Perhaps we should consciously make a distinction between mentor and
clinical instructor.
The way I've always seen it clinical instructors were paid and mentors
implied (to me, anyway) a more personal, emotional relationship, not
necessarily a hands on instructor type one. In fact, more often just
someone to bounce ideas (or cases). Someone to guide you to the next step,
sometimes even smoothing the way for you. That's what I think of when I
think of a mentor. So for someone to charge me to be my mentor seems....
wrong. I wouldn't go for it at all.
I looked up the word mentor and it says a trusted advisor or instructor, a
coach. I did have mentors in nursing school, who were also my instructors
who I especially admired and got along well with. But I did not pay them
to be my mentor. I paid the school for instruction and they were paid to
instruct me. But not to mentor me. That's the difference to me.
So anyway, what I'm getting at is that maybe we need to abandon the word
mentor when we talk about the clinical instructor role. If it is marketed
as a clinical instructor, and just as importantly conducted as a clinical
instructor relationship, it might not be as hard for people to see the
monetary value in it.
For what it's worth...
Regards,
Cindi Swisher, RN, IBCLC
Colorado Springs, CO
At 03:33 PM 10/26/2004, you wrote:
>Posted with permission of Barbara. Kathleen
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 10:11 AM
>Subject: Re: LC Internships
><snip>
> Some years back Kathy Auerbach and I proposed an idea we called: Mentors
> to Go. It basically got around the idea of training your competition by
> suggesting that a small group of candidates would pool their money and
> fly in a seasoned LC to work with them for a few days in an intense
> manner. The locals would arrange some consults and the Mentor (the
> experienced LC) would work with the mothers while the students
> observed. Then, afterwards, we planned to analyze the cases, supervise
> the follow-up, assign some reading and homework (which could be done
> on-line after the workshop.) We thought that we could also teach how to
> do intakes, write follow-ups, look at forms, do hands-on equipment
> skills, and talk about how to set up a practice, etc. We didn't look at
> it as quite as involved a relationship as the LEC course (which is
> excellent.) But it would provide a number of authentic contact
> hours. While there would be costs to pay for the flights and expenses,
> plus a teaching fee, spilt up between several people the expense would
> probably be about the same expense as them flying off to a day-long conf.
> or to stay in some other town and work with an LC there. In the conf.
> setting, you
>don't have nearly the same level of interaction with the speaker. We
>actually printed up fliers and advertised the idea, but no one ever
>nibbled. So while people say they want mentoring from experienced people,
>there is still the reluctance to pay for education in our field, and
>somewhat of an expectation that people will be generous at their own expense.
><snip>
>
>Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
>Austin Lactation Associates
>LactNews Press
>www.lactnews.com
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