés find their relationships with their mentors to be more gratifying than those with formal mentors. The disparities among formal and informal mentoring relationships are due to the difference in structure between the two relationships.