Mentoring: are we doing it right?

Most clinicians and researchers will acknowledge the importance of mentoring in their respective fields but whether what is done is truly mentoring is presumed rather than explicit. This paper explores the nature and importance of mentorship in the development of a junior faculty member, and the qualities of a good mentor and mentee. It emphasises the multi-faceted complexity of this relationship including its potential problems, and its inevitable termination. This ending might be unexpected, premature and traumatic; or it may be planned when the mentee has developed a certain level of maturity and independence of thinking and judgment. Either situation requires working through this feeling of loss.