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Cinira Johnson
Mentoring Activity
July 23, 2014
Effective Mentoring
A mentor is someone that passes on knowledge to a less experienced person.
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A mentor
provides guidance and advice to a mentee from the early stages until they are independent and
comfortable with the new skills acquired.
2,3
Mentoring is much more than just giving advice,
the mentor invests time, energy, and personal know-how assisting the growth and ability of the
mentee. It is a means of developing a humans resources. An ideal mentor is someone that
motivates, keeps a non-threating environment, and inspires the mentee to identify their own
issues and goals, helping to resolve and reach them, not by doing it for the mentee but by
understanding and respecting different ways of working. Mentors encourage growth and
achievement by providing an open and supportive environment. The relationships between the
mentor and mentee is important and have to be of mutual trust and respect as it can have a
negative or positive effect on their educational experience.
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At a glance the idea of teaching and mentoring can be similar, but mentoring
encompasses more than just passing on information. Mentoring entails a close follow up with the
mentee and a customized educational process tailored to the mentees specific needs. Teaching
someone is a much simpler process than mentoring. To teach is to impart knowledge, while
mentoring, as mentioned earlier, is a more complex process. Ineffective mentoring generally
occurs when information is passed on without actual concern for the mentees skill development.
A good example of ineffective mentoring is one when instructions are just given to the mentee
with minimal mentor involvement in the process of helping the mentee acquire the skill to
perform a certain task. Ineffective mentoring can occur when: the mentor is inaccessible, uses the
mentee as a helper, is overly critical and is not current with the subject matter. In order to be an
effective mentor, the mentor should know their subject matter well, he or she should identify
which kind of learner the mentee is (if visual, verbal or both) in order to effectively teach/guide
the mentee.
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Among the qualities that a good mentor should possess are: he or she should be
interested in helping others to succeed, be an approachable, good active listener, be able to pass
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knowledge in a clear and encouraging way and be a role model.
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The mentors behavior needs to
be of a role model since it will influence their mentees professional conduct. An effective
mentoring experience will ultimately lead the mentee to academic, career and scholarly
accomplishment.
In a professional such as a Medical Dosimetrist, which involves a wide variety of
different techniques and treatment machine software, it is critical for a Medical Dosimetrist
student to have an effective mentor in order to understand complex concepts and to learn the skill
to produce optimal plans.















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References
1. Wikipedia contributors. Mentors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia Website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentor. Updated on May 5, 2014. Accessed on July 25, 2014.
2. Discussion with Arthur Liu, Radiation Oncologist at the University of Colorado Hospitals
Cancer Center. July 24, 2014.
3. Lenards, N. Professionalism & Mentoring: Mentoring. [SoftChalk]. La Crosse, WI: UW-L
Medical Dosimetry Program; 2014.
4. Discussion with Scott Stoehr, Medical dosimetrist at the University of Colorado Hospitals
Cancer Center. July 24, 2014.
5. Allen T, Poteet M. Developing effective mentoring relationship: Strategies from the mentors
viewpoint. The Career Dev Q. 1999;48(1):59-73.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2161-
0045.1999.tb00275.x/abstract#sthash.x487oSOe.dpuf. Published September 1999. Accessed July
25, 2014.










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Appendix A: Mentoring interview with Scott Stoehr BS, RT (R) (T), CMD in July 24, 2014
Q1: Define mentoring in own words.
A: Mentoring to me is the ability to teach someone a subject or a task that you want them to
learn but involves going further in the fact that you are watching over what they are doing and
you are really developing the skill versus than just teaching information.
Q2: How is a mentor different from a teacher?
A: A mentor takes a person from the beginning and starts with teaching whatever it is the task
they need to learn. And teaching you are just giving information. A mentor is going to follow a
person and develop their skill in the way they will learn the best.
Q3: Define effective mentoring or what separates effective mentoring from ineffective
mentoring?
A: Effective mentoring involves good communication because mentoring has to be good intake
in order to see where they are lacking and where they are exceling, and make sure they are
progressing towards their end goal. Ineffective mentoring is more on the lines of teaching where
you are proving information and not helping them to develop their skill.
Q4: How can someone become a more effective mentor? What skills do they need to have?
A: Number one is knowledge of the subject they are going to try to develop in that person.
Number 2 you need to be a good communicator, and they need to be aware of how that person
learns rather that is visual, verbal or a combination of both, and help that person towards that
goal.
Q5: What recommendation can you make to help someone become a more effective mentor?
A: Know your subject matters, have patience, be involved, dont just teach them a task and then
let them go, show them that task as many times as it takes in order for you to see it is starting to
click in their head that they are beginning to understand, but you also need to be involved in that
so you can see what they are doing so if you see something that is not quite correct you can
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correct right them and if you see something that is really good you will know that you dont
need to repeat that part again and that way you can be a good efficient mentor.

Appendix B: Mentoring interview with Arthur K. Liu, MD, PhD in July 24, 2014
Q1: Define mentoring in own words.
A: Mentoring is providing guidance and advice.
Q2: How is a mentor different from a teacher?
A: I think of a teacher someone that it is trying to convey specific information, where mentorship
is more about providing guidance, advice and typically of a more general nature.
Q3: Define effective mentoring or what separates effective mentoring from ineffective
mentoring?
A: Effective mentoring takes into account what the mentee needs with what that person goals are
and provides actable advice.
Q4: How can someone become a more effective mentor? What skills do they need to have?
A: It is a skill you can learn but taking classes for example. You can also do it by practicing.
Some skills are: be a good listener and you have to have experience in those domains.
Q5: What recommendation can you make to help someone become a more effective mentor?
A: Listen to yourself, so hear what you are saying and ask for feedback from the mentee.