Everyone needs an advisor / mentor

Do you remember in college or medical school when you had to identify an advisor or mentor? It's hard, but finding a great advisor/mentor is the key to success.

Throughout residency and at the General, I've been lucky to have several. I came upon them by being at the right place at the right time. I randomly joined a medical education research project with Dr. Wendy Coates (Harbor-UCLA), and she got me immediately involved with SAEM. Little did I know that she's such a powerhouse and recognized name in EM education. She still has nuggets of wisdom to share with me to this day.

At the General, I've been lucky to have Dr. Ron Dieckmann, guru of pediatric EM, as my mentor. I've learned from him --

* You have to think big
* Surround yourself with great people, because you can't help but be successful around them.

His little office project, now called PEMSoft, quickly became an internationally-known decision support software for pediatric care. Now that he's retiring in July, it will be hard to keep up with all his big plans for our nonprofit organization, KidsCareEverywhere. His plan in a nutshell - world domination. See the logo? It's crazy- I came up with the preliminary idea on the back of a grocery receipt while cooking dinner one night.

In the hopes of improving advising for medical students interested in EM as a career choice, I have been working on behalf of CDEM (Clerkship Directors in EM) to revamp the now-defunct Virtual Advisors Program. I fully confess that I have been holding it hostage for a year, since I never quite built enough momentum to complete the project. It will be called E-Advisors. And yes, I know that it sounds a little too much like an online dating service.

I spoke today with an awesome EM clerkship director at Maine Medical Center, Dr. Megan Fix, who will be taking over and running with this project. I'm fully confident that with all her enthusiasm, we can resurrect the E-Advisor program from the dead. This will start by focusing on advising students from 10 pilot medical schools, which currently do not have a home EM residency program. There are interested medical students in need of advisors and CDEM faculty willing to advise. We just have to build that bridge.

Question to You: What's the best piece of advice that you've gotten from your mentor?