5 Types of Physiotherapy Mentor
Throughout your Physiotherapy career you will require different mentors and different mentoring styles to help you learn and develop. These mentors can be both official such as workplace supervisors or unofficial who are often work colleagues and team mates.
This post will cover 5 different types of mentors you may come across at different points in your career and how they might help you. I’ve used examples from my career, I haven’t used names to respect the privacy of others.
5 Types of Physiotherapy Mentor
1. Lead by Example Mentor
2. One Step Ahead Mentor
3. Challenge you Beliefs Mentor
4. Gentle Guidance Mentor
5. Ten Steps Ahead Mentor
1. Lead by Example Mentor
This type of mentor is very useful early on in your Physiotherapy career or when you start working somewhere new. As a newly qualified Physiotherapist, every rotation is like starting a new job all over again. You have to meet a new team, there is a new place of work with its own culture, rules and daily schedule. What is expected of you clinically is also different.
The mentor that leads by example is usually more senior than your role and may have worked in the area for a while. They know how the team is run and they are able to demonstrate the skills and behaviours that are required to get the job done.
These mentors will often encourage you to watch how they do things and have conversations about why they do things this way from their experience. You will learn how they communicate and work within the team. You will observe how they motivate patients and problem solve to get a good outcome. They often inspire you to want to improve both professionally and personally. They are the type of clinician you aspire to be.
My lead by example mentor was my official supervisor on one of my first rotations. It was my second rotation and I had been given the much sought after Stroke Rehab. I was nervous about starting because my student placement had not gone well. My lead by example mentor developed my confidence and skills by first showing me how she worked and then gave me space to develop my skills whilst gently steering my learning and development.
Something that I learnt from her were that it was OK to ask for help. I remember seeing complex patients with her and she would admit when she didn’t know the answer and we found the answer together with help from specialist Physios. I completed that rotation with a new found love for Neuro Rehab which was in part due to having an excellent role model.
2. One Step Ahead Mentor
This type of mentor is often an unofficial supervisor. They are usually working at the same level as you or maybe have been recently promoted to the next grade. What can sometimes be referred to as a peer mentor. These mentors usually have a little bit more experience and knowledge than you and have been in your position recently. They can remember what it has been like to walk in your shoes.
The One Step Ahead mentors are great to have around on the tough days at work. They can reassure you that you are not alone, they can commiserate with you on a day when nothing seems to be going right but are also there to lift your mood and reassure that things will get easier. They are often a great support when starting on a new rotation or applying for a new job because they have recent, relevant experience and advice.
My One Step Ahead mentors were invaluable on my first few weeks post qualification. Two Physios had been working for a year already and helped me settle in. They showed me where the equipment was and how to fill out stats/KPI forms, and would remind me of door codes when I forgot. They would also tell me useful tips like which colleagues would be most helpful and which scary nurses to avoid ( They weren’t scary really). I remember their kindness in my first few weeks and their reassurance that the overwhelm would reduce and it was totally normal to feel like you didn’t know anything.
The One Step Ahead mentors are so important at whatever stage of career you are in. There will always be someone who has experienced what you are going through to provide you with advice and guidance.
3. Challenge you Beliefs Mentor
There is always a time and a place for our understanding, beliefs and actions to be challenged. A good mentor can do this whilst making you feel safe to explore what underpins the way you act, think and feel. This type of mentoring can make you feel a little uncomfortable, it can feel quite confrontational. You may reflect that the way you have managed patients or types of conditions in the past may not have been the most effective. You must however remember that you can only manage situations to the best of your ability using the knowledge and skills that you have at the time.
The aim of this type of mentoring is to develop your critical thinking and clinical reasoning to ensure professional development.
My challenging your beliefs mentor challenged me to consider my choice of words when describing my beliefs and understanding of a patient with symptoms of central sensitisation. What I reflected was that because my understanding of the problem was superficial, I was not able to explain my clinical reasoning with enough clarity. The mentoring challenged my understanding and the outcome was that I knew where I had to focus my learning.
Other Mentoring Blog Posts
Other Mentoring Blog Posts
4. Gentle Guidance Mentor
This type of mentoring is useful in situations of overwhelm or where there is a lot to be learned. There will be times in your career where life is seemingly out of control and it can impact work. Alternatively, changes at work such as rotations or changes in team dynamics or caseload can have a big impact on your ability to perform at work.
Gentle guidance mentoring can allow focus to develop in very small areas that can help with the day to day overwhelm and over a period of time can produce huge results.
My gentle guidance mentor supported me when I returned to a clinical area after a couple of years away from that type of work. I had become anxious about my decision making and doubted my clinical reasoning. This mentor reassured, supported and encouraged. It is important to acknowledge that she still challenged my clinical reasoning but used this to reassure me that I could make well reasoned decisions. She worked with me to create an action plan and return to being a clinician who was confident in her abilities.
It is important that if you feel anxious, stressed or overwhelmed at work that you speak to someone you trust or speak to the health and well being service about how you are feeling. Most of us will experience difficulties at some point in our career and it is important to reach out for help.
5. Ten Steps Ahead Mentor
This type of mentor is unlikely to be your week- in week- out mentor. They may be someone you work with as a specialist or manager or you cross paths when they are a guest lecturer or at a training day or conference. This mentor will often be seen as a guru, you find yourself asking if you will ever have enough skills and knowledge to be like them?
My advice, if you are ever in a room with them, is to speak to them, ask questions, and be interested. Try and take a little nugget home with you to reflect upon. If the mentor is a specialist in work, see if you can shadow one clinic or see a patient with them. Afterwards, reflect on how they communicated, how they used their manual handling skills or how they explained their clinical reasoning. Then decide what small thing you could change in your practice as a result of the experience.
Remember, people don’t become specialists overnight. It takes years of hard work, reflection and support from mentors.
My Ten Steps Ahead Mentor provided me with advice about my career. A meeting we were attending was cut short and I found I had time alone with her as we ate lunch. I used this time to ask her about her career and how she achieved what she had so far. I also asked her for advice on how to focus on developing my leadership skills. The time with her was golden and afterwards I scribbled down loads of notes and action plans.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions to Physiotherapists that you look up to. Remember they were where you were once. My experience is that Physios love to help each other and share what they know to develop the profession. My only caveat is, make sure you are not putting them in a position where you are asking questions that may be included in their paid programmes or trainings for free.
BBQ’s - Bek’s Big Questions
These were just five types of mentors that I have encountered in my career. There are many more types. Also one mentor can adapt and provide more than one type of mentoring depending on your needs at the time.
❓Have you experienced any of these types of mentoring? What type of mentor have you been for your colleagues?
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About the Blogger:
Hi, I’m Rebekah.
I’m a Physiotherapist with a passion to support others to get to where they want to be. I love to organise and plan which, comes in handy for my mission to empower others to achieve their Physiotherapy career goals.
